Katherine Legge

Katherine Legge
Legge at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2018
Nationality	British
Born	(1980-07-12) 12 July 1980 (age 43) Guildford, Surrey, England
IndyCar Series career
12 races run over 3 years
Team(s)	No. 51 (Dale Coyne Racing)
Best finish	26th (2012)
First race	2012 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg)
Last race	2023 Indianapolis 500 (Indianapolis)
Wins Podiums Poles 0 0 0
Champ Car career
28 races run over 2 years
Years active	2006–2007
Team(s)	PKV Racing (2006) Dale Coyne Racing (2007)
Best finish	15th – 2007
First race	2006 Grand Prix of Long Beach (Long Beach)
Last race	2007 Gran Premio Tecate (Mexico City)
Wins Podiums Poles 0 0 0
Formula E career
Debut season	2014–15
Racing licence	FIA Gold
Former teams	Amlin Aguri
Starts	2
Championships	0
Wins	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	34th in 2014–15
Finished last season	34th
Previous series
2001–2004 2003 2005 2008–2010	Formula Renault UK British Formula Three Atlantic Championship Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
4 races run over 2 years
Car no., team	No. 07 (SS-Green Light Racing)
2018 position	51st
Best finish	51st (2018)
First race	2018 Rock N Roll Tequila 170 (Mid-Ohio)
Last race	2023 Road America 180 (Road America)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0

Katherine Anne Legge (/ˈlɛɡ/ LEG; born 12 July 1980)^[1][2] is a British professional auto racing driver who competes full-time in the IMSA SportsCar Championship, driving the No. 66 Acura NSX GT3 for Gradient Racing, and part-time in the IndyCar Series, driving the No. 51 Honda for Dale Coyne Racing with backing from e.l.f. She holds the record for the fastest qualifying effort for a woman in Indianapolis 500 history, set in 2023,^[3] and was the first woman to win a major open-wheel race in North America.^[4]

Racing career

Early racing and Atlantics

Prior to joining the Toyota Atlantic series, Guildford-born Legge raced in several developmental open-wheel series in Britain, including Formula Three, 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.

Legge's move to the United States came about in 2004, when after running out of finances to continue her racing career, she visited the UK offices of Cosworth, refusing to leave until she had met Cosworth boss Kevin Kalkhoven. Kalkhoven sent his daughter to speak to Legge to get her to leave: after a brief conversation with Legge, she instead told Kalkhoven that he should meet with her. Kalkhoven then offered her a drive in the first three rounds of the 2005 Toyota Atlantic Championship with Polestar Motor Racing: this was her first full-time drive. She won the series opener at Long Beach in her first career Atlantic start.^[5] In doing so, she became the first woman to win a developmental open-wheel race in North America. Legge went on to take her second and third wins 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.

In November 2005, Legge became the first woman to test a Formula One car since Sarah Fisher in 2002, when she tested on the second and third days (22 and 23 November) of the Minardi team's final testing session at Vallelunga.^[6] 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 1:21.176.^[7] She was also the first woman to test an A1 Grand Prix car, on 9–11 December 2005 with A1 Team Great Britain.^[8]

She received the 2005 RACER Magazine "Most Promising Road Racer of The Year" award.^[9]

Champ Car

In the 2005–2006 off-season, Legge tested a Champ Car once for 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, leading 12 laps at Milwaukee.^[10] Legge suffered a violent accident at the 2006 Grand Prix of Road America when the rear wing of her car broke; she was able to walk away from the car unharmed.^[11][12]

Legge drove for Dale Coyne Racing in 2007, and her best result in the series was sixth place, twice.

DTM

In 2008, Legge moved to the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters series, driving for Colin Kolles' Futurecom TME Audi team. For 2009 and 2010 she raced for the Abt Sportsline team, who were the 2008 champions. For 2009 she was the only one of the 5 drivers in the Abt Sportline team using the previous year's car.

Return to the US

In January 2012, Legge signed with Dragon Racing in the IndyCar Series, alongside Frenchman Sébastien Bourdais.^[13] Legge reached a two-year agreement with sponsor TrueCar as part of their Women Empowered campaign.^[14] However, since the Lotus engines were shown to be uncompetitive, the team made a change to Chevrolet engines. But team owner Jay Penske could only procure one Chevrolet engine lease agreement for the team, so they could only enter one car per race after Indianapolis. Therefore, for the remainder of 2012, Dragon entered Bourdais at the road and street courses, and Legge at oval tracks, except for Sonoma Raceway where both drivers were able to compete.^[15] Legge finished 26th in points, competing in ten of the 15 races, and had a best finish of ninth in the 2012 MAVTV 500 IndyCar World Championships at Auto Club Speedway.

In 2013, Legge left IndyCar to join the DeltaWing program in the United SportsCar Championship. Legge competed in the 2014 and 2015 seasons for DeltaWing.

