The women bidding to make history at the 24 Hours of Daytona
She is striving to etch her name in the history books, but equally Katherine Legge hopes to changes perceptions of female race car drivers by winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona this weekend.
Legge and her GEAR Racing teammates Christina Nielsen, Rahel Frey and Tatiana Calderon are bidding to become the first all-female line up to win the prestigious 24-hour race after finishing 12th on their GT Daytona class debut last year.
And the Briton believes raising the profile of female drivers can only help encourage more women into the sport.
“I think it’s because they [women and girls] don’t see it,” Legge told CNN’s Don Riddell.
“If you don’t have an example of what you can be then it just doesn’t enter your psyche.”
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Legge was a lone pioneer when she started out but is now a fixture in motor racing and has competed in Formula E, NASCAR and the Indy 500.
“When I first started carting, I was literally the only girl in hundreds of guys,” she explains in her mid-Atlantic accent. “And then all the way through my career I’ve been one of two or three [female] professional drivers. Now there’s a handful of us in the world.”
She added: “There’s more 10-year-old Katherine’s out there racing go-carts and we’re going to try and help them up through so that they can have the opportunities that we have now.”
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The male-dominated world was something she previously wanted to blend into, but now she says things are different.
“I’ve spent my entire career trying to be taken seriously as a race-car driver, trying to play on the fact that I’m not different, trying to behave and do everything the guy drivers do.
“I’ve tried to blend in in a lot of aspect and now we’re drawing attention to it. I think we’ve been seriously as individuals but when you put us together in a group, it’s a little more intimidating and I think for sure it’s viewed differently by our competitors, by other teams but for the most part it’s good.”
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Don’t be fooled by her friendly, calm nature. She is a fierce competitor.
At just 23, she turned up to the UK offices of Cosworth racing, and refused to leave until she spoke to Cosworth boss Kevin Kalkhoven.
She had no money left and no sponsors to help her. But she convinced him to give her a chance.
Legge believes the battle to be accepted has given her and her teammates something of an edge over their competitors.
“The fact that we’ve had to work against the odds to get to where we are definitely makes us fighters, definitely makes us all want it just as much as any of the guys do,” she said.
The team have changed car from last year, ditching their Acura NSX GT3 for the more glamorous Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo.
With the race due to start Saturday, it will be exciting to see whether the team can improve on last year’s finish.
