Monday, February 25, 2008

Princess gets her way

While I was eagerly awaiting the ensuing Cat Fight, Bitch Slap, Throw down between Champ Car’s Katherine Legge and the Princess, a.k.a Danica Patrick, sadly this will not occur.

For those of you unaware, unlike the Princess who has yet to win a single racing event (excluding go karts) Legge won three major races in her rookie North American season (2005) upon convincing CCWS’s boss Kevin Kalkhoven to give her a chance.

Debuting in the Toyota Atlantics championship, Legge recorded her maiden victory at Long Beach in her very first start! Katherine then went on to notch two more victories at Edmonton and San Jose, along with five podiums enroute to finishing third overall that season, prior to testing for Rocketsports and PKV Racing before the announcement was made that Legge would graduate to the Champ Car World Series with PKV Racing in 2006. After a tough rookie campaign with her ex-boss Kalkhoven, Legge was demoted to the continuously underfinanced Dale Coyne Racing operation for the 2007 season.

Prior to racing in the Atlantics, Legge became the first woman to score a pole in British Formula Ford racing (2000) before besting the lap record of a young Finnish driver named Raikkonen in 2001. Katherine is one of the few females to have sampled the ultimate rocket ship, better known as Formula 1, when she tested for Minardi in 2005. being the first female to do so since Sarah Fisher’s outing for McLaren, promoting the USGP in 2002. Legge was also the first female to give an A1 GP chassis a workout, which she did under the auspices of Team Britain/GBR.

Yet, with the continuous uncertainty that swirled over Champ Car this season, as apparently Kalkhoven wasn’t returning her telephone calls, Legge has signed a deal to contest DTM for Audi behind the wheel of an two year old Tin Top. I’m sure this news comes as a great relief to Tony George, who enjoys having the Princess as the IRL’s media darling, while Danica will have one less worry to think about between swimsuit shoots. Meanwhile, somebody better tell Ralfanso to keep a sharp eye in his rear view mirror!