Legge excels at Milwaukee

The PKV Racing driver's average speed of 166.601mph was quicker than her four fellow Champ Car rookies who tested at the same venue a week ago.

Legge completed 177 laps of the legendary 1.032-mile circuit in Wisconsin, having missed her original scheduled test when inclement weather forced its postponement by a day, and she had a prior engagement driving a P1 Powerboat in Italy. She thus tested at Milwaukee alone today.

Legge said: "This test today was a really positive experience. The team slowed me down at the start of it, telling me I had to build up the speed slowly, and Matt, my engineer dialled in a lot of understeer to make sure the car wasn't too nervous for me. And honestly, putting their advice into effect, it felt really good.

"Jimmy [Vasser, PKV Racing co-owner] flew out from Las Vegas to help me, and if you can't learn from him about ovals, then you're doing something wrong! I mean, he set pole here last year, so he knows what he's doing. He was really, really helpful, as was [team manager] Jim McGee, and I think they were pleased with how it went.

"In the end, we were really happy with the time we set," Legge continued. "The conditions were not good - it was very windy, and on one lap a gust gave me a big opposite-lock moment mid-corner. But the car's in one piece, and we achieved everything we wanted to."

Talking about the oval experience in general, Legge admitted it was a culture shock. "At the speeds you're going, visually it's like driving in a never-ending tunnel," she remarked, "but aurally it couldn't be more different from that because it's so, so quiet out there.

"It's a strange feeling. I guess it will be different once there are cars around me in the race, but out there lapping alone today, it was a weird sensation."

Legge, said that although the test went well today, she is not getting carried away in terms of her expectations for the fourth round of the Champ Car World Series, held at Milwaukee on Sunday, June 4th.

"We did a long run, a 61-lap run, from full tanks down to dry, and that was good practice for the race. It was interesting how the handling of the car changed over that period, especially over the resurfaced part of Turn 1 to Turn 2.

"The car was pretty stable over that piece of track for most of the run, but it started to move around a lot more when the tyres got old and the wind was picking up...

"It got pretty interesting, so I guess it will be different again once I'm out running with other cars and I'm losing downforce in turbulent air, and so on. But for now, I'm happy."