In May 2015, Legge announced her involvement with the Grace Autosport project to enter the 2016 Indianapolis 500 race. Working with the support of the FIA's Women in Motorsport Commission, the all-female team set out to promote technology and engineering as a career for young women.^[16]

Legge joined Michael Shank Racing in 2017 to drive an Acura NSX GT3 at the IMSA SportsCar Championship. In the 2019 24 Hours of Daytona Legge raced as part of an all-female team alongside Simona de Silvestro, Christina Nielsen and Ana Beatriz, having placed second in class the previous year. She was placed 15th in their class after Legge brushed a wall and damaged the car's suspension.^[5]

Formula E

Legge signed for the Amlin Aguri team to compete in the inaugural season of the Formula E electric open-wheel series.^[17] She raced in the first two races before being dropped for Salvador Durán.

European Le Mans Series

In July 2020, while participating in the pre race testing at Paul Ricard ahead of the European Le Mans Series, Legge was injured in a crash suffering a broken wrist and leg. Legge was part of the all-female Richard Mille Racing team along with Sophia Florsch and Tatiana Calderón.^[18]

NASCAR

In August 2018, Legge joined JD Motorsports for her NASCAR Xfinity Series debut at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, driving the No. 15 Chevrolet Camaro. As part of a two-race schedule with the team, she also competed at Road America.^[19] Legge later made her oval debut at Richmond Raceway.^[20]

In 2023, Legge returned to NASCAR and the Xfinity Series, driving the No. 07 car for SS-Green Light Racing in the road course races at Road America, the Indianapolis road course, Watkins Glen and the Charlotte Roval.^[21]

Personal life

Legge is a member of the Women in Motorsport Commission of the FiA (Federation Internationale de l'Automobile).

She was briefly engaged to German racing driver Peter Terting.^[22]

Motorsports career results

Racing career summary

^* Season still in progress.

Complete American open-wheel racing results

(key)

Atlantic Championship

** Podium (Non-win) indicates 2nd or 3rd place finishes.

*** Top 10s (Non-podium) indicates 4th through 10th place finishes.

Champ Car

** Podium (Non-win) indicates 2nd or 3rd place finishes.

*** Top 10s (Non-podium) indicates 4th through 10th place finishes.

IndyCar Series

** Podium (Non-win) indicates 2nd or 3rd place finishes.

*** Top 10s (Non-podium) indicates 4th through 10th place finishes.

Indianapolis 500

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

(key)

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters results

(key) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

• † — Retired, but was classified as she completed 90% of the winner's race distance.

Complete Formula E results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete IMSA SportsCar Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

^† Points only counted towards the WeatherTech Sprint Cup and not the overall GTD Championship. ^* Season still in progress.

24 Hours of Daytona results

Year	Class	No	Team	Car	Co-drivers	Laps	Position	Class Pos.
2007	DP	84	Robinson Racing	Riley Mk XI	George Robinson Wally Dallenbach Jr. Paul Dallenbach	596	25	15
2014	P	0	DeltaWing Racing Cars	DeltaWing DWC13	Gabby Chaves Alexander Rossi Andy Meyrick	288	61 DNF	17 DNF
2015	P	0	Claro/TracFone DeltaWing Racing	DeltaWing DWC13	Gabby Chaves Memo Rojas Andy Meyrick	42	53 DNF	16 DNF
2016	P	0	Panoz DeltaWing Racing	DeltaWing DWC13	Sean Rayhall Andy Meyrick Andreas Wirth	119	53 DNF	12 DNF
2017	GTD	93	Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	Acura NSX GT3	Andy Lally Graham Rahal Mark Wilkins	617	29	11
2018	GTD	86	Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	Acura NSX GT3	A. J. Allmendinger Trent Hindman Álvaro Parente	751	22	2
2019	GTD	57	Heinricher Racing with Meyer Shank Racing	Acura NSX GT3	Simona de Silvestro Christina Nielsen Bia Figueiredo	550	32	12
2020	GTD	19	GEAR Racing powered by GRT Grasser	Lamborghini Huracán GT3	Christina Nielsen Tatiana Calderón Rahel Frey	471	35 DNF	16 DNF
2021	GTD	88	Team Hardpoint EBM	Porsche 911 GT3	Earl Bamber Rob Ferriol Christina Nielsen	737	32	10
2022	GTD	99	Team Hardpoint	Porsche 911 GT3	Nick Boulle Rob Ferriol Stefan Wilson	672	37	10
2023	GTD	66	Gradient Racing	Acura NSX GT3 Evo22	Mario Farnbacher Marc Miller Sheena Monk	729	22	4
2024	GTD	66	Gradient Racing	Acura NSX GT3 Evo22	Tatiana Calderón Stevan McAleer Sheena Monk	368	49 DNF	19 DNF

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Xfinity Series

^* Season still in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Katherine Legge.

• Official website
• Katherine Legge driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• Katherine Legge career summary at DriverDB.com

This page was last edited on 11 April 2024, at 00:16