Katherine Legge *

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 Racing, 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 Racing 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.”

Legge is resuming her elite-level open-wheel racing career after three seasons as an Audi factory driver in the European-based DTM, the world’s top touring car series. She drove for Futurecom TME, Abt Lady Power and Team Rosberg during her three-year DTM career from 2008-10.

Legge, 31, achieved the greatest success of her career to date in North American open-wheel racing.

She won three races in the Toyota Atlantic Championship in 2005, becoming the first woman to win a major open-wheel race in North America.  Legge then became the first woman to compete full time in the Champ Car World Series, in 2006, and was the first woman to lead a lap in that series.

Before coming to America for the first time in 2004, Legge built an impressive portfolio of success in many ultra-competitive European open-wheel series.

She became the first woman to win a pole in a British Formula Ford Zetec event, in 2000.  She also earned pole position at Oulton Park in England during the 2002 Formula Renault season with a time quicker than the lap record set by eventual Formula One World Champion Kimi Raikkonen.

Those results helped her become the first woman to receive the prestigious British Racing Drivers’ Club “Rising Stars” honor in 2002.

Her successful 2005 season in Toyota Atlantic also led to a test late that year with the Minardi team in Formula One, the world’s most prestigious series.

Dragon Racing, owned by Jay Penske, is based in Los Angeles.  The team made its IZOD IndyCar Series debut in 2007 as Luczo Dragon Racing and guided Raphael Matos to Rookie of the Year honors in 2009.

“I am extremely excited and proud to partner with Lotus Cars and TrueCar,” Penske said. “The combination of having the technical support of Lotus as a factory team, the financial backing of a game-changing company TrueCar as a primary sponsor and the unquestionable driving skills of Sebastien and Katherine makes us a force to be reckoned with in 2012.”

GRand Solutions LLC, based in Indianapolis, is representing Legge during her debut IZOD IndyCar Series season.

About TrueCar, Inc.

TrueCar is dedicated to helping you save time and money on your next car purchase.   With TrueCar, you can discover what other people in your area really paid for the car you want before you visit the dealership.   TrueCar customers also enjoy a fast, easy, no-hassle car buying experience from a trusted Certified Dealer in the TrueCar network.

TrueCar, Inc. is an automotive solutions provider focused on changing how cars are sold by providing a significantly better consumer experience while helping qualified dealer partners gain incremental market share and reduce costs.  TrueCar is a visual publisher of new and used car transaction data.  TrueCar price reports help both dealers and consumers to agree on the parameters of a fair deal by providing an accurate, comprehensive and simple understanding of what others actually paid recently for an identically-equipped vehicle both locally and nationally.  TrueCar works with a national network of dealers that provide a no-hassle car buying experience.  In addition, TrueCar assists some of the nation’s largest and most well respected membership and service organizations to meet the auto buying needs of their members and customers.  TrueCar is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA and has offices in San Francisco, CA and Austin, TX.  Since 2006, TrueCar has connected hundreds of thousands of consumers with dealers nationwide resulting in dealers selling over 400,000 vehicles and is developing a suite of products and services centered on radical clarity through the comprehensive analysis of market data and information.

You can follow TrueCar on Twitter and become a fan of TrueCar on Facebook.

About Dragon Racing

Dragon Racing is an IndyCar Series team owned by Jay Penske, the Chairman and CEO of Penske Media Corporation (PMC). Dragon Racing began under the original banner of Luczo Dragon Racing founded by both Penske and Steve Luczo, the Chairman and CEO of Seagate Technologies. The team debuted in 2007 at the Indianapolis 500 with driver Ryan Briscoe and finished fifth. In 2009, during the team’s first complete season, it won Rookie of the Year honors with driver Raphael Matos. In 2012, Dragon Racing has forged an alliance with Lotus to become the Lotus Factory Team, along with lead strategic sponsors Microsoft, TrueCar, and McAfee.  Dragon Racing has two entries in the IZOD IndyCar Series for 2012: Katherine Legge, the first woman to win a major open-wheel race in North America, and four-time Champ Car Series champion Sebastien Bourdais.  Dragon Racing has operations in Indianapolis, Indiana and Los Angeles, California.  For more information on Dragon Racing or its drivers please contact press@dragonracing.com.

