Katherine Legge Eager To Return To Racing At Sonoma

British racing driver Katherine Legge is extremely excited with the prospect of returning behind the wheel of her Chevrolet-powered Dragon Racing IndyCar at the GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma later this month, which will be her first race on a road course since the Sao Paulo Indy 300 back in April.

When the IndyCar series arrived at the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 96th running of the Indianapolis 500, Dragon Racing switched to Chevrolet engines after an exceedingly uncompetitive start to the season with Lotus engines. However, this switch only enabled Dragon Racing to field one car for the remainder of the season after the Indy 500. It was decided that Katherine Legge would race the ovals, whereas former ChampCar Champion Sebastien Bourdais would compete on the road and street courses.

Katherine Legge’s last IndyCar outing was at the Iowa Corn Indy 250.

Katherine Legge has therefore been unable to compete in an IndyCar race since the Iowa Corn Indy 250, however thanks to Chevrolet offering Dragon Racing a second engine for Sonoma, the 32-year-old Briton will once again be able to join team-mate Sebastien Bourdais on track for round 12 of the Championship. Legge has never raced around Sonoma before, only completing several laps in testing earlier in the season.

“[I’m] very excited.” Enthused Katherine Legge, “It was really disappointing when Sebastian [Bourdais] and myself couldn’t do all of the races each. I’m just really, really looking forward to getting back in the car. It’s been difficult. We’re so grateful to Chevrolet because without them we’d be in a really bad place right now. They’ve been the knights in shining armor, if you want. They came to our rescue.”

With Katherine Legge only having limited knowledge of the Sonoma Raceway, which is a tricky 2.30-mile course including 12 turns, the Briton has been carrying out extensive hours of training. This has consisted of everything including physical work, driving the simulator and even scouring the internet for YouTube videos of previous races.

“I think it was Barber or Sao Paulo was my last race on a road or street course.” Explained Katherine Legge, “Luckily we have the test there [Sonoma] next week. But I’ve just been training physically to get ready for it. I’ve been driving on the simulator. I’ve been watching YouTube videos. I asked the team to send me some data. I mean, I’m doing everything outside of the car that I can possibly do. There’s no substitute for actually driving the car.”

After the race at Sonoma, Dragon Racing will return to fielding only one car at the final two rounds of the season. With the Baltimore Grand Prix located on a street course, Sebastien Bourdais will naturally take to the track in the sole Dragon Racing car. However, for the season finale around the daunting 2-mile D-shaped oval at Fontana, Katherine Legge will once again take to the track to bring an end to the season for herself and the team.

“Yeah, I’ll definitely be driving Fontana, the last race of the year.” Confirmed Katherine Legge, “And Baltimore at the moment is scheduled to be Sebastian. Unless anything changes, that’s the plan.”

Before the GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma, the IndyCar Series will take to the Californian circuit for a test prior to the main event. This will provide Katherine Legge with valuable track time, as she strives to learn the circuit ahead of her return to racing on road courses.

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IndyCar Team Owner Arrested

Dragon Racing team owner Jay Penske and his broker Mike have been arrested over an alleged brake-in at a property at the Nantucket Yacht Club in Nantucket, Massachusetts. It has been reported that Jay Penske, the son of Roger Penske, ran into a house following an issue with two women within the property’s car park.

The incident occurred in the early hours of Thursday morning, with local newspapers Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror reporting that the pair were arrested on charges of “breaking and entering with intent to commit misdemeanor”. One witness from the incident stated that they found the two men relieving themselves in public, and that upon confronting the two men one of them, reportedly Jay Penske, “turned and continued to urinate on her boots. He then proceeded to grab her arm and push her,” according to a police report by a local newspapers.

The two men then proceeded to run away, with Jay’s brother Mark allegedly later being found having fallen down a staircase with a cut arm. When the police arrived, the pair were arrested after allegedly trying to illegally gain access to one of the employee apartments at the yacht club.

