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Alongside Legge, Monk seeing the upside of IMSA GTD rookie seesaw

Richard S. James
·5 min read

Sheena Monk is one of several drivers in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD class in their first season racing GT3 cars, in her case having moved from Michelin Pilot Challenge GS. But among those, she and veteran Katherine Legge are higher in the points, sitting just outside the top five overall as the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park weekend began. Teamed up in the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22, there have been a couple of top-five finishes, notably a fourth in the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, where Marc Miller and Mario Farnbacher joined the party. But with some performances that Monk and Legge consider sub-par, they’re a bit surprised where they are in the standings.

“I think that we’ve had an up-and-down season so far,” said Legge (pictured at right, above, with Monk). “High point being probably Daytona and Watkins (Glen), low point being Sebring. I think we had a couple of bad races with Long Beach and Laguna, honestly, too. So the fact that we are sixth in points is incredible to me. I think we do salvage some finishes out of our bad fortune, for want of a better word. But I think the potential for us to be better is great.”

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Looking at the GTD rookies, Monk is at the top. Patrick Gallagher, teamed with Robby Foley, is two points ahead heading into CTMP, is also in his first full season of GTD, but has a fair amount of GT3 experience. And in the Trueman-Akin Award standings for the top Bronze driver in GTD, Monk is second behind Brendan Iribe. She is, however, quick to disavow full ownership of that position.

“There are a a lot of other factors at play,” she declares. “I drive with other people that … I say they play clean-up, but I have to give them the car in the first place. Unfortunately, at Laguna I didn’t do my job in that sense and we really had a chance. I guess I look at it like I’ve got a team of guys that have incredible pit stops. And we’ve been really solid on our driver changes; those things matter. So I can’t say, OK, yeah, I’ve been like the best of the newbies to show up.”