Team pressdog Hits the Road, Team Officials Fume

Team pressdog (Katherine Legge, left, and Sarah Fisher) hit the road this week after finishing 31st in a 56-kart, 200-mile endurance go-kart endurance race last week in New Castle, Ind.

A broken chain forced the KatFish kart into the pits for extensive repairs and led to the P31 showing. Team pressdog officials were reportedly hot over the dissing of Champ Car's Legge in the photo gallery on the Indy Racing League's official site.

"Yeah, they got some photos of Sarah and Katherine up there and Katherine is always in her helmet. WTF? Like she's some kind of unknown Karting Power Ranger or something," said a team official who declined to be named. "What is that? Can't have a photo of a driver from the 'Dark Side' on the IRL site?"

After the race, which was one by some highly fortunate NASCAR guy, team pressdog hit the road. Fisher, who won national championships in road course go-karting, spent years on dirt ovals before heading to the IRL. With five road courses on the IRL schedule next year, Sarah needs practice turning right.

"I'm going to do some Skip Barber off-season training to prepare for road course racing," Fisher said in nonfictional quote. "I have been helping (future brother-in-law) Kyle O'Gara with some karting races as well. We're going to go run an endurance race in Norway, which I'm looking forward to. On top of all this, I'm also going to school so all of this is keeping me plenty busy."

There was no word on whether Sarah picked up some street/road tips from Legge, who had her season-best drive going at Sept. 24 at Road America until her car went belly first and end-over-end into the wall. The wreck caused much consternation and tense moments on the SPEED broadcast of the race. Legge walked way with only a bruised knee.

"There were no lingering after-effects when I got back into the cockpit at Sebring the other week - if anything, I was more worried that I wasn't worried!" Legge said in her most-excellent journal on her site, www.katherinelegge.com. "I wondered if I should have been scared by it, but I really wasn't. It was just one of those things, and it was component failure (part of the rear wing came off which caused the accident), which is important. I know I was lucky, and I have a healthy respect for the dangers of what I do, but I just got back into the car, a bit like getting back on a horse." Read the entire journal entry here.

Legge said on her site that she still doesn't know what she'll be doing next year, although she hops to carry on with PKV, a team owned by Champ Car honcho Kevin Kalkhoven. Fisher hopes to be back in the IRL. On Thursday, the team Fisher finished 2006 with, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, announced the addition of EurUp! Energy Drink as a sponsor. Rush to www.eurupenergy.com to check it out.

In other news, SPEED commentator Robin Miller served as a judge for the Champ Car Babe Contest at this weekend's race venue, Surfers Paradise, Australia. Sordid details here. There was no word if Robin was able to make bail after the event.