Mary
Katharine

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.

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Katherine Joins Tindol Squad for 2006
Notes from Sebring
Bio
Snippets
Schedule 2007
Photo Gallery
Speed World Challenge
Website: marykatharine.com, E-Mail (broken)
Related Issue:
Women Racers Directory, Women in Racing, Women Racers, More Women in Racing, Race Schedules, Notable 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.

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Mary Katharine, of Gulf Stream, FL, returns to the Tindol Motorsports team for the 2007 SPEED World Challenge series.

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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 )

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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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