After being detained for the remainder of the night in the Nantucket Police Department, both men were eventually released on their own recognizance with a court hearing scheduled for August 20th. Jay Penske’s team, Dragon Racing, field cars for former ChampCar drivers Katherine Legge and Sebastien Bourdais in the IZOD IndyCar Series.

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Dragon Racing To Field A Second Car For Sonoma

It has been confirmed that Dragon Racing will field a second car for the next race at the Sonoma Raceway, which will see former ChampCar and DTM driver Katherine Legge return behind the wheel of her Chevrolet powered machine alongside Sebastien Bourdais.

Sebastien Bourdais has alternated his seat with Katherine Legge lately.

Since the Indianapolis 500, Dragon Racing have only been able to field one car due to a switch in engine supplier. After initially starting the season with Lotus engines, team owner Jay Penske made the decision to switch to Chevrolet power. However, only one Chevrolet engine could be obtained, and therefore it was decided that Legge would race the ovals and former ChampCar Champion Sebastien Bourdais would race on the street and road courses.

During the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio race weekend, it was confirmed that Jay Penske had secured a second Chevrolet engine, and that Briton Katherine Legge would be able to join her team-mate at the GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma. Katherine Legge will get her first taste of the Sonoma Raceway prior to the race weekend in a test session.

“I am extremely grateful to Chevrolet for making this second engine available so we can return to a full team effort in Sonoma.” Explained Team Owner, Jay Penske, “When we began the season in St. Pete it was our plan to run a full season with both the No. 6 and No. 7 TrueCar Dragon Racing entries, but due to circumstances beyond our control we had to reduce the effort to one car with the driving duties being shared among Katherine [Legge] and Sebastien [Bourdais]. With the team back to full strength we are all really looking forward to competing in Sonoma, the home track for our sponsors and partners, McAfee, Microsoft, and TrueCar.”

Katherine Legge is understandably thrilled to be back behind the wheel at Sonoma, and is itching to make what will be her 9th IndyCar start. The 32-year-old Briton currently sits 26th in the Drivers’ Championship, with 103 points scored.

“Obviously I’m thrilled to get back behind the wheel of my TrueCar Chevrolet in Sonoma and also to get the opportunity to test there prior to the race.” Said Katherine Legge, “We’re all racers and anytime you have to sit out a race its tough, but we’ve been doing the best with the situation and hopefully we will be able to get the results we know we’re capable of in Sonoma.”

Dragon Racing will once again return to fielding only one car for the Baltimore Grand Prix after Sonoma, which will see Sebastien Bourdais become the sole Dragon Racing driver in the field. Katherine Legge is scheduled to make her return in the Series at the season finale at Fontana in September.

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Will Power Wins Third Consecutive Race Of The Season At Sao Paulo

Australia’s Will Power has taken his third consecutive victory of the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series in an incident filled race on the streets of Sao Paulo, finishing just under a second ahead of Ryan Hunter-Ray. Takuma Sato came home 3rd, his personal best finish of his IndyCar career to date.

The race start time was brought forward as rain threatened the event, which was postponed after only 15 laps in 2011 due to heavy rain. At the start, the field safely negotiated the first two treacherous corners as Will Power took control at the front from reigning Series Champion Dario Franchitti. James Hinchcliffe suffered a difficult opening few laps, dropping from 4th to 7th whereas Charlie Kimball took slight wing damage.

On lap 10, the first scheduled pit-stops took place as local hero Helio Castroneves pitted for Penske along with rookie Simon Pagenaud a lap later. During these opening pit-stop, both Takuma Sato and Ana Beatriz were issued penalties for speeding in the pit lane. With the Japanese driver starting from way down in 25th position, a penalty was the last thing the former F1 driver needed.

With the first quarter of the race running caution free, Will Power was still running strong in the lead as he made his first pit-stop on lap 23. Katherine Legge’s difficult season continued when on lap 22 the British driver tapped the wall, thus forcing her to limp back to the pits with a left-rear puncture.

