December 9, 2025 • 33 mins
On this episode of Throttle Therapy, Katherine is joined by longtime friend and supporter Kim Kalkhoven to discuss how Kim convinced Kevin Kalkhoven to give Katherine a chance in racing. They reflect on Katherine’s debut race, her rise in motorsport, and Kevin’s significant contributions throughout. Kim shares anecdotes about her life before meeting Kevin, their journey through the racing world, and Kevin’s legacy.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Throttle Therapy with Catherine Legg is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome to this
(00:21):
week's episode of Throttle Therapy with Me Catherine Legg. This week,
I have a very special guest who has been there
literally since the inception of Catherine Racing. She is the
reason that I have this podcast right now, and she's
become obviously a very dear friend. Since the beginning. We've
(00:42):
had some cries together, we've had some late nights, We've
had a lot of wine and a lot of fun.
And I am very pleased and honored to have Kim
Calkoven on the pod. Welcome Kim, Thank you for having me.
Thank you for everything. So from my recollections, I came
(01:02):
over to the States and I wanted to drive in
America because the I saw Dan Weldon do it and
I just thought it was the land of opportunity and
for a girl driver at that time Circle two thousand
and four, two thousand and five, I wasn't getting anywhere
with no money in England and I wanted the opportunity,
(01:22):
and my parents actually met Vicky O'Connor, who owned and
ran the Atlantic series, and they said, you should meet
Kevin cal coven and he's going to be in England
buying Cosworth from Ford and so my dad was like, hey,
you should rock up at Cosworth and see whether they
(01:42):
have any interest in having a female driver because with
the split, the IRL had Danica and so you know
there's a selling point there. And so I rock up
at Cosworth in my old banger of a car, having
put a CV together on a sponsorship proposal anything, and
I'm in a I can't remember remember what I was wearing,
(02:03):
but I remember feeling very uncomfortable and I didn't have
the courage to do it, but I may myself do
it anyway. And I remember sitting in reception and the
reception is thinking I was completely weirdo asking to speak
to Kevin, and then you and Kirsty came out and
you actually spoke to me, and you persuaded Kevin to
give me five minutes. And I remember sitting in front
(02:24):
of Kevin literally sweating, thinking he doesn't like me, this
is a waste of time, this is horrible I cried
on the way home. Fast forward a couple of weeks in,
Jim Griffith from Pollstar calls me and says, Kevin Calcoven
wants us to test you, so can you be in
Phoenix on Thursday? And I was like, holy crap, daddy,
can I have the plane ticket to Phoenix on Thursday?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Please?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
And so I flew out to Phoenix. I tested, They
gave me a glowing report. Kevin said, okay, young lady,
in typical Kevin form, and you have the first six races,
let's see what you can do. And I won the
first one and we were kind of inseparable since then.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
So that's my version of the story. Uh what is
what is your version of the story. Well, Kevin was
in the process of negotating for to purchase Couseworth and
he brought his daughter, my stepdaughter, Christian, and me to
Causeworth and we were just kind of hanging around and
he gets a message from the respect of saying there's
(03:20):
some woman out here that wants to speak to you.
And he looks at us and he's like, get rid
of her. Wow, And we're like, okay, we're used to that.
So we go out there and sit down, and the
three of us just wonded like it was amazing, And
I mean, Christy loves you just as much of that
love you, you know, three of us, and we talked
and talked and talked, and you hand us for CV,
(03:42):
and you handed us all your statistics. And Christy didn't
more about racing than I did at the point. Now
I know more about it, but I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
you know whatever that stuff is. And eventually he comes
out and she's still there and he looks at Christy
and me and he's like okay, and so he's like,
you know, come with me, and he says down and
he gives hers five minutes and she leaves, and Christina
(04:05):
looks at oh, you're giving her a test. And he
was petrified of the two of usk, his daughter and
we weren't married then, but his girlfriend. And he's like, okay,
we're giving her a test.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
So you are the reason that I'm hearing today, Like
it wasn't decision until you twisted his office bag.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
We opened the door for you and you ran you
read it. Let me say that. So she gets the test,
We get a glowing report from from Arizona and he says, okay,
I'm gonna put her in Atlantics car and she comes
to our beach. He practices brilliantly on the on the Friday,
and then on qualifying day she stops it in the wall,
(04:45):
I mean, and he doesn't say a word to me.
