Legge: Female Drivers in Rolex 24 No Longer a “Gimmick”

Katherine Legge says she’s pleased that female drivers competing in the Rolex 24 at Daytona are no longer viewed as a “gimmick” after setting the fastest time in the GTD ranks on the opening day of Roar testing.

Legge took the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 to a best lap of 1:46.289 in Friday morning’s first test session, which stood as the quickest lap of the day across both GTD Pro and GTD.

The British driver is one of three female drivers in the Gradient Acura, along with Sheena Monk and Tatiana Calderon, while there are a total of nine women in the field.

Lilou Wadoux is part of the lineup for the No. 88 AF Corse entry in the LMP2 class, while the GTD entry list also features Ashton Harrison in the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 and the four drivers of the No. 83 Iron Dames Lamborghini: Michelle Gatting, Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey and Doriane Pin.

Reflecting on how things have changed in recent seasons, Legge spoke of the “positive change” that teams running female drivers is no longer seen as something radical. 

“My first Daytona was 2007, and I was the only woman in the field,” she reflected. “I’ve been trying to get more women involved, I’ve been a big proponent of putting teams together, like the Caterpillar (Heinricher Racing) car. 

“I did that with Christina [Nielsen], Ana [Beatriz] and Simona [de Silvestro], and then I brought Rahel [Frey] over and gave her the bug for American racing, which ultimately resulted in the Iron Dames coming over. 

“It has been really neat to see the snowball effect and the fact that it’s not different any more, it’s not a gimmick, it’s just some of the best drivers for the job and we get it done.”

Legge also remarked on how unusual it is for Gradient’s fourth driver for the Rolex 24, Stevan McAleer, to be the only male driver on the team.

She said: “We asked him, ‘how does it feel to be the only guy on the team’, because independently we are all used to being the only girl on the team and it hasn’t fazed us. 

“And he’s like, ‘it’s great!” so it hasn’t fazed him. We’ll get him a kilt, and call it a skirt!”

Regarding her best lap on Friday, Legge admitted that Gradient adopted a different strategy to the other teams in the GTD Pro and GTD classes by pushing early in the morning session while conditions were at their coolest.

“(With the NSX) being a twin-turbo, and it being cold this morning, we were as fast as I think we’re gonna be, so we wanted to see what it would be like,” she explained.

“In all honesty, I think most of the other teams were out there bedding brakes and stuff when the track was at its fastest, and we weren’t, so that gap is probably not realistic. 

“We were out there going as fast as we could when everyone else was doing the procedural fundamentals. But it worked out well.”