TrueCar to sponsor Legge – 2-year deal at Dragon…Maybe

UPDATE #3

Katherine Legge

As you can see below, Dragon Racing signed Katherine Legge to a 2- year contract, and we assumed she would be driving alongside Sebastien Bourdais this year. However, now that appears to be up in the air.

Q: What is the drama around Dragon and Legge? She always seems to have bad luck with team owners. Any chance she can take the TrueCar money elsewhere, like a Rahal Letterman? Or team up with Davey Hamilton and his HP money to find calmer pastures?

Jeremy from Harrisburg

RM: Can’t say but I do know Katherine was furious when she learned that Jay might be shopping her to a satellite team. Speed.com

01/17/12 More evidence that non-TrueCar dealers are behind this smear campaign. This website is sponsored by car dealers.

01/17/12 To some, Jay Penske, by being sponsored by TrueCar could be taking business away from his father's stores (Penske Automotive). Another way of looking at it is that the Automotive Dealer world is a very small community. For example, the CEO of AutoNation is on the Board of TrueCar.

In the TrueCar's CEO's previous start-up, CarsDirect.com, Roger Penske was recruited to be on the Board of Directors. Ironically, RP replaced that man on the Board. How's the old saying go – "Keep your friends close, and your enemies even closer."

There are naturally detractors of TrueCar. Here's a popular video making the rounds produced by dealers who are not in the TrueCar network afraid of losing business to TrueCar:

That same guy shows up in this video, so clearly this could be a dirty smear campaign to kill off TrueCar. However, TrueCar has gotten bitten by the regulators, so maybe there is some truth to the smear campaign. We're not sure yet, just giving you all the facts with which to make your own judgment.

01/16/12 At age 31, Katherine Legge will finally be an IndyCar rookie. On Monday, Dragon Racing confirmed the British native would race in America this season, driving the No. 6 entry sponsored by TrueCar. Legge has signed a two-year deal with a one-year option to drive with teammate Sebastien Bourdais for Jay Penske's team.

Legge won three races in Toyota Atlantics in 2005, becoming the first woman to win a major open-wheel race in North America. She also was the first woman to compete in the defunct Champ Car World Series and spent the last three seasons as a factory driver for Audi in the European-based DTM, the world's top touring car series.

But Legge says she always wanted to compete in the Indianapolis 500, and now she'll have a chance. Fox Sports