He just keeps his mouth shut, which he knows better
than to say anything to me. So she starts last
because you know, she caused a red flag during during qualifying.
You start the back of the tack. She said, female
out there, seventeen cars on the grid, dead last. And
as we're watching this race, is that little girl passing
(05:06):
every boy? As we're watching the race? And we had
the commentators going, who is this girl? And we had
all the racing guys because I was you know, it
was very much a male dominated sports. Still there is obviously, unfortunately,
and who is this girl? And me and behold this
little girl won that race from the back of the pack,
(05:27):
from dead last. And then I looked at Kevira, I'm
like see and it was history from then on, and
so we moved her forward. Initially she came and this
is what with ben champcar. Yeah, and she she definitely
changed the face of champ Car changed the face of
(05:48):
open whale racing much more than Danic ever did. Danica
never did what Catherine did as far as little girls
wanted to be Catherine. And one thing that Kevin did
which they don't do for me to one which they
are starting to do more now because of Zach Brown.
He is taking Kevin's model and opening up the paddock
and making him more and more fans friendly situation. He
(06:08):
would let fans come into our garage, get in her car,
put kids in her car, get her autographed, get to
talk to her, and little girls just line that to
me Katherine, and it was so amazing And just to
see them think I could be a race card driver
if she could be a race card driver. And I
tell people, I mentor of the students at the University
(06:31):
of Nevada and Marino here, I lived in Lake Tahoe,
some honor students, and I tell him that story, and
I say, you know, I'm one of my best friends
is a female race car driver, because they know my past,
that I that I'm in the sports and things. And
I tell him that story and I said, this is
why I tell you that you should live your life
in the why not instead of the what if? Because
(06:53):
Catherine followed her dream and look at her and that's
a you know, she's a perfect example of fact. She's
coming out to have some girl time with me. This
one turned is a skiing and all my students want
to come meet her because they think she's like the
coolest thing and they want to meet a person who
followed their dream and that.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Would be awesome. Yeah, I hope that even if I
inspire one person to do that.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Yeah, oh, you know, they're also excited to you.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
That's amazing. We're going to take a quick break, but
we'll be right back. Welcome back to Toronto Therapy. Now
the world knows our connection. I want to circle back
to Kim and young Kim when you're at school and
(07:41):
like your hopes and dreams and aspirations, like what you
wanted to be when you grew up and how you
ended up in corporate America.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
To start with, I went to school in what was
a very small town here in Silicon Valley, which is
now a very big town, but at school, very small town.
My parents were teachers. My whole family's teachers, so I
was just to be a teacher. So I was not
going to be a teacher, and I went to you
Se saut of Barbara, which went back then when I
was there, was rated the number two party school in
(08:09):
all the nations. Go gage, something I'm very proud of.
And back then, I mean I'm sixty. So this was
I graduated from Santa Barbara nineteen eighty seven. And back
then it was just a path he followed. You got
at school, you got married, and I married my college sweetheart.
You got married, you got a job, you got married,
you had kids. You just followed this path. You know,
(08:30):
you don't do that anymore. And that's good. My kids
are in the thirties when they're not. One of them
just got engaged. I mean, it's no, it's a different world.
And so I was a math and economics major. So
I went into finance. And one day I was on
my first day back from attorney to leave with my
older son Alex, and this new CEO came in and
(08:51):
it was his first day and he was coming around
with the company. We were a pretty small company, coming
around introducing yourself to everybody, and he spent a lot
of time in my cubicle. And a couple of months later,
I had a whirl walled office, and we were just
the best of friends for a long time. And then
both of our religions, my marriage and his relationships were
(09:13):
falling apart, and we ended up more than friends, I'm
to say, but nothing, nothing that was irresponsible at the time.