As Power pitted, his team-mate Ryan Briscoe stuffed his Penske into the wall bringing out the first full course caution of the race. This caution last for 4 laps as the stricken Penske was removed by the marshals, and the race returned to green flag conditions on lap 27.

Heading down into the turn 1, and Dario Franchitti was unceremoniously tipped into a spin by Mike Conway. This left the reigning Champion stuck on the track, as the second full course caution was brought out to allow the marshals to tend to the stricken Scot. 

As the old saying goes in IndyCar ‘cautions breed cautions’, and that was evident during the Sao Paulo Indy as the race returned to racing conditions once again on lap 30 only for a third consecutive caution to be caused as Josef Newgarden, Simona de Silvestro, James Jakes and Charlie Kimball were involved in a pile-up at turn 3. As the carnage ensued, Tony Kanaan completed a stunning restart as he stormed passed fellow countrymen Castroneves and Barrichello.

After three consecutive cautions, the drivers’ held their breath as the race returned to green flag conditions. Miraculously it was incident free as Power led at the front, as Franchitti began a charge from behind after his early incident. By lap 43, the Scot was already back up to 6th place due to the many incidents and pit-stops during the caution periods.

The second round of pit-stops began around lap 42, with Scott Dixon eventually assuming the lead as the stops were carried out. With the Kiwi scheduled to stop once more in the race, Will Power sat comfortably in 2nd awaiting his eventual rise to the lead. This eventuality occurred on lap 63 when Dixon pitted, just as the fourth full course caution was brought out as Ed Carpenter spun and Josef Newgarden hit the wall in separate incidents’. 

On the restart, Sato surprised everyone and stormed through to 3rd, narrowly avoiding a collision with Dario Franchitti into turn 2. Unfortunately, the inevitable happened as a multi-car pile-up ensued further down the order, bringing out yet another full course caution. With the track nearly blocked, the leaders perilously made their way through the mayhem under safety car conditions next time around.

As the IndyCar fraternity held their breath once again for a clean restart, Will Power was able to fend off Ryan Hunter-Reay and complete his third consecutive win of the season. Takuma Sato came home an impressive 3rd after making up 22 positions throughout the race.

The IndyCar Series now heads home to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the month of May and the 96th Indy 500! 

Picture Copyright © LAT Photographic

Will Power Wins Incident Filled Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

Will Power has won a highly eventful and incident filled Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, the 38th running of the event, even though Power suffered a grid penalty for an engine change after qualifying and started 12th. 

With the Target Chip Ganassi of Dario Franchitti starting from pole alongside rookie Josef Newgarden, the start was an eventful one as the rookie tried to go around the outside of the reigning Champion. This unfortunately ended in tears as Newgarden got tagged by Franchitti and found himself embedded in the tyre barriers after only the first turn. This subsequently brought out a full course caution, with the cars barely getting up to racing speeds.

As the race returned to green flag conditions, Franchitti once again found himself under pressure as former F1 driver Justin Wilson overtook him heading into turn 1. Unlike Newgarden, Wilson was able to make the pass stick and streaked off into the distance opening up a considerable lead. As if Franchitti’s race hadn’t already got off to a miserable start, the Scot was then passed by the rookie of Simon Pagenaud, before both Takuma Sato and team-mate Scott Dixon got around the 4-time IndyCar Champion.

On lap 20 the second full course caution was caused as former ChampCar Champion Sebastien Bourdais lost control of his Lotus powered IndyCar and ended up in the wall. As soon as the caution came out, the majority of the field dived into the pits almost immediately. 

