TrueCar to sponsor rising star in Lotus-powered Dragon Racing entry

INDIANAPOLIS, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012 – Talented international driver Katherine Legge, the first woman to win a major open-wheel race in North America, will compete in the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series for Dragon Racing.

Legge will drive the No. 6 entry for Dragon, with primary sponsorship from TrueCar.  Her teammate will be four-time Champ Car World Series champion Sebastien Bourdais.

Both Legge and Bourdais will compete with Lotus power, as Dragon Racing was named as a factory team for the iconic sports car manufacturer that is one of three engine suppliers this season in INDYCAR.

The 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series season starts Sunday, March 25 at St. Petersburg, Fla, with the 101^st Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, May 27 as the marquee event of the schedule.

“I am very proud to be driving in the 2012 IndyCar Series for Lotus Dragon Racing , with the gracious support of my sponsor TrueCar,” Legge said. “Lotus, Dragon and TrueCar have put together an amazing programme that I have every faith will succeed and win races.

“Lotus has such a great heritage and racing background and will be an enormous strength to our program.  I am very much looking forward to working with all of those involved, and I am excited to get out on track now alongside a fantastic teammate in Sebastien Bourdais.”(...)
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Katherine Legge is on the verge of becoming an Izod IndyCar Series driver.

The former Atlantics, Champ Car and DTM series driver has sponsorship for a full-time ride next season with a team to be determined later this week. Her deal with the team, when signed, will be two years with an option for a third.

Legge, 31, competed in Champ Car in 2006 for PKV Racing and in 2007 for Dale Coyne Racing. She won three races in Atlantics.(...)
Read the rest of IndyCar: Katherine Legge set to return to U.S. open-wheel racing in 2012

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Last week at PRI (full blog about that soon) GoRacingTV.com interviewed three of the lovely ladies we cover here on the site. Click below to watch them. There is several interviews with other people on there as well you can skip over them if you like.

Beth Chryst

Sloan Henderson

Collete Davis

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Post tags: beth chryst, collete davis, cooper tires, goracingtv.com, mazda, performance racing industry, pri, sloan henderson

Article and Photos By Anne Profitt

At the final race of the year on the IZOD IndyCar Series trail, it’s customary to see drivers walking around and looking for an appropriate job for the coming season.  There are a few seats available for next year, particularly with new engines and chassis supplanting a familiar Dallara/Honda/Firestone grouping that’s been in place since 2006.

Because of this teams are looking not only for a good racer but also someone who can test and help develop a car.  That’s where a breadth of experience can come in handy – whether in the Indy cars or with other series.  

One of the drivers talking to team owners at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was Katherine Legge, who most recently has been an Audifactory driver in the DTM (German Touring Car) championships.  

Legge should be familiar to American racing fans for her efforts in the Toyota Atlantic championship and the Champ Car World Series, where she met far more success than that other female driver, Danica Patrick.  The elegant and charming Briton, however, first came to the United States under compromising circumstances.

There was a time when Kathryn Nunn, wife of engineer and Champ Car team owner Morris Nunn, was trying to put together a Firestone Indy Lights team comprised of woman drivers.  Together with Lyn St James, she organized a – for lack of a better term – gong show at Texas Motor Speedway and invited six female race car drivers to show up.(...)
Read the rest of Katherine Legge’s Quest For An IndyCar Ride

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Maria de Villota insists “there are real possibilities” she will be a regular in the Formula One paddock next year.

The 31-year-old Spanish female driver tested a 2009 Renault at Paul Ricard in August, and earlier this month she re-appeared in the car during the World Series race weekend at Barcelona.

She told the Spanish news agency Europa Press that she is getting “closer” to securing a job in Formula One for 2012.

“The first test we did in August went so well that it helped to accelerate more possibilities,” said de Villota.

She said her short-term objective is to “be in Formula One in 2012.”(...)
Read the rest of Female Driver Sees F1 ‘Possibilities’ For 2012

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Me With Dan a couple years back at the karting nationals in Las Vegas

This is not what I wanted to have to write about in my second blog for the website, or have to write about ever. Unfortunately we lost maybe one of the most flamboyant, passionate and friendly members of our sport over the weekend. Dan Wheldon at the age of 33, tragically died from head injuries incurred in the massive 15 car wreck at the IZOD IndyCar Series World Championships in Las Vegas over this past weekend.