But and I did leave. I left the company. I
went to another company. What was the company called, It
was called e Tech, and we were at we were
at Uniphase. And then as I left, he merged with
JDS and JDS Unaphase, which was at that time the
(09:36):
Internet was booming and they were the darling of Wall Street.
And as I went to e Tech, he decided, oh
it was in the same space, same communication space. I
guess I need to acquire. So he acquires e Tech.
And then it was the point where one of us
needed to leave because it wasn't appropriate. So I couldn't
(09:58):
leave my job. I was I was divorced or getting divorced,
so that I couldn't leave my job, and he could
afford these jobs. So he retired and then we could
be publicly we start moving forward together. That was that
was fine. About three days after that retirement date, he
was pacing and going stir crazy, and he said, you know,
(10:18):
I think I'm going to buy a race team. I'm like,
you go, you go buy a race team, Get out
of the house.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Was he did he love racing at that point? And
then was he like an parafan or.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
He did in his late teens he was actually a
test driver for Lotus and he had a cash Yeah,
he had a horrific crash. He was he shouldn't have
survived it, you know, Kevin, He's survived almost everything. He
was given his last rights. I mean, he shouldn't survive
that crash. Where was that?
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Was that in Australia because he was originally Australian Now
it was in England. It was that Silver Show, Okay, Yeah,
horrible crush.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
And the other guy died and Kevi Yeah, so there
was not a race weep again for a while. But
he's still obviously loved motorsport. He bought a team that
was bankrupt and started to building back up. And then
we partnered with Jimmy Bassar when Jimmy was turning forty,
and you need to listen to this young lady. When
(11:14):
Jimmy was turning forty, I know, we informed Jimmy that
he had one more year in the car and we
would make him a partner with us and it wouldn't
cost him a dime. We wanted his his knowledge and
his ability to train a driver, to manage driver. So
we gave him his last year and his age forty
in a car. Can I just say yes.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Just to interrupt you, Like Jimmy's forty years were hard years.
I mean that man knows how to party. So I've
got a few years.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Jimmy and I at the same age. We actually went
to elementary school together and the middle did you really? Yeah,
I didn't know. I know how Jimmy, I know how
Jami party.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
It's not.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
So we partnered with Jimmy. Jimmy got out of the
car and started to develop being the team. You drove
for Jimmy, you drove as we developed a team, we
eventually in two thousand and eleven started working on how
are we going to win the five hundred? And that
was Kevin just started out there as a vision Kevin
(12:16):
was right, it's a visionary but not a tactical guy,
and Jimmy and I were more the tactical people. He
would have a vision and we would make it happen.
Jimmy was obviously more the one that made this happen
than I did. But he was the engineering genius and
he worked with all the engineers and they took two
years of working on that car. With everything that Jimmy
knew about the speedway and about driving in the five
(12:37):
hundred times, he'd never won it, and in twenty thirteen
we won it, and that was in credit. Was amazing. Yeah,
it was. It is incredible And at that point, okay,
so we run the five hundred, now what. So we
gave it a couple more years and then we're like, okay,
it's time to move on. So we sold the team. Yeah,
(12:58):
were still obviously involved in motorsports.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
But going back to Champ Card days, like Kevin, he
bought and revitalized Champ it was Car's car right in
which we we've got it. Yeah, and I think that
we didn't realize how good we had it as part
of Champ Car until it wasn't there anymore. I think
(13:23):
it was the best memories that I have for sure,
And I think the merged.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
The merge happened at the right time to get back
with with Indy Car. It was the right thing to do.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Were those stressful times for you and Kevin, like deciding
because you had so many people who were in that orbit, right,
all the teams, to drivers, the families, everybody else, like
to do the right thing. And I know that Kevin
was like a really good person too, Like did you
lose sleepover? Like what the right things in the right
(13:55):
place were at that time?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Was it stressed? Well, if we if we didn't do
remerge with Indy Car and Tony George camp Carr was
just gonna go bankrupt. It wasn't gonna it wasn't gonna
make it. We weren't getting the sponsorship that we needed,
and we couldn't put any more money into it. I mean,
we we put so much money into not only our
team but the series because we owned serious right. So
it was the right thing to do for motorsports in general.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
It showed good face that we could actually everybody said,
oh there is this big, big rift between cal cob
and George an Tony George, It really wasn't, you know.
