Legge confident victory awaits
Former IndyCar driver eager to reach podium at Sunday’s SportsCar Grand Prix
Older and wiser as well as meaner and leaner, former IndyCar pilot Katherine Legge, who’s now racing sports cars, has a feeling she’s knocking on the doors of Victory Lane.
She believes her first win in the Delta Wing Prototype car she races could come this weekend in the Mobil 1SportsCar Grand Prix being held at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, north of Bowmanville, Ont., although she qualified her prediction in an interview this week.
“A lot depends on the B.o.P. (Balance of Performance, in which all the cars in a class are made as equal as possible),” said the 35-year-old from Guildford, England. “We were competitive at Mosport (CTMP) last year, but had durability issues that I trust are solved now. If we don’t win this weekend, though, I’m confident we’ll win one or two before the end of the year.”
The SportsCar Grand Prix is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. Sunday and is one of eight races on tap at the historic track this weekend. The main event will feature the cars — Ferrari, Ford GT, Aston Martin, Audi, BMW — and the stars — Christian Fittipaldi, Ryan Briscoe, Jordan and Ricky Taylor and Legge — of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Joann Villeneuve, widow of the legendary Canadian F1 Ferrari driver Gilles Villeneuve, will serve as Grand Marshal.
As well as the famous drivers, all eyes will be on the Ford GT that won its class at the recent 24 Hours of Le Mans. Developed in secret by Ford engineers in company with Multimatic Inc., of Markham, the car was unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show in January 2015 and developed for racing last summer by Toronto race driver Scott Maxwell, who did all the testing at Calabogie Motorsports Park near Ottawa and at CTMP.
Legge, meantime, has settled com- fortably into sports car racing after coming to North America early in the millennium, intent on a career in IndyCar racing. It didn’t quite work out, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.
With more nerve than talent, she elbowed her way into racing auditions and once she virtually camped out in the offices of the Cosworth engine company in hopes of convincing Champ Car World Series owner Kevin Kalkhoven to hire her.
“I went to an Indy Lights test they were conducting at Texas Motor Speedway because they were looking for a girl driver, and I wasn’t invited,” she said. “I was angry about that. I arrived, helmet in hand, and they were having a press conference. There were about 20 girls there. I made friends with the team and they put me in the car and I went flat out straight away and they stopped the press conference and said, ‘OK, we’ve found two girls.’ And that was me and one other. But then the money fell through and it didn’t happen.”
Undeterred, she heard Kalkhoven was in England buying Cosworth, so she went to the offices there.
“Obviously, Kevin didn’t want to see me but his girlfriend at the time, now his wife, and his daughter were there and they said, ‘Hey, we’ll talk to her.’ A week later, I was called to test a Formula Atlantic car in Phoenix. The team gave me a glowing report, so Kevin said I had six races. Then I won Long Beach (becoming the first woman to win a major North American auto race) and he said I had the full season. I finished third in the championship.”
Legge said her career became rushed at this point.
“I should have done another season in Atlantics,” she said, “but they wanted me in Champ Car. IndyCar (the Indy Racing League) had Danica (Patrick) and they wanted a girl. I was quick but I didn’t have the experience so I’d make mistakes. I crashed a lot (her two starts in the Toronto Indy saw her end up against the wall) and had to learn the hard way. I was in Champ Car for two years but lost out when the two sides merged.
“I went to Europe to race in the DTM (German Touring Car Series) with Audi but I missed North America and I missed the opportunity to race. It’s a lot more progressive over here than it is over there. Being a girl driver doesn’t hold you back over here. You get equal opportunity . . . I’m a fan of saying that the car doesn’t know the difference. But over there, I was in a two-year-old car, so I really couldn’t mix it with the guys who were in brand-new equipment. It was more of a gimmick; I really wanted to race.”
Legge said she was invited by Dr. Donald Panoz, inventor of the smoking-cessation patch and a former owner of CTMP, to test the Delta Wing. It has been her salvation.
“My confidence has improved dramatically,” she said. “The last three or four years with Delta Wing have seen me develop as a driver. I have the experience now and I don’t make the mistakes I used to make. Now I get in the car and I know nobody can get in that car and do better over a season than I can.
“I feel like I’m good now. I don’t want to feel arrogant but I feel like I do a good job.”