I was there for the race, and as soon as the green flag dropped my first thought was “Wow! They are flying around this 1.5 mile race track, with 34 this is going to be an exciting race.” As it turned out to be exciting in the wrong way. On about lap 12 one car got a little loose in turns 1 and 2, it triggered a whole chain reaction taking out several other cars, with a second wreck triggering from what looked to be all the debris on the race track. It was a difficult scene to see from where we were sitting on the front stretch. All you could make out were cars flying everywhere at least four of them airborne to some degree and we later found out and as I’m sure most of us have seen the pictures was Dan Wheldon’s car.(...)
Read the rest of Blog: A Weekend I Will Never Forget

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Post tags: dan wheldon, izod indy series, kerstin smutny, las vegas motor speedway

When Simona de Silvestro replays the last six months in her mind, two images materialize. In the first, she’s blasting through the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., inches away from Tony Kanaan’s rear wing, fierce and tenacious and resolute in the season opener. In the second image, four months later, she’s carefully climbing from her car in Milwaukee after 11 laps, dizzy from a concussion, a stitched laceration on a knee, nerves spent, cold and flu coming on, desperately in need of some time off.

The 2011 season has been that way for de Silvestro, the 23-year-old Swiss driver who went from Indianapolis 500rookie of the year in 2010 to the good-bad puzzle of her second season. She was, at times, extraordinary this season. At other times, her confidence and skills were on hiatus.

“Honestly, I’m going to be really happy when this season is over,” she said. “It’s been a tough, tough year in certain phases. I’ve come back OK, but it’s been a lot of work to get there. I just had to overcome so many crashes. Any athlete has a tough season now and then, but this one is the toughest I’ve ever been in.”

The bad was exceedingly bad. In May, de Silvestro became a YouTube sensation with a startling crash during practice for the Indy500. Her car ripped into the fence, flipped and caught fire. She unbuckled and crawled out, but burned both hands in the process. Weeks later, she crashed during qualifying at the Milwaukee Mile and sustained a concussion that wasn’t diagnosed until after she couldn’t finish the race the following day.

The problems had a common denominator — oval tracks. A European-trained road racer, de Silvestro had little experience on ovals before reaching the Izod IndyCar Series. While impressive on road and street courses — including a fourth-place finish in St. Petersburg, Fla., — she struggled with the aftermath of big crashes on ovals, including a fiery crash at Texas Motor Speedway in 2010 and the Indy incident in May.(...)
Read the rest of Simona de Silvestro: IndyCar’s next Danica Patrick?

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At FRN we pride ourselves in covering only women in racing, but yesterday we, the racing community, was struck with an undeniable tragedy. Dan Wheldon, outstanding racecar driver, 2 time Indy 500 winner, 2005 Indy Series champion, husband, father, friend, and legend was taken from us much too early. FRN wants to take this time to honor an amazing talent that will be gravely missed. We send our condolences to his family and friends during this time.

Gone but never forgotten…

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UPDATE @ 3:04PM EST

Via Pippa Mann’s PR

IZOD IndyCar Series driver Pippa Mann has been released from the University Medical Center in Las Vegas, following surgery on Sunday evening to clean and assess a severe burn injury to the little finger of her right hand.

UPDATE @ 1:45PM EST

After her accident at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Pippa was kept at the hospital overnight for observation. The last information we received is that she will be released sometime today.

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Formula Renault racer Alice Powell is in danger of not finishing the UK Championship due to lack of funding.

Powell became the first female to win the BARC Championship last year but has been unsuccessful in securing sufficient sponsorship money.

“If I don’t get the sponsorship I won’t be able to finish the season,” she said.

“I need around £10,000. But every little helps, it’s really a case of how much people are willing to put in.”

The Oxfordshire-born racer has shown great pace in the championship so far but has had bad luck after being crashed into on three separate occasions whilst in podium positions.

“The higher you go up the levels in motor sport the more expensive it gets,” said the 18-year old.(...)
Read the rest of Formula Renault racer Powell may not finish season

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