We everybody had motorsport in their best interest and we
are really good friends. I'm still very good friends. Even
though Kevin's pastor is still great good friends with Tony
Mr George, and we did it because it was the
(14:41):
right thing for the sport and the right thing for everybody.
And it happened one day. This is like the funniest story.
We were actually at our we had a place in
Stonemas and AskMen and it was the summertime, and Tony
came out and Mario and Ready came out to negotiate this.
He was going to make this happen. Mario said, you
guys got to do the You need to get along,
(15:01):
and he came out and the three of them rode
the gonzo up to the top of Ajax Mountain Aspen
and hiked down and by when they got down there,
they formed a deal and broke with The deal between
wasn't financial. Wasn't the financial side of it. That was easy.
It was the emotional deal and a psychological deal. And
by the end of the end of that hike, the
three of them sat down and met us for lunch
(15:23):
and said, we're getting back together.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
That's amazing. Yeah, yeah, it was an amazing story. And
it was not quite as amazing as my assens know.
My story.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I don't remember a lot of those.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Yeah, I remember Kirsty and I were in the townhouse
and yeah, we were in the hot tub and we
got locked in or locked out or something and we
had to climb over the fence. And then Kevin cooled
us and he was like, we see you climbing over the.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
We have a lot of stories about Catherine. I could
sit here all day. There's a lot of You.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Had a lot of fun. Do you remember the turbo
tour that we did as well. Yes, we were on
Kevin's skulfstream for a week, going from city to city.
That was a lot of fun, A lot of those stories. Yeah,
So did you have any interest in racing before Kevin
introduced him to it at all?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Absolutely? No one. But if I didn't take interest once
he decided that he was going to go buy a
race team, I was going to get left behind every weekend, right.
I had small I had small children back then, so
I couldn't go to everything. So obviously I started going
to Long Beach just because it was close and easy
to go to. And once you go to Long Beach
(16:39):
and you kind of become, you know, the Queen Long Beach,
You're hooked. And I'm still the Queen Long Beach. You
are go down there.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Yeah, yeah, you you owned Long Beach though, for it's
only recent.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
That I just sold it now, coming up on two
years ago.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Yeah, and it's two years already. It seems like it
was this year for some reason.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Time flies, it was it was just after the twenty
four race when you got your.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Star right, Oh that's right, yeah, yes, that when.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I got my twoteen minutes a day my mom Beach News.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
It was definitely my favorite race, like I'm probably still
is one of my.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Favorite races that I think. It's Ronto are my two
favorite races. I love the Toronto race. It's a great course.
It's a hard course, but it's really fun race. It's
a hard it's a hard course.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
It is it's a hard course, but it doesn't it
doesn't evoke the same emotion in me that Long Beach.
Of course, I think that was because it was my
first race in North America and I won it, and
so of course it's then it's sticking in my brain.
But I love street racing, and street racing was a
big part of Champka, right like that. Bringing the racing
to the people really was started by Kevin, Like the
(17:53):
San Diego and Edmonton and all of these races, and
that was a fun race. Yeah. I mean now Nascar
I've been and they're doing, you know, following the same
model with Chicago and San Diego and they're realizing what
a great format is. So it was yet another trend
started on the cal cove in front. Yeah, he was
(18:15):
a visionary, definitely a visionary.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Woyah blessing.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
So he unfortunately passed away a few years ago now
past four years, which is doesn't even seem will be four.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Years in stature. It was.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
It was so quick as well.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
It was as unfortunately, Yeah, it was. It was multiple
traumatic brain injuries that it was caused. One was skiing first,
one was skiing, okay, yeah, then and then thirteen years
later he had a fall that he hit the same
part of his head in the back of his head
sort of front a lobe hit the front of his
head is like boxing to say, and also football players
(18:51):
the same injury overall again and he died within six
months for that second, that second Paul, and we brought
him home. We knew he was terminal. We brought him
home and I had a good team. My family is here,
my my Solaugh and my grandsons, we're here and we
just let him, let him go.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
And so sorry that it's devastating because he he was
still so young and had so much life in him
and did you know.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, no, he part of the complication that he thought
was that he developed to mensha very fast. He knew
he was dying, he could acknowledge that, and he was
very afraid of that. And that was very hard to
see a man that brilliant become that afraid and that
to mint it it was really hard. I mean, by
the end the I'm the only person that he really knew,
and my grandson, Lyle, he knew, he knew Lytle. Yeah,
(19:41):
it was a very sweet story about Lyle. So Lyle.