On the restart, Dario Franchitti suffered a torrid getaway and lost several places heading into turn 1. Before any of the drivers’ could return to full racing speeds, Alex Tagliani was seen limping down an escape road with right rear tyre damage after a collision with E.J. Viso. All attention was then diverted elsewhere as Marco Andretti suffered a violent incident flying into the tyre barriers at high speeds. As Andretti’s crash was shown again, it became apparent the American driver was very lucky to come out of the incident unscathed after making contact with Graham Rahal and getting launched into the air, narrowly missing collecting Scott Dixon in mid air. Graham Rahal was also forced to retire, after loosing the majority of his rear-wing during the collision with Andretti.

With the Safety Car out on track for the third time in 24 laps, Katherine Legge was also seen in the wall, whereas Mike Conway was seen slowing down on track after getting a tap from behind from Rubens Barrichello. Upon making it back to the pits, Conway had the rear of his car dismantled as his mechanics set to fixing the issue.

As the field prepared to go racing once again, they were forced to wait an extra couple of laps after Scott Dixon came to a sudden halt in the middle of the track, and subsequently retired from the race. This added delay forced Sato to pit from the lead, and therefore handed the lead to Ryan Hunter-Reay. However, before green flag racing was resumed, both Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe also decided to pit, with Ryan Briscoe assuming the lead with Franchitti 2nd.

On the restart, Franchitti suffered yet another blow as he made contact with Briscoe, slightly damaging his nose. Four laps later, Dario finally pitted for a new nose, as both Castroneves and Briscoe pitted as well. After rejoining the race, Mike Conway’s Honda powered car finally gave up on lap 48, with a mechanical issue prematurely ending the Brits race.

With rookie Simon Pagenaud leading the race, the Frenchman was forced to pit on lap 48, thus handing the lead to Takuma Sato as Will Power began a charge as he passed Justin Wilson for 2nd. On lap 55, Power pitted for the alternate red sticker tyres, and a lap later Takuma Sato pitted. With the majority of the front running drivers’ all pitting within close proximity of each other, Ryan Hunter-Reay returned to the lead. However his lead was short lived as on lap 59 both he and Hinchcliffe pitted, therefore returning rookie Pagenaud to the lead.

Will Power continued his surge to the top as he scythed passed Takuma Sato for 2nd and turned his attention to catching Simon Pagenaud for the lead. With Rubens Barrichello making up ground going from 6th to 4th, Simon Pagenaud eventually pitted once again. This handed Will Power the lead and left Pagenaud in 4th behind Barrichello. The Frenchman made light work of Rubens, and eventually caught and passed Sato for 2nd much to the adoration of the crowd.

As the 38th running of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach came to a close, Simon Pagenaud closed the gap to Power from nearly six seconds to just under a second but to no avail, as the Australian took his second consecutive win of the season.

Further behind there was carnage on the final lap as Hunter-Reay and Sato came together and Castroneves and Barrichello also came together at the final corner, blocking the entire track! With Hunter-Reay being issued a time penalty for the collision with Sato, James Hinchcliffe came home 3rd in an unbelievably hectic final lap.

Results - 85 laps:

Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
 1.  Will Power           Penske DW12-Chevy
 2.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt DW12-Honda            + 0.8675s
 3.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti DW12-Chevy           + 13.2719s
 4.  Tony Kanaan          KV DW12-Chevy                 + 18.1951s
 5.  JR Hildebrand        Panther DW12-Chevy            + 22.9947s
 6.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti DW12-Chevy           + 42.5631
 7.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske DW12-Chevy             + 1m40.1271s
 8.  Takuma Sato          Rahal DW12-Honda              + 1 lap
 9.  Rubens Barrichello   KV DW12-Chevy                 + 1 lap
10.  Justin Wilson        Coyne DW12-Honda              + 1 lap
11.  James Jakes          Coyne DW12-Honda              + 1 lap
12.  EJ Viso              KV DW12-Chevy                 + 1 lap
13.  Helio Castroneves    Penske DW12-Chevy             + 1 lap
14.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter DW12-Chevy          + 2 laps
15.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi DW12-Honda            + 3 laps
16.  Oriol Servia         Dreyer & Reinbold DW12-Lotus  + 3 laps
17.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon DW12-Lotus             + 3 laps
18.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi DW12-Honda            + 5 laps
19.  Katherine Legge      Dragon DW12-Lotus             + 5 laps