About Lotus

Group Lotus PLC, is based in Norfolk, UK, and has three operating divisions:

Lotus Cars, Lotus Engineering and Lotus Racing. Lotus Cars builds world class, high performance sports cars including the award-winning Evora, the iconic Elise and the stunning Exige and the road / track orientated 2-Eleven. Lotus New Era, the future product line-up, was unveiled in Paris on 30th September 2010 featuring the new Esprit, Elan, Elite, Elise and Eterne. Lotus Engineering provides comprehensive and versatile consultancy services to many of the world’s OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers and is an internationally recognised automotive engineering consultancy. Global facilities include those in the US, Malaysia, China and offices in Germany and Japan. Lotus is a global high-tech company, committed to driving forward technology for both Lotus Cars and its Engineering clients, spearheading research into such areas as hybrids, electric vehicles and renewable fuels. Lotus Racing (formerly Lotus Motorsport) operates the motorsports activities of Lotus and includes the strategy to return the Lotus name to a great number of series including endurance racing with GT2, GT4 and LMP2, single-seater racing with GP2, GP3 and IndyCar. Lotus also returned to F1 with Lotus Renault GP from the start of the 2011 F1 racing season onwards.

For more information about Group Lotus please contact:

PR Department, Group Lotus PLC, Potash Lane, Hethel, Norfolk, UK, NR14 8EZ

Tel: +44 (0)1953 608264 Email: pr@lotuscars.com

Contact:                 Ron Green, ron@GRand-Solutions.net (317) 341-1820

Katherine Legge and crew. Image courtesy of LAT Photo USA

I was up late a couple of nights ago lying in bed thinking about Firestone, and the many ways, both on and off-track they have been an integral part of my life. It may seem a strange thing to be thinking of at midnight, but I am a race car driver who is trying to fit the jig-saw pieces together for IndyCar 2012 and most of my time awake—or sleeping for that matter—is spent thinking about race related stuff!

However my thoughts on Firestone were somewhat special so I decided to share the story with you!

I am currently in the UK at the moment and my sister, who has no idea what I am doing at the moment, or my plans for 2012, randomly asked me “can you get me any of those tyres again please”  (Yes, I am British—so in my world—they are Tyres)? I thought back and realized that ‘those’ tyres she was actually referring to, were Bridgestone’s from a few years back.

And the question got me thinking about all the things Al Speyer and his team at Firestone/Bridgestone do for us.

Years ago, I got a phone call from the very same sister, crying and in need of new tyres (she doesn’t know a wheel nut from a cashew nut). I wasn’t in the country at the time, so I called my friends at Bridgestone/Firestone for help. And within MINUTES, the USA office had contacted the UK branch and subsequently a local tyre fitter—and my sister was back on the road. With just one phone call.

It is often that you don’t realize what you have, until you don’t have it anymore. It’s one of life’s little lessons that is sent your way occasionally and keeps everything you do in perspective.

This is definitely the case for me and all things tyre-related in my world!

When I had been driving in Champ Car on the Bridgestone tyre, I had not one failure or tyre related problem in two seasons and a bunch of testing… That is a very impressive thing to say, but at the time—we all thought nothing of it. It was completely normal—and that’s just how tyre manufactures operated. You worked through with your team engineers and the Tyre Engineers to work on pressures, temperature set-ups etc., but it honestly did not cross my mind that the actual tyre itself would be anything short of perfect!

So it wasn’t until I came back to Europe to race that I realized how lucky we had been. We had a few individual and team tyre related issues and it got me to thinking how extraordinary Bridgestone/Firestone truly is. The things they do for their customers—which includes drivers and teams–goes above and beyond expectation. And it’s the people within that organization that make it the way it is.

I am very proud to call them my friends.

Back in 2006, they went out of their way to develop a set of unique pink tyres for my ‘Warriors in Pink’ car for the benefit of the Susan Komen foundation. Just another example of how they went above and beyond to help not only myself, but so many others.

My main reason for coming back to the USA was my love for the country and the people. To me Firestone embodies all the things I love about the USA. They really care and it shows in their products and the way they treat their customers. They work extremely hard and function as one big family. They have the best quality product I have ever raced on, and I would not let any of my friends/family buy anything else!!

So to everyone at Firestone—I am sorry for taking you for granted all these years, and now I can’t wait to get back out on track and lay some Firestone rubber down with a big grin on my face!!