He The second fall was that Lyle's wedding we were Mexico.
He was officiating.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
It wasn't he officiated it.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
And it was during COVID in Mexico. Cancion was one
of the two places that everybody could go to because
it was during COVID. So the Brits could go because
he married I girl from London and he's he's from
New Zealand. The Americans could go, and Kevin had been
pretty pressure on Lyle and his now wife Alice about
starting family, and they'd been talking about, no, we will
(20:11):
start a family Kevin, and he starts, what are we
going to name? And he wanted names, and they decided
both both of them had a grandfather named Fred and
both of those Freads have now passed. But and Kevin's like, well,
I like Fred and he's like, I like Freddie And
so Lyle bless his heart. This happened at Lyle's wedding
the second Hall, and when we knew when Kevin had
(20:33):
to have multiple brainser through them, and this was a
big deal. We were in hospitals for months before no,
we actually got him home. And ay, we were in
three different hospitals for three months of major brain surgeons
and we couldn't save them. But Lyle came to the
States to be with me through all of this, and
(20:55):
his brother Nathan was here in the States, and my
son Alice was here, and we all we had an
airbd right next to the hospital and we named it
Kappa Kappa Hoe. We had of our open little fraternity,
three of us and my son and Lyle went home
three told times right after he got married. And the
third time you went home with Christmas Eve and he
(21:17):
walks in the front door and his wife hands him
a package and he said, oh, we don't open present. Still.
Christmas morning he's like, you need to open this, and
it was it was a little ones day. It said
baby Davenport coming and it was a positive pregnancy test.
He got the deal done at Thanksgiving, Christmas and he
facetimed me Christmas morning and he's crying and I thought
(21:39):
that her grandfather passed because he had cancer. Fred died
and he said cry, He's like, no, pregnant And this
was just I mean, Kevin died. This was nine days
ten days before Kevin died. And I said, he knew
I was talking to you know, I was Lyle and
I said did you get that? And he just gave
me kind of a blank stare because he was dementia.
(22:00):
And I said, we're pregnant and he didn't know what
I was saying. And I said, there's a baby. Didn't
know what I was saying. And I said Freddy's coming,
and he gave me this ear to ear grin and
that was the last two way conversation we had.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
And so we did find out that Freddy was a
boy because we had to see a calling Freddy or
a girl Freddy because she was going to be Freddy.
That he is a boy and he is Freddy for Kevin. Yeah,
he is, and he emulates Kevin. He is a little
spirit of Kevin. Kid. He's three years old. Oh my goodness,
he's Kevin ju. But yeah, his spirit lives on now
and my life moves forward, but his spirit does live
(22:38):
on a little.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Yeah. I mean he left such a mark on so
many people's lives that his spirit will live on forever.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
People ask me every day, like do you miss him on?
Like some days more than others. There's there's something. He
wasn't easy. He was not an easy person. He was
a lot. He was a lot and and you know
I I dealt with a lot, a lot of people,
and you be all this, Catherine. Most people went through me. Yeah,
(23:05):
when they had a problem or they had to talk
to him, it was safe. Say how do you think
I should approaches? Or will you talk to him for me?
