Talented international driver Katherine Legge is returning to America to continue her racing career, and her target is INDYCAR.
Legge, a native of England, is aiming for a seat this season in the IZOD IndyCar Series, the premier open-wheel championship in North America. She is resuming her elite-level open-wheel racing career after three seasons as an Audi factory driver in the European-based DTM, the world’s top touring car series.
“I’m very excited about this opportunity,” Legge said. “I feel very much at home in America and want to progress my career in the IZOD IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis 500, as it’s such an exciting time for the series and that great race. “I moved back to the States at the end of 2010 and am in talks with INDYCAR teams and officials.”
Legge drove for Futurecom TME, Abt Lady Power and Team Rosberg during her three-year DTM career from 2008-10. “I really enjoyed my time in the DTM,” Legge said. “I learned so much from Audi and from the close, aggressive racing in the championship, and I made many, many friends. I’ll always treasure my tenure with Audi and offer my full support to the team and my successor, Rahel Frey.”
Legge, 30, achieved the greatest success of her career to date in North American open-wheel racing. She was the first woman to win a major open-wheel race in North America, taking the checkered flag first in three races in the Toyota Atlantic Championship in 2005. Legge then became the first woman to compete full time in the Champ Car World Series, in 2006, and was the first woman to lead a lap in that series.
Before coming to America for the first time in 2004, Legge built an impressive portfolio of success in many ultra-competitive European open-wheel series.
She became the first woman to win a pole in a British Formula Ford Zetec event, in 2000. She also earned pole position at Oulton Park in England during the 2002 Formula Renault season with a time quicker than the lap record set by eventual Formula One World Champion Kimi Raikkonen.
Those results helped her become the first woman to receive the prestigious British Racing Drivers’ Club “Rising Stars” honor in 2002. Her successful 2005 season in Toyota Atlantic also led to a test late that year with the Minardi team in Formula One, the world’s most prestigious series.
GRand Solutions LLC, based in Indianapolis, is representing Legge in her pursuit of an IZOD IndyCar Series opportunity.
- Katherine Legge
