Katherine Legge – Page 2 – Syndication Server

Alongside Legge, Monk seeing the upside of IMSA GTD rookie seesaw

Sheena Monk is one of several drivers in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD class in their first season racing GT3 cars, in her case having moved from Michelin Pilot Challenge GS. But among those, she and veteran Katherine Legge are higher in the points, sitting just outside the top five overall as the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park weekend began. Teamed up in the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22, there have been a couple of top-five finishes, notably a fourth in the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, where Marc Miller and Mario Farnbacher joined the party. But with some performances that Monk and Legge consider sub-par, they’re a bit surprised where they are in the standings.

“I think that we’ve had an up-and-down season so far,” said Legge (pictured at right, above, with Monk). “High point being probably Daytona and Watkins (Glen), low point being Sebring. I think we had a couple of bad races with Long Beach and Laguna, honestly, too. So the fact that we are sixth in points is incredible to me. I think we do salvage some finishes out of our bad fortune, for want of a better word. But I think the potential for us to be better is great.”

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Looking at the GTD rookies, Monk is at the top. Patrick Gallagher, teamed with Robby Foley, is two points ahead heading into CTMP, is also in his first full season of GTD, but has a fair amount of GT3 experience. And in the Trueman-Akin Award standings for the top Bronze driver in GTD, Monk is second behind Brendan Iribe. She is, however, quick to disavow full ownership of that position.

“There are a a lot of other factors at play,” she declares. “I drive with other people that … I say they play clean-up, but I have to give them the car in the first place. Unfortunately, at Laguna I didn’t do my job in that sense and we really had a chance. I guess I look at it like I’ve got a team of guys that have incredible pit stops. And we’ve been really solid on our driver changes; those things matter. So I can’t say, OK, yeah, I’ve been like the best of the newbies to show up.”

Monk says her qualifying could be better. “It’s something that I’m focusing on, because I feel that if I’m further up in the field from the qualifying, and the track position is better, I will be less likely to be around the incidents that happen early in the race,” she says while Legge nods in agreement. But she acknowledges that there are many things she’s still learning about driving a GT3 car, with all the aerodynamic grip the NSX adds over the GT4 cars she’s driven previously.

The first time she felt the compression in Turn 6 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca was a revelation, Monk notes. That adds to the ever-growing knowledge base of what a GT3 car does differently than what she’s raced before. The accumulation of knowledge will certainly add to her pace, but there’s some mental components that will enable her to apply that knowledge, Legge says.

As well as the different characteristics of her Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22, Monk is incorporating lessons about racing’s mental game from her veteran teammate. Perry Nelson/Motorsport Images

“I think Sheena’s tendency is to under-drive up to the (limit) rather than cross the line and bring it back, whereas a lot of newer drivers that that haven’t driven GT3 cars before have the confidence to go out there and go over the line and under the line and over the line — play with that line,” Legge explains. “We’ve been working a lot on how do we get her to go out and be up on the wheel, push straight away — even if you make mistakes, be confident, and comfortable being uncomfortable, and bringing it back to to where you want it to be. Because then you get there quicker rather than taking little bites out of it. She has the skill and the ability; it’s all mental.”

Monk acknowledges that she likes to build up in her time in the car, and with limited practice time on the weekends, that’s been holding her back. It’s also one of her issues with qualifying, where she has 15 minutes to get the job done. Asked to grade herself on her performance in the season so far, stuff like that has her being a pretty harsh self-judge.

“I’m not satisfied, frankly. But if if you’re here and if you’re not winning, I think everybody feels that way,” Monk says. “So I don’t know if that’s reflective of me specifically. I think everyone in here is so competitive that you have high expectations. You believe in yourself and you believe in the team that you’re with. So, that might seem negative, but I think it’s a healthy answer and a healthy response from somebody that’s competitive and just wants to win.

“But I’m also cognizant of the fact that that takes some time. So I don’t think, especially for how long I’ve been racing — I haven’t been in this for so long that by no means I expect to show up and win; I understand how wildly competitive this field is. I just think that for myself, maybe a little less incidents, maybe a smidge more pace and consistency. Maybe I’m being a little hard on myself. But I think with time we’ll be there.”

Legge and Rahal granted Thursday shakedown runs at Indy

Graham Rahal and Katherine Legge will be given 15 minutes to shake down their cars on Thursday following the accident triggered by Legge on Monday. Both drivers will be limited to making trips out of pit lane, running down the backstraight, and …

The purpose of the session is to give Rahal, who was asked to drive in place of the injured Stefan Wilson, a chance to get the freshly-built No. 24 Chevy — a replacement after the primary chassis was destroyed when Legge hit Wilson’s car from behind — up to temperature and up to some semblance of speed to allow his Cusick Motorsports/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing crew an opportunity to inspect the car and ensure everything is tight and ready for Friday’s final two-hour practice session.

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Legge will also take part in the 4:30-4:45pm ET session with her rebuilt No. 44 Rahal Letterman Racing Honda to give the RLL crew a chance to perform the same safety checks and sign off on the car’s readiness for Friday and Sunday’s 500-mile race.