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yes, that was every time, like will you ask him
this or that?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
How do you think he's going to respond to this.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
We're going to take a quick break, but we will
be right back, Welcome back to Toronto Therapy. The aftermath thing,
I know you're still dealing with, Like it must be
so hard because it happened so suddenly, like things like
(23:44):
the Long Beach GP and the business and Cluseworth and
all these things. You are now the CEO, and so
now you have to scramble and figure out Kevin's web
that he weaved and try and unravel that. And that
must have been like there's no time for you to
grieve when you have to do all these things too,
you know.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Yeah, that it kept me busy and also part of
part of being his partner, not just his wife and girlfriend,
but being his partners that he was always the visionary
and I was always the executor right he would he
was he was definitely would get an idea and it
would be like he would say I have an idea,
(24:24):
and I would say, oh, laugh because it worked for you.
Oh no, here we go, and and he beteen myself
and the few people who worked for him or for us,
we would get it done. Yeah. So I was used
to that anyway, So I knew a lot of the
inside of everything. I just needed to then close things up.
So I did sell the Grand Prix. I recently did
(24:47):
sell Couseworth. It needed to be done. It was time.
There's things that I'm I'm buttoning up and moving forward
to do a lot of things for me. Now. Yes,
I live with his legacy, but I'm starting to create
my own legacy and I need to. I need to.
I do a lot of philathrophy things. I can actually
say that word now, it's a big word. I can't say.
(25:08):
I do a lot of I do a lot of volunteering.
I'm getting really involved where I live. I live up
in Lake Tahoe. I live in North Star in a
ski resort. But my hometown is a very small town
called Tarcky, and the town of Tarchy lives after me.
I'm known as the widow cal Coman and it's has
its pros and cons. They all look after me. They all,
you know, they all know my story. They're very sweet.
(25:28):
There's pros. There are also cons that they all know
what I'm doing all the time, all the time. Yeah,
very It's very Mayberry Stepford.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
But how did you end up there? Because you're in
the Bay Area for the longest time and you had
a Aspen houses. But like, what made you decide Tahoe
is the place to be.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Well, I grew up coming up here with my parents.
My parents were teachers, like I said, so we would
spend a month in the summer up here at a
month inan Diego. That was our summers are my summers.
And I didn't care for Aspen itself, Aspen proper. I
just didn't care for the snootiness of it. And I
loved our house in Snow Mass. I loved the snow
in Colorado and all that. But and I kept asking,
(26:11):
can't we just go to Tahoe. And he didn't like
the California snow, and I agree with him. Compared to
the Colorado snow they call it, they call it the
Northwest cement. It is very wet, it's a very different snow.
And he had never been here in the summer. And
so eventually when our grandkids from Kirsty started giving all
(26:31):
to ski and wanting to come ski with us, it's
so much easier. They live up just as as Seattle
and Takoma. Then to get here, then to get all
the way to AskMen, it's hard to get to ask
the oh right, so the case could get the get
to Reno direct, you know, why don't we look at
North Star. I don't want to live in North Store, like,
give me a stomach. And I brought him up here
(26:53):
for two weeks, so I got lucky. It was the
most perfect weather, and we stayed with some friends who
have a house right above the street above me, and
this lot opened up across the street from a ski
with and at the end of those two weeks, he
said sold, and he put the house and has been
on the market. And we built here and this was
home base and this is it. And after a year
of Olivia, it was two years to build. And then
(27:14):
for the first year of living here, he thanked me, Sie,
this is the best decision to ever mad because then
everybody left, all of our friends from the area could
come up. The whole family could get here easily. And
our house was always full of This house is a
very big house, and our house was always full of
family and friends. And when they do come back, you know,
it's open arms to them. As the house. Four people
(27:36):
asked me when he died, what are you going to do?
And I said, as long as my old body can
tolerate these easy California winters, you know, I'll stay. Because
I'm here for the summoners, and I do ski, but
not very well, not without him. I used to skip
better behind him. He's a great skier, he was.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
He used to get a meal at the time for
not having a good to see.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
One of my funniest Catherine's statements is I've never heard
Kevin ever say this other than we were Catherine, slow
the hell down.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Remember essential Terrence only, and Kevin I was like, no, Catherine, okay,
yeah exactly, but people, are you going to stay?