By James Foreman

In years gone by it was common practice for many of motorsports greatest drivers to earn a living and develop their skills by driving a variety of different racing cars throughout their careers. 

Whether it was single-seaters, sportscars, touring cars you name it they would drive it, having the willingness and ability to compete in different series provided them with a degree of versatility many of today’s drivers don’t get to experience. 

TO READ MORE OF JAMES’ ARTICLE AND INTERVIEW OF KATHERINE, PLEASE CLICK HERE

I recently wrote an article to accompany a really nice video that was created and produced by IMS Productions.  The story and video were published by both the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Speed TV on their respective websites.  Along with INDYCAR, these are two organizations that really support my goals to race in INDYCAR.  I hope you will take a moment to enjoy the video and the story.

By: Katherine Legge

Around the same time of the Champ Car and Indy Car merger, I had the opportunity to go to Spain and compete in a shoot-out to determine who would be a part of Audi’s factory driver line up in the DTM.

At that time, everything was rather unsure in the USA with regards to which teams would be making the cross over and what exactly would happen with the merger—so I choose the safe route (which is quite unlike me!) and decided to go back to Europe and try my hand at the world’s top Touring Car Series—which is a bit like our version of NASCAR.

However, over the last three years there I continued to keep one eye on the IZOD IndyCar Series and what I see for myself, as a bit of unfinished business in the USA. I enjoyed my time in the DTM, learning to be the best athlete, driver, and person that I can be. But, I missed the most of all the racing, people and places in the USA.

Over the last couple of years I became more and more impressed at the progress made by the IZOD IndyCar Series because there was so much positive news coming across the pond. The Series has really made tremendous strides in such a short time–so last October I decided to do a recon mission and I went to Indy to meet with some teams. After positive feedback—I decided to make a trip to Homestead Miami Speedway to an INDYCAR race in order decide for myself if I was going to follow my heart and come back home to Open Wheel Racing.

About halfway through the flight my mind was made up! I persuaded my fiancée to come with me (he is also a driver– I live at racetracks people—where else am I going to meet someone) and so it began…

I hopped the pond to Indy for a meeting in early January, bags packed and ready to get started. I believe it was “The State of INDYCAR” meeting–or something to that effect.

I had already reconnected with a few people from my Champ Car days and I was fortunate to be able to go to work straight after that meeting with my management talking with teams, re-connecting with people and sponsorship hunting. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy but I was sure it would be worth it.

I have always had my eye on the Indianapolis 500. It is the Crown Jewel of racing and such a big and exciting draw to everyone, but especially drivers! It has always been on my ‘bucket list’ and I always thought if I could get myself in a good team I could do really well there. The nature of my driving has always been really strong in longer races and I am just itching at the possibility of running there.

Tradition is something that makes the Indianapolis 500 such a great event, and I am big on tradition! Attending the 100th Anniversary celebration this year was both difficult and motivating, and it made me want to be a part of it even more in 2012.

To be a part of a century of history that includes such legendary names as Foyt, Andretti, Unser, Mears, Rahal, and others is just something that I cannot even imagine. I really want to be the first woman to have my face enshrined on that Borg Warner trophy.

I wonder if they will let me use that milk in my tea….

The Indianapolis 500 is the most significant single motorsport event in the world hence the name ‘The Greatest Spectacle in Racing’. The Grand Prix of Monaco, Daytona 500, Le Mans etc. are also very important, but none are nearly as pervasive as the Indianapolis 500; at least to me anyway! Every driver in the world would want a win at Indy on their resume, no matter your individual discipline and I am certainly no different.

IndyCar and the 500 have always been on my radar–even growing up in England… I remember watching it every year as a kid. The thing I remember most is when Nigel Mansell came over here, I was watching it cheering him on! However, it wasn’t until I actually raced in the USA, first testing in an Indy Pro Series car in 2004, that I realized the magnitude of the annual event at Indianapolis. I was hooked. I knew that I had to be a part of it someday, with a dream of winning it. I still have that dream quite often and I have the whole thing played out completely in my head! It’s quite mad actually!

I am most intrigued by the design of the track and can’t wait to race on it. I love to learn about history and when I saw the photo of the original mini ‘plan’ of the racetrack drawn in dirt, it made me really think of the roots and passion behind the legendary track. The unique design of the flat oval must be very interesting to drive. The flat sweeping corners are more like road course corners, so I can see how drivers with talents at both road courses and ovals would do well at Indianapolis.

