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LATEST SNIPPET
Mary Katharine started 18th of 25 cars
in Friday's SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge
Touring Car race, part of the 55th Annual Mobil 1
12 Hours of Sebring at Sebring International
Raceway in Florida. She finished 15th, 1 minute and
20 seconds behind the winner.
Direct
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page: http://bit.ly/9R6NV7
Katherine
Joins Tindol Squad for
2006
Notes
from
Sebring
Bio
Snippets
Schedule
2007
Photo
Gallery
Speed
World
Challenge
Website:
marykatharine.com,
E-Mail
(broken)
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Women
Mary races a Mazda Protege, #94, with Tindol
Motorsports. This is my rookie season in World
Challenge, I stand 2nd in rookie pts. and 16th
overall in the championship after three races. I'm
a single mother of five daughters and an executive
pastry chef. I'm currently self-funded but hoping
that upcoming articles in Mazda's Fuel
magazine, All You magazine and Road
and Track will help change that for the '07
season.
Mary races a Spec Miata in SCCA regional and
national events in the Southeast region. Her oldest
daughter, who is 13, has shown an interest in
driving karts. Her next race is in June, at
Infineon Raceway with NASCAR. "As I've never laid
eyes on that track before, and we have no test day,
I have my work cut out for me. Fortunately, World
Challenge is like one big family, and I can always
lean on the stars there for support. Charles
Espenlaub, Randy Pobst, Peter Cunningham, Chip Herr
and many others always offer to help anyone who
needs it."
If I may, I'd like to just add a few words about
SPEED
World Challenge as a series. In my opinion it's
the greatest professional road racing series in the
country, because all of our cars began their lives
on a showroom floor. The Mazda
Protégé that your brother bought
might have been on the same lot as the Mazda
Protégé I thrash on the track in
World Challenge. The Jetta that you bought your
daughter for her 20th birthday may have been beside
the one that is now Christian Miller's World
Challenge Jetta. Your grandmother's Ford Focus?
Next to it may have been Robb Holland's, that,
despite being hit hard in the rear and having to
come in to the pits to pull the damaged body work
back out, still finished in the top 20 at Mid-Ohio.
Our races are all on the SPEED channel and are an
hour long. For that hour, you can see the cars that
are on the streets today taken to their limits and
beyond in an unbelievable sprint race.
Snippets
Mary Katharine will start 18th in Friday's SCCA Pro
Racing SPEED World Challenge Touring Car race, part
of the 55th Annual Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring at
Sebring International Raceway in Florida.
* * *
Mary Katharine, of Gulf Stream, FL, returns to
the Tindol Motorsports team for the 2007
SPEED World Challenge series.
* * *
Mary Katharine finished the season in 17th of 59
drivers in the Speed World Challenge Touring class,
and 5th of 18 rookies. She started and finished all
10 races. (See photo gallary
of the final race of the season at Laguna Seca,
California )
* * *
Mary finished 21st in the Protege at Infineon
Raceways, Saturday, June 24. Her next race will be
the Larry
H. Miller Dealers Utah Grand Prix
,
July 13-15 at the Miller Motorsports Park in Toele,
UT
Katherine Joins Tindol
Squad for 2006 - 2/20/06
Tindol Motorsports is pleased to announce the
addition of Mary Katharine to their driver line up
for the 2006 SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge
Touring Car Championship. Mary will pilot the #94
Sparco/Oakley/Tindol Motorsports Mazda Protege
beginning with the season opener in Sebring on
March 16-18.
A Florida transplant, originally from Milwaukee
Wisconsin, Mary has spent the past three seasons
behind the wheel of a Spec Miata in the Southeast
SCCA Division where the ultra competitive and close
quarter racing have prepared her for the move up to
World Challenge. Mary has the backing of her
biggest fans, her five daughters who will be
cheering for her throughout the season.
After visiting the Tindol Motorsport facility in
Charlotte, N.C. Mary was impressed by the
preparation of the cars and the commitment shown by
the team and owner Chris Tindol. "I am very happy
to continue my racing career in a Mazda and I can't
think of a better team to be associated with than
Tindol Motorsports," said Mary, "I feel confident
about the upcoming season especially with this team
behind me. Being a rookie and likely the only
female in Touring there is an added sense of
pressure but I feel ready for the challenge."
"We are very excited to bring Mary Katharine on
board and feel she will be a great asset to our
team," Tindol continued, "we know she will fit in
nicely with our family of racers.
Mary Katharine will begin testing her Tindol
Motorsports Mazda immediately along with teammates
Charles Espenlaub and Charlie Putman.
