Katherine Legge (pronounced /ˈlɛg/ "leg") (born 12 July 1980 in Guildford, Surrey, UK) is a British auto racing driver, currently racing in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters.
In 2005, Legge competed in the Toyota Atlantic Championship with Polestar Motor Racing. She won the series opener at Long Beach in her first career Toyota Atlantic start. In doing so, she became the first woman to win a developmental open-wheel race in North America. Legge went on to win her second and third races of the season at Edmonton and San Jose. She finished the season 3rd in the championship with three wins and five podiums. She also received the Toyota Atlantic BBS Rising Star 2005 Award.
Prior to joining the Toyota Atlantic series, she raced in several developmental open-wheel series in Britain, including Formula 3, Formula Renault and Formula Ford. In 2000 she was the first woman to achieve a pole in a Zetec race. In 2001 she beat Kimi Räikkönen's lap record and achieved a pole, and she was the first woman to receive the BRDC's "Rising Star" accolade. She received the 2005 RACER Magazine "Most Promising Road Racer of The Year" award, a title that had been awarded every year since 2002 to A. J. Allmendinger. Other drivers that have won the award include Räikkönen, Jenson Button, Cristiano Da Matta, Alex Barron, Giancarlo Fisichella, Greg Moore, and Gil de Ferran.
Legge made history in November 2005 when she became the first woman to test a Formula One car since 2002 (Sarah Fisher) [1] on the second and third days (22 and 23 November) of the Minardi team's final testing session at the Autodromo Vallelunga near Rome. After she crashed after 2 laps on her first run on the track, it was decided to postpone the test until the following day, on which she completed 27 laps with a best lap time of 1 min 21.176 sec.[2] She was also the first woman to test an A1 Grand Prix car, on December 9-11 2005 with A1 Team Great Britain.[3]
In the off-season, Legge tested a Champ Car once for the Rocketsports Racing and twice for PKV Racing. In February 2006, it was announced that she would drive for PKV Racing in the 2006 Champ Car season. In June, she became the first woman to lead a lap in series history. She finished 6th at Milwaukee and 8th at Cleveland. She lies 3rd in the Rookie of the Year honours, and has helped England to 2nd in the Nations Cup.
Legge suffered a violent accident at the 2006 Champ Car race at Road America when the rear wing of her car broke[4]. She was able to walk away from the car unharmed despite the high speed and violent nature of the crash, doing a candid TV interview shortly afterward[5].
Legge drove for Dale Coyne Racing in 2007, and a her best result in the series has been 6th place, twice.
For the 2008 season she is racing in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters for Audi with the Futurecom TME Team.
Motorsports Career Results
American Open Wheel
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)
Toyota Atlantic
| Year |
Team |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
Team |
Rank |
Points |
| 2005 |
Polestar |
LBH
1 |
MOT
5 |
POR 1
9 |
POR 2
3 |
CLE 1
Ret |
CLE 2
5 |
TOR
6 |
EDM
1 |
SAN
1 |
DEN
17 |
ROA
2 |
MON
4 |
Polestar |
3rd |
267 |
Champ Car
Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters
* - season in progress.
References
External links
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