Speaker 2 (28:14):
And this was in January twenty two, and that next winter,
the West Coast got the winter from Hell. I had
fifty seven feet of snow at my house and I'm
living by myself for the first time ever, this little
old lady living in the woods. There's nobody else, you know,
on my street. I'm the only one who lives here. Mike, Oh,
(28:34):
this was winter, but I made it, and now I
know what to do.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
So did you start of splitting your time between California
and Tahoe? What did you just commit to Tahoe?
Speaker 2 (28:45):
How was it because we sold this little Carley house
and the Florida house at the same time as we moved.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
That's right. I forgot about Florida. I wasn't around for
the Florida portion of the time, so.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
How long you didn't as much? So we sold both
this house at the same time that we built this
once just ended up this was home and it ended
up being the best thing we could do. And I'm
very happy here. I've made it through everything that I've
got through. I'm establishing friends, I'm establishing roots here and
it's going great.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
So that's amazing. I have my dogies and you still
come to still come to the races.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
You're a Nashville and the race and I'm getting I'm
getting more and more back into the races. I mean
I'll be or whenever you race in in the open whale,
I will be there. I mean I went obviously, I
went to the Long Beach that year because you were
getting your award and then you were racing. Are you
You didn't race that year, you just got your award,
But I came when you qualify for five hundred. Yeah,
(29:37):
And I will be there whenever you have a drive.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
When I'm trying to get an Indy car drive for
the hundred this yes, keep everything crossed for me.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Oh yeah, I am. I'm open, and I'm leaving that
because I've got some travel plans that actually I'm keeping
up that we can open as part of my travel
plans so I can come. I'm also getting much more
into Formula One because of Zach. This just helped and Fianna,
and I'm still proud little girl.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Fiona is now she's a Californ Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Yeah, and Andretti and she's back. I told you she's
like I told Will will Power when he got his
ride with Andretti, and I congratulated him, I said, and
Fiona's got her little boomerang back because she looked after
him when he came over the first thing for us,
and she too, she would look after him. She has
to look after him again.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Oh wow, what's Jimmy doing now?
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Sports cars and they're doing great?
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Okay, good?
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Oh that's right.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
They won.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
I don't think they won. I don't think. I don't
think they win this year. I think their second place
last year they won all the time.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Ye.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Sorry.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
My first oval racing two thousand and six for kV
Racing p kV Racing as it was, Yeah, down with that, yeah,
and my first oval race ever in a champ car,
and I say to Jimmy, Okay, what do we do? Like,
I have no idea, how is it differently? What do
we do? And you know what you told me? He said,
(31:01):
stabbing steer, Baby, stabbing steering. Jimmy, Yeah, that's not advice.
He's let you'll figure it out. And then I thought
out the question the notes. It went from there, but
it was like typical Jimmy fashion. Jimmy's wine is really good.
Good boy, folks, it is so good. We had we
started our wine within a couple weeks of each other.
We planted our gretes and there was a competition to
(31:24):
the to the first good bottle of wine, and there
was a large panel for me who wanted to test.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
He kicked our butt. He kick gar but he had
much better He had much better stock and a much
better location. And his one is really good. I take
all the friends up there to see his sister and
she does. She gives us get tasty. Yeah, and it's
done a lot of good minis and it's he gets
a good pricing for it too in the restaurants. Yeah,
(31:49):
very happy for very cool.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Well, Kim, thank you so much for sharing our Thank
you for having me the Torottle Therapy Universe. I appreciate it.
I will see you very soon and we'll.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Be having some bottle therapy.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Yes, thank you very much, and it was a pleasure
to hear your story and I'm very grateful. I will
always be very grateful to you and Kevin and Kirsty
for my career.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Which is as like I said, you do this. I
didn't do this for you. All I did was open
one single door. I told him to give you a first.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Yes, you also stuck by me.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Yeah, but I told him that I don't know any
I didn't know anything about racing by but now I
probably would still tell him to give you a test.