Source: tindolmotorsports.com/news/022006.shtml
Schedule
Mary started and finished all 10 races. She ended
the season 17th overall of 59 drivers, and was 5th
of 18 rookies.
Mar. 15-17 54th
Annual Mobil 1® 12 Hours of Sebring
Time of race: 40 minutes, 19.077 seconds. Mary
Kathrine, start 29th, finished 16th, Rookie, Delray
Beach, FL, Mazda Protege
Mar. 31-Apr. 2 Honda
Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Start 30th,
finished 17th
Apr. 7-9 Toyota
Grand Prix of Long Beach
May 19-21 SPEED
WC at Mid Ohio
Started 30th, finished 23rd Presented by Trenton
Forging Quality Formed Solutions
Jun. 23-25 Dodge
Save Mart 350 ,
Started 24th, finished 21st Infineon Grand Prix,
Sonoma, CA
Jul. 13-15 Larry
H. Miller Dealers Utah Grand Prix,
Started 23rd, finished 16th Miller Motorsports
Park, Toele, UT
Aug. 11-13 CENTRIX
Financial Grand Prix
of Denver Started 21st, finished 18th
Aug. 18-20 Generac
500
at Road America, Elkhart Lake, WI Started 22nd,
finished 16th
Sep. 1-3 The
Labour Day Weekend Grand Prix of Mosport,
Started
25th, finished 18th
Sept. 27-31 Petit
Le Mans ,
Road Atlanta, Braselton, GA Started 30th, finished
22nd
Oct. 19-22 Monterey
Sports Car Championship
,
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, CA Started 23,
finished 19th
Source:
www.world-challenge.com/season.php?year=2006
BIO
Name: Mary Katharine
Date of Birth: April 20, 1966
Birthplace: Milwaukee, WI
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 120
Resides in: South Florida
Mary Katharine has been dreaming about racing
since the age of 5. Growing up outside Milwaukee in
a family of 10, she found herself collecting
Matchbox cars with her brothers rather than playing
with Barbie dolls. She had always thought about
what it would be like to drive a race car over 100
miles per hour, a fire that she fanned by watching
races on television and attending two Indianapolis
500's in her teens.
Her visions of ever becoming a race car driver
took a back seat when she married at 19 to her high
school sweetheart. She and her husband moved to
Arkansas to farm cotton on family land. Mary
learned to drive a tractor and practiced "Rockford
spins" in the turnrows. "There was nothing like
pitching that giant piece of equipment into
maneuvers like that", she laughed, "it was just
slightly less nimble than a Firebird."
After 8 years of farming, Mary moved with her
husband and newborn daughter, Nancy, to South
Florida, where she not only had four more beautiful
daughters, but also trained to become a pastry
chef, fulfilling another childhood dream.
Soon after her youngest daughter was born,
however, Mary was faced with an unbelievable
challenge. After returning from a morning jog, her
husband of 17 years told her he was leaving. At age
36, she was suddenly a single mother raising 5
young daughters and unsure what the future would
hold. She reached out for a lifeline in her dream
of becoming a race car driver. She found a racing
school 20 minutes from her house and decided to
dive head first into the racing arena. "Racing took
me away from all of my worries, fears, and sadness.
The adrenaline consumed me, and I couldn't wallow
in self pity when I was driving."
Mary decided she wanted to pursue her racing
dream in earnest and, after racing for more than
three seasons in the ultra-competitive Spec Miata
class, with several top five finishes; Mary, now
39, has become a professional race car driver,
signing with Tindol Motorsports in February, '06.
"The Tindol Motorsports team has given me an
incredible opportunity to represent them in a pro
series where there are no other women drivers. I
hope to draw in women and young girls to the
excitement of watching World Challenge racing." Her
daughters, Nancy, 13; Maggie, 11; Lane, 10; Mia, 6;
and Helen, 4, are her biggest fans at the track.
"They are my most ardent supporters."
Whether speaking to children at schools about
the importance of safety, speaking to women's
groups about not giving in to grief, or speaking to
the media, Mary brings honesty and her sense of
humor to the task.
Source: www.dynotuner.net/assets/MK_Bio_Page.pdf
Photo
Gallery - Laguna Seca
Photos: Laguna Seca Raceways,
CA, October 20-22, 2006, Gordon Clay
Photo Gallery - Sears
Point
Photos: Sears Point Raceways,
Sears Point, Sonoma, CA, June 23-24, 2006, Gordon
Clay
* * *
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