Retirements:

     Simona de Silvestro  HVM DW12-Lotus                74 laps
     Alex Tagliani        BHA DW12-Lotus                46 laps
     Mike Conway          Foyt DW12-Honda               41 laps
     Scott Dixon          Ganassi DW12-Honda            27 laps
     Graham Rahal         Ganassi DW12-Honda            23 laps
     Marco Andretti       Andretti DW12-Chevy           22 laps
     Josef Newgarden      Fisher DW12-Honda             0 laps

Picture Copyright © Getty Images

Marussia Signs Female Test Driver Maria de Villota

Marussia have signed Maria de Villota as their new test driver for 2012, only days after unveiling their new car and passing the mandatory FIA crash test. The Spanish female driver has recently tested a Renault R29 at Paul Ricard, and has raced in various Championships’ including Spanish F3 and the Daytona 24 Hours.

It has also been confirmed she will be driving the Cosworth powered Marussia MR-01 at the Abu Dhabi Young Drivers’ Test towards the end of the year, which will be her second outing in a Formula 1 car. The last female driver to drive a Formula 1 car was Katherine Legge back in 2005, who now races in the IndyCar Series in America.

This comes as Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, spoke out about female drivers’ in Formula 1, stating he was convinced females would be racing in F1 within the decade. Along with Italian GP3 driver Vicky Piria, it seems a female driver in Formula 1 is becoming more of a reality.

“I am very happy to be joining the Marussia F1 Team test driver programme,” said the Spanish 32-year-old, “This is a fantastic opportunity to work closely with a Formula 1 team and gain important experience to help me progress my career, including the chance to drive the new car later in the year at the Abu Dhabi test. I will be joining the team trackside so I’m looking forward to working alongside them at the first race next weekend and this can only help my future ambition to step up to Formula 1 racing.”

Maria de Villota could well become the first female driver since Giovanna Amati, who tried to qualify for several races for Brabham back in 1992. 

Picture Copyright © Marussia F1 Team 

Female F1 Drivers’ Within A Decade Says Christian Horner

Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, is confident that female drivers’ will enter Formula 1 within a decade. With other forms of motor sport, most notably America’s IndyCar, fielding a strong female contingent it’s naturally only a matter of time before F1 sees its first female driver since Italy’s Giovanna Amati in 1992.

In America, the IndyCar and the now defunct ChampCar World Series Championship played host to many female drivers’. Ranging from previous race winner Danica Patrick to the likes of Milka Duno, female drivers’ have become the norm in American motor sport. 

However, in Formula 1 female drivers’ have remained a rarity. Only five females have raced in F1, and only one of them scored any points in Lella Lombardi who finished 6th in the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix for March-Ford. With statistics such as this, it’s hard to imagine how successful female drivers’ have become in America in comparison to the worlds highest tier of motor sport.

With Danica Patrick now competing in the Nascar Nationwide Series, IndyCar still has two females set to race in the coming 2012 season in British driver Katherine Legge and Swiss driver Simona de Silvestro. 

With up and coming female drivers’ in the UK such as Alice Powell, who became the Formula Renault BARC Champion last year, climbing their way up the motor sport ladder, Christian Horner is right in believing female drivers’ will soon be racing in Formula 1 once again.

For the first time ever, the GP3 Series will have a female driver contesting the season in 2012. Italian driver Vicky Piria is set to race for Trident Racing, and is one of many female drivers’ aiming for success European motor sport.

As Christian Horner rightfully said in an interview with MSN Sport, the sport cannot remain the preserve of men for much longer. Whether females will be as successful as the likes of Danica Patrick in IndyCar when they finally break into Formula 1, time will tell.

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