I missed my time here in America when I was racing in Europe. Specifically, I lived in Indianapolis when I was here racing in Champ Car and I am proud to call it home again.

I like the evolving schedule of the IZOD IndyCar Series. I like the mix of road, street, and oval circuits. I believe it is the best way to test the drivers and find a true driver champion. I think the new car in 2012 will be an exciting addition to the Series for the fans and drivers alike.

We are still working very hard on building a comprehensive sponsorship program that makes sense for everyone, especially the sponsors. It’s been tough sometimes to not take a one, two, or three race deal as I am eager to get back on track. But I know that all eyes will be on me for my return so I want it to be a professional, top-notch program, and one that will give me a chance to win on a regular basis and prove to my fans that I have what it takes to make my own mark in history.

I do know that whatever happens I can say to everyone and especially myself that this time I have the experience to do it right. I can promise you all that I will give it 110 percent and I won’t leave anything on the table. I look forward to giving my best and being a lasting part of the history of the Indianapolis 500 and the future of the IZOD IndyCar Series.

Additional postings and photography at:

Speed TV – http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/indycar-introducing-katherine-legge 

Indianapolis Motor Speedway – http://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/indy500/news/show/46181-introducing-katherine-legge/

For those of you that have requested it, we have posted information here about Katherine’s recent photo shoot.

Ms. Legge came to us with a request to capture the fashion side of her brand, which included both photography and videography.  We secured the location and arranged for professional hair, makeup, fashion styling, art direction, photo crew, video crew, and post production.  The resulting products were a full portfolio of professional images, along with a “sizzle video” from the shoot, capturing the behind-the-scenes production.

Sneak a peek inside Katherine’s photo shoot here:

Katherine was once again a guest on the Autosportradio.com show, live from McGilvery’s in Speedway, Indiana.  In this video from last night’s show, she is joined by Lyn St. James,  a retired professional IndyCar driver with 8 CART and 5 IndyCar Series starts to her name. She is just one of seven women who successfully qualified for the Indianapolis 500, and became the first woman to win the Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year  award in 1992.

The first two guests on the show were Ryan Briscoe (INDYCAR driver) and his wife Nicole (a NASCAR reporter on ESPN).  You can pick up Katherine and Lyn at 36:00 minutes into the show.

  http://www.autosportradio.com/libby/080211.wmv

What can understeer or oversteer say about us as drivers, or about us as everyday people? 

Our friends at NASCAR use the term “push” to describe a condition that we know as understeer.  This occurs when the car doesn’t turn as sharply as the driver intends, or the car is steering less in the front than in the rear, so it “pushes” up the racetrack in the corners.

Drivers vary on their individual preferences, mainly due to their own driving styles.  Many drivers chose understeer because of what happens as the limit is approached. Understeer builds gradually, allowing the driver to respond early as steering effort increases and response decreases.  Drivers get plenty of warning and are able to stay within the limits by simply reducing acceleration and scrubbing some speed.  Little is required to correct steering as the understeer diminishes, since the car’s heading will change only slightly.

There are a few of us that prefer quite the opposite, not needing the early warnings, nor worried about what happens at the limit.  Oversteer typically occurs very quickly, bursting onto the scene in a split second. There are brief signs as the steering effort reduces, requiring much smaller and more delicate steering inputs, but they are much less obvious. This requires a certain vigilance and skill that many drivers don’t have, yet desperately need once they have found themselves looking sideways at the outside barrier as the car rotates around them.  Even so, some of the world’s best drivers find it difficult to chase an oversteering car for a full race.  It can be very tiresome, requiring patience and complete attention.

We have all heard drivers complaining when a car has too much oversteer (or what our NASCAR friends would describe as “loose”).  What these drivers haven’t gotten comfortable with is the white-knuckle adrenaline rush of a truly oversteering car. Those of us that prefer oversteer know that it is your friend, giving the driver gentle steering feedback that a skilled driver can locate at the limit and work at its edge.  But, you’ve got to be fairly confident to live at the edge like that for a long distance race.

Race car metaphors, while somewhat sophomoric, sometimes say a lot about who we are.  As we chase our dreams in life, do we prefer understeer or oversteer?  Are we confident or cautious?  Which do you prefer?

