Katherine Legge

[JSR]

http://www.toyotaatlantic.com/News/Article.asp?ID=1998

I'm interested to know what some of our CC fans think of Ms. Legge. Do you think she is ready? Has anyone seen or heard of any of her speeds vs. the competition?

[Cygni]

I think she should spend 06 in Atlantics, and split duty in a 3rd PKVR Champcar with Vasser. That would be the best for everybody. In 07, with the new car, she comes out full time and kicks some ass.

Looks like she will be in the seat come Long Beach, which isnt such a bad thing. Her Atlantic resume is already damn impressive, as impressive as other guys who have recently moved up to much less griping about gender... Hunter Reay, Yasukawa, Ranger, Hornish, et al... so really, the complaining is just because of her gender, not because of her abilities, which are clearly there.

I had a chart of all of the sebring days combined, but i think i deleted it already . In short, she ended up tied for 4th after all the days, out of something like 19 car/driver combos. Thats pretty good for a rookie with no CCWS experience, i would say. Her best lap was a 51.5, which is identical to Dalziels and Vasser's best laptime, and just a few tenths off of both Pantano and Briscoe, who both have way more big car experience than Kat.

In the end, shes got the goods, although she may struggle a bit in 2006, which is why i think she should split the races and run full time in Atlantic, but she obviously has as much skill as the last few Atlantic grads to to the big cars judging by those results... so best of luck to her.

[morden]

I haven't seen any of her test results, but I'm leaning towards "she's ready" based on some positive feedback.

If she got the ride, she wouldn't be the least experienced to ever get behind the wheel of a ChampCar. Nelson Phillippe was pretty clueless his first year out, so was Dominguez. But they've both shown some development.

Heck, I might even put Kat ahead of both of them at the time they started.

[morden]

Just saw Cygni's post.... split duty sounds like a good way to go.

But my devil's advocate, B/S hat says that they need her in the seat now, so that's where she'll end up come Long Beach.

I wish her the best of luck.

[speedster3000]

I say she's ready. No need to stay in Atlantics. It's a new car and big part of the learning curve for everybody will be coming to grips with a new package. A package she would only drive for one year. If she's gonna race a "1 year package", it may as well be Champ Car. KK hired her to eventually drive a Champ Car, time to do that.

[Rascal]

But my devil's advocate, B/S hat says that they need her in the seat now.

Promoting a driver with three Atlantic wins the previous season sounds like a logical progression to me. The timing of this move is based on that fact, nothing else.

It is always a pleasure to see a driver get a ride on proven abilities, not on marketing potential.

[morden]

I say she's ready. No need to stay in Atlantics. It's a new car and big part of the learning curve for everybody will be coming to grips with a new package. A package she would only drive for one year. If she's gonna race a "1 year package", it may as well be Champ Car. KK hired her to eventually drive a Champ Car, time to do that.

Makes a lot of sense

[Indyfan31]

With 3 wins in Atlantics I think she's got the talent, however the experience just isn't there yet; we've all seen what happens when drivers get pushed up to soon.
Whatever car she's in, she'll still be fun to watch going into turn 1 at Long Beach, and I've got my tix already.

[speedgeek]

I really have mixed feelings on this.

I think that she needs another year in Atlantics.
I think that her in a CC would help media/fan interest.
I think that she would be lost in the huge crowd of promising new Atlantics drivers. Could she get pushed down to midpacker? I dunno.
The hype of her in CC would HAVE to be controlled. No Patrickmania for Legge. There was never any chance for Danica to live up to her hype

I just don't know what's the right thing to do.

[dog-ring]

Legge's the real deal........................

[Rommey]

I'm not sure just yet. Obviously she has talent and she has seen most of the courses, so that part of the learning curve is somewhat taken care of. I look at how Andrew Ranger did last year. He had 1 or 2 good runs, but was mid-pack for most of the rest. He only had one year in Atlantics, so there is something to compare Kats results with. I would also point out that Nelson Philippe had a much better sophomore season than freshman one. His first year was basicilly what he might have gotten from doing a year in Atlantics.

She will probably do OK, but not spectacular. I doubt she gets a podium this year, and if she does, I think it will be the only one.. Heck, PKV has only had 1 win and 5 podiums in the last three years, so to expect that Legge will do better than Vassar and daMatta combined, is quite a tall order.

I think another year in Atlantics is probably the right decision, for 2 reasons.
1. I thinks she would benefit greatly and with the increased fields coming, that would really offer some different challenges.
2. This is the last year of a Lola. She would have to learn on-the-job the particulars of the Lola and then have to start over with the Panoz. Its not a big deal, but if she does do CC this year, that will be three consecutive years of learning a new car (assumes she drives this year and next).

[nm]

Not obtaining sponsorship for Kathryn Nunn to run 2 IPS cars with Legge as one driver was, IMHO, a major failure of IRL marketing.

[speedster3000]

Not obtaining sponsorship for Kathryn Nunn to run 2 IPS cars with Legge as one driver was, IMHO, a major failure of IRL marketing.

Perhaps, but at the time, Legge was just some wannabe driver that wasn't invited to the test who paid her way to crash the party. She had no juice and with Danica in the IRL, I'm sure Legge did'nt set off any alarms....

I do think she's the real deal. She has talent and pushes hard. I think her Champ Car performance will come down to engineering.

[flatlander_48]

She's ready. With a strong season that included wins, it is time to progress. What is there left to prove in the Atlantic series? There are a number of people who stayed in a lesser series too long and it didn't help their careers. The time in Now!

[speedster3000]

Exactly. People who won the championship in a lesser series and were not able to move up. When opportunity knocks, answer. That goes for the driver and team.