Legge, Wilson crash heavily in Indy 500 practice

A crash-free month of May came to an end during Monday’s two-hour practice session at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway when Katherine Legge speared the rear of Stefan Wilson’s car in Turn 1, sending both drivers hard into the barrier. Extra time was …

Extra time was taken to remove Wilson from his No. 24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevy, with the tall Englishman being strapped to a gurney and loaded into an ambulance. Wilson gave a thumbs-up before the doors were closed. Legge was seen and released after visiting IndyCar’s medical staff.

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Of the two cars, Legge’s briefly caught air but never completely left the track and while Wilson’s car remained on the ground, the front of the tub appeared to be badly damaged.

Regarding Wilson, IMS Medical Director Julia Vaizer said, “I can tell you that he’s doing well. He’s being transported to a local hospital for advanced imaging and further evaluation.”

Like Wilson, the status of Legge’s ability to continue in the event with the same car remains unclear.

“The cars in front of me were checking up and I lifted as much as I could, downshifted, and hit the brakes, but that wasn’t enough,” she said.

Indy 500 qualifying day one recap with Ilott, Legge, Enerson and McLaughlin

Day 1 of Indy 500 qualifying is over and RACER’s Marshall Pruett is joined by Callum Ilott, Katherine Legge, RC Enerson, and Scott McLaughlin.

Legge encouraged by strides made during first day of Indy 500 practice

By the numbers, Katherine Legge had an unremarkable day. Her No. 44 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda closed the opening on-track activities at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 30th place which, on any other day, would be a cause for concern. …

The place where encouragement enters the conversation is how far her RLL team took the No. 44 throughout the day, and after parking the car prior to the biggest drafting opportunities presented themselves late in the afternoon, there was no doubt the two-time Indy 500 starter could have move to a higher position on the scoring pylon.

It’s too early to paint a rosy picture of whatever might lie ahead for Legge, but she certainly wasn’t dispirited after learning a ton on Wednesday at IMS and making her car markedly better before pulling into the pits for the final time. Chassis progress was the achievement of her day.

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“Until the last couple of runs I was feeling very insecure with the car because it was very pointy and very loose,” Legge told RACER. “I scared myself a couple of times, and I was just not feeling like I could put the car where I wanted to put it. The team did an awesome job, though, working through this the changes step by step. The last couple of runs I did, I was pretty comfortable. Until that point, I was like, ‘Hmm, it’s going to be a long day if I don’t have any rear stability,’ but my crew were amazing and got us a long way towards getting there.”

Considering the time spent between Legge’s last open-wheel outing at the 2013 Indy 500 and her return this month, there’s no pressure being applied by RLL for her to be running for P1 from the outset. Even so, Legge had the look of someone who was finding her way back to the open-wheel groove she had more than a decade ago when she was a regular presence in Champ Car and IndyCar.

“I feel like it came back relatively quickly on-track,” she said. “But driving on track is fairly comfortable for me when the car is good. It’s the auxiliary things like messing with all the dials and knobs and switches and everything like that, doing pitstops, in and out laps… In the [IMSA Acura] NSX [she races full-season] for example, I don’t even think about it. I know where everything is and what I’m doing and I literally don’t have to think about it.

“Now, I’m like, ‘God, I don’t know what I’m doing!’ So when you first learn to drive, and everything seems too much, because you’ve got so many things to do, and that’s where I’m at right now. But when I’m driving around, it’s actually fine because I know how to do that!”

Legge awed, inspired after Texas IndyCar test

Nearly 10 years removed from her last NTT IndyCar Series outing, Katherine Legge spent Monday at Texas Motor Speedway preparing for her return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway where she’ll attempt to qualify for her third Indianapolis 500 in May. …

Sought and signed by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing to pilot the No. 44 Honda, the Briton re-acclimated herself with the DW12 chassis and all of the new components, including its mandatory aeroscreen, which have been added since her last IndyCar race at Indy in 2013.

“My first thought when I left pit lane was, ‘Wow, I do not remember it being this fast!’ she said. “I was in awe of how incredible it was and what a feeling it is. It did not hold, though, as you get comfortable relatively quickly. But even on the last runs of the day, you still have a healthy respect for how fast Texas really is and you’re still in awe of the speed at which these cars can run but you feel a little more relaxed at knowing you have the capability of doing it. At the beginning it’s very much like being a deer in headlights but it soon comes back.”

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Legge shared the track with oval rookie and reigning Indy NXT champion Linus Lundqvist, who was invited to test in a second RLL car. The Swede was put to use at times to lead Legge and give her an opportunity to spend time in the draft and practice passing. Her next outing in the No. 44 Honda will come later this month during the compulsory Indy 500 open test.

“I think the test went really well,” she concluded. “I think the team are happy and that we made some strides forward with both myself and also the car. Hopefully we can take some of that and it will translate at the Indy open test.

“We will look at data and put a plan together for the Indy open test. We’re also on the simulator before the test so there is yet more time to prepare. There will be more debriefs, meetings and pre-event reports and then get back on track for two days to continue to learn before opening day for the Indy 500. I’m looking forward to every bit of it.”