An excerpt from the 2005-2006 Champ Car World Series Yearbook reminds us of Katherine’s passion to lead, both on and off the race track.

As the little girl cautiously approached Toyota Atlantic driver Katherine Legge for her autograph in the series paddock area at the Long Beach Convention Center, she was relieved to see a wide smile break across the young racer’s face.

“Do you want me to sign that?” Legge asked, accepting the racing hat that the wide-eyed girl held in her hands.

At the time, the young racing fan probably had no idea whose autograph she was seeking.  The girl just knew that this was a woman racing in a man’s sport and she thought that was pretty cool.  But soon she, and the rest of the world, would know that Legge, the British phenom, was more than just a pretty face.  She was a force to be reckoned with.

Later that same weekend, in her Atlantic debut, Legge made history and her life changed forever.  The personable racer stormed from a seventh-place starting position to claim the lead on the streets of Long Beach, holding off her talented teammate in the final three laps for a thrilling victory.  The win, the first ever for a woman in a major open-wheel race in North America, thrust Legge into the international spotlight.

Shaking off a mid-season slump after the breakout win at Long Beach, Legge earned impressive back-to-back victories at Edmonton and San Jose, and went on to claim third in the championship standings on the strength of her three wins and five podium finishes.  But perhaps even more impressive than her performances on the track was the way Legge handled herself as a role model to young women.  Something that little girl in Long Beach learned long before the TV interviews and champagne showers in Victory Circle.

“It’s an honor to have someone root for you and appreciate how hard you’ve worked to get where you are,” said Legge.  “If I can help motivate young women to get into racing and they feel they have a chance to succeed in sports, then that’s the thing I am really proud of.”

As we get ready for Katherine’s INDYCAR debut, it’s nice to revisit some of the press from her earlier accomplishments in the equally impressive cars she drove in her first season in the Champ Car World Series.  As the IZOD IndyCar Series heads to Iowa, we review what happened on this same weekend at the Grand Prix of Cleveland during Round 6 of the Champ Car World Series.

Katherine and her PKV Racing crew overcame an incident in practice on Saturday to get off to great start in Sunday’s race.  Oriol Servia was up front on the opening lap, while a melee of first lap action [typical of the Burke Lakefront Airport circuit] took place in front of Katherine, who successfully cleared the carnage, emerging in seventh place.  On lap 14, while battling for position, her car spun, cutting a tire and forcing a pit stop.  Never the less, Katherine demonstrated her trademark determination, and continued to battle and press the cars ahead of her.  Skillfully and methodically, her efforts began to pay off.  She ran in 13th position through her second stop on lap 39 and well into her third stint.  However, toward the end of the third stint Katherine moved into 11th just prior to her third and final stop on lap 72.  She was up to ninth following the Justin Wilson and Nelson Philippe incidents, then took over eighth with about ten laps to go when Will Power exited the race.  Had the race gone one more lap, Katherine would have finished fifth.

“I am disappointed with the way the race went today because I definitely thought the Bell Micro PKV Racing car should have finished in the top-five,” Katherine said.  “It makes me more determined to come back next time and have the type of performance I expect of myself,” she explained.  “We did finish in the top-10 today, so I feel good about that, but we should be, and would have been, in first if things had gone a little different in this race.  We had the speed and the crew was doing such a great job,” Katherine concluded.

Katherine made her first Champ Car start in Cleveland and the sixth of her career on this same weekend.  At this point in the season, Katherine had finished in the top-10 three times in the six races of the year, placing a season, and career, high sixth at Milwaukee and eighth in her Champ Car debut at Long Beach as well as here in Cleveland.  In Houston, she was headed for another top-10 finish, when she was hit by another competitor and eventually placed 14th.

Katherine, who became the first female to start a Champ Car/CART race since Lyn St. James at Michigan in 1995, when she made her Champ Car debut at Long Beach, had established in six races a number of records already in her first season in Champ Car. In Milwaukee, she became the first female to lead a race when she held the top spot for 12 laps in her very first oval race.  In addition, her sixth place finish at Milwaukee set a new high for a female surpassing a ninth place finish by Janet Guthrie at the 1978 Indianapolis 500.  Katherine won three races in her rookie season in the Atlantic Championship Series.  Her win in her debut Atlantic event at Long Beach made her the first woman to win a major open-wheel race in North America.