FORT WORTH, Texas, June 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Tonight's IZOD IndyCar Series Firestone 550 at Texas Motor Speedway was Katherine Legge's chance to get back in her No. 6 TrueCar Dragon Racing Chevrolet after having to sit out last weekend's Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix. She and her Dragon Racing teammate, Sebastien Bourdais, are forced to split their upcoming races until a second Chevrolet engine lease becomes available to the team.
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"I was just excited to get back on the track in my TrueCar machine and get more laps behind me," said Legge. "It was very tough to experience Belle Isle last weekend as a spectator and not as a competitor, so I'm just happy to have been racing again this weekend. A lack of testing has been our story all year, and this weekend was no different since all the other teams had tested here and I had to do my rookie oval test before we could start the first practice."
The UK native was allowed to take the track before her fellow drivers yesterday to complete her rookie test. Nine minutes later she was cleared by INDYCAR president of competition Beaux Barfield to compete on all ovals. That was the extent of her Texas testing program before taking on the 1.5-mile 24-degree banked oval at Texas Motor Speedway for practice and qualifying. The TrueCar Racing driver and her Dragon Racing team managed to get in 51 laps of practice before her qualifying run. Legge went on to qualify 22nd in the field, with a two-lap average of 210.543 miles per hour.
Starting near the rear of the field would yield a surprise for Legge as she was struck by debris on her helmet visor while taking the green flag. Undeterred by the blurred visor, the rookie settled into race mode until the restart on lap 40 after a single car incident involving Charlie Kimball. Underway, Legge reported that the weight jacker system would not reset, taking away her ability to adjust the balance of the car during each stint. This left her with an ill-handling racecar for the remainder of the race.
"That was one of the most difficult races I've ever done," said Legge of her first race at Texas Motor Speedway. "With the weight jacker broken, I had no way of adjusting the car to control understeer. We had also made some big changes to the car overnight, but we made some big gains. We were very shy on front wing at the start of the race, so we kept adding it during pit stops. I feel like we could have been competitive near the end of the race if we had the tools inside the cockpit that I could have used to adjust the car. In the end, it was a learning experience."
Persevering, Legge ran a clean race and her team executed pit strategies that allowed her to advance seven positions during the race. The TrueCar Racing driver ultimately finished 15th and she now heads to Milwaukee, where she led laps in the Champ Car World Series in 2006.
The Milwaukee IndyFest is June 16 and will be aired live on ABC at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
You can follow Katherine Legge on Twitter @katherinelegge, and TrueCar's all-women Racing Team @TrueCarRacing. You can also follow Katherine Legge for updates during her races on Twitter @katontrack. For more information on TrueCar Racing and the Women Empowered Initiative, please visit www.truecar.com/racing.
About TrueCar Racing
TrueCar Racing was created to support top female race car drivers in premier racing series, along with young rising stars across several developmental racing series.TrueCar Racing is empowering high-potential women who aspire to become championship race car drivers by providing full sponsorship support, professional coaching and training, marketing exposure, and top-tier racing team opportunities throughout the U.S.TrueCar Racing currently sponsors women in the following race series: IndyCar, Star Mazda, USF2000, World Challenge, Mazda MX-5 Cup and Rally America.
About TrueCar, Inc.
TrueCar, Inc. is an online automotive information and communications platform focused on creating a better car buying experience for dealers and consumers. Consumers want a hassle-free car buying experience and dealers want high-quality sales velocity. TrueCar helps achieve these goals by providing unbiased market information on new car transactions and by supplying an online communications platform through which dealers and consumers can communicate with each other. TrueCar's market-based information provides both consumers and dealers with an accurate and comprehensive understanding of what others actually paid recently for similar vehicles, both locally and nationally. TrueCar's communications platform then allows informed, ready-to-buy consumers to communicate directly with participating dealers. Some of the nation's largest and most well respected membership and service organizations rely on websites powered by TrueCar to help educate their members and customers who are in the automotive market. TrueCar is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA, and has offices in San Francisco, CA, and Austin, TX. After experiencing dramatic growth since 2006, TrueCar is developing a suite of products and services centered on radical clarity through the comprehensive analysis of market data and information. TrueCar's participating dealer partners have sold over 500,000 new vehicles to TrueCar users nationwide.
You can follow TrueCar on Twitter (@TrueCar) and become a fan of TrueCar on Facebook and Google+.
SOURCE TrueCar, Inc.