But I didn't know anything about all the stuff you
told me. I was like, I just like this girl
because she has the gumption to do this. Give her
a try.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Thanks for listening to Throttle Therapy. We'll be back next
week with more updates and more overtakes. We want to
hear from you. Leave us a review in Apple Podcasts
and tell us what you want to talk about. It
might just be the topic for our next show. Throttle
Therapy is hosted by Catherine legg Our. Executive producer is
Jesse Katz and our supervising producer is Grace Fuse Listen
(33:06):
to Throttle Therapy on America's number one podcast network, iHeart,
open your free iHeart app and search throttle Therapy with
Katherine leg And start listening
Throttle Therapy with Catherine Legg is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome to this
(00:21):
week's episode of Throttle Therapy with Me Catherine Legg. This week,
I have a very special guest who has been there
literally since the inception of Catherine Racing. She is the
reason that I have this podcast right now, and she's
become obviously a very dear friend. Since the beginning. We've
(00:42):
had some cries together, we've had some late nights, We've
had a lot of wine and a lot of fun.
And I am very pleased and honored to have Kim
Calkoven on the pod. Welcome Kim, Thank you for having me.
Thank you for everything. So from my recollections, I came
(01:02):
over to the States and I wanted to drive in
America because the I saw Dan Weldon do it and
I just thought it was the land of opportunity and
for a girl driver at that time Circle two thousand
and four, two thousand and five, I wasn't getting anywhere
with no money in England and I wanted the opportunity,
(01:22):
and my parents actually met Vicky O'Connor, who owned and
ran the Atlantic series, and they said, you should meet
Kevin cal coven and he's going to be in England
buying Cosworth from Ford and so my dad was like, hey,
you should rock up at Cosworth and see whether they
(01:42):
have any interest in having a female driver because with
the split, the IRL had Danica and so you know
there's a selling point there. And so I rock up
at Cosworth in my old banger of a car, having
put a CV together on a sponsorship proposal anything, and
I'm in a I can't remember remember what I was wearing,
(02:03):
but I remember feeling very uncomfortable and I didn't have
the courage to do it, but I may myself do
it anyway. And I remember sitting in reception and the
reception is thinking I was completely weirdo asking to speak
to Kevin, and then you and Kirsty came out and
you actually spoke to me, and you persuaded Kevin to
give me five minutes. And I remember sitting in front
(02:24):
of Kevin literally sweating, thinking he doesn't like me, this
is a waste of time, this is horrible I cried
on the way home. Fast forward a couple of weeks in,
Jim Griffith from Pollstar calls me and says, Kevin Calcoven
wants us to test you, so can you be in
Phoenix on Thursday? And I was like, holy crap, daddy,
can I have the plane ticket to Phoenix on Thursday?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Please?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
And so I flew out to Phoenix. I tested, They
gave me a glowing report. Kevin said, okay, young lady,
in typical Kevin form, and you have the first six races,
let's see what you can do. And I won the
first one and we were kind of inseparable since then.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
So that's my version of the story. Uh what is
what is your version of the story. Well, Kevin was
in the process of negotating for to purchase Couseworth and
he brought his daughter, my stepdaughter, Christian, and me to
Causeworth and we were just kind of hanging around and
he gets a message from the respect of saying there's
(03:20):
some woman out here that wants to speak to you.
And he looks at us and he's like, get rid
of her. Wow, And we're like, okay, we're used to that.
So we go out there and sit down, and the
three of us just wonded like it was amazing, And
I mean, Christy loves you just as much of that
love you, you know, three of us, and we talked
and talked and talked, and you hand us for CV,
(03:42):
and you handed us all your statistics. And Christy didn't
more about racing than I did at the point. Now
I know more about it, but I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
you know whatever that stuff is. And eventually he comes
out and she's still there and he looks at Christy
and me and he's like okay, and so he's like,
you know, come with me, and he says down and
he gives hers five minutes and she leaves, and Christina
(04:05):
looks at oh, you're giving her a test. And he
was petrified of the two of usk, his daughter and
we weren't married then, but his girlfriend. And he's like, okay,
we're giving her a test.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
So you are the reason that I'm hearing today, Like
it wasn't decision until you twisted his office bag.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
We opened the door for you and you ran you
read it. Let me say that. So she gets the test,
We get a glowing report from from Arizona and he says, okay,
I'm gonna put her in Atlantics car and she comes
to our beach. He practices brilliantly on the on the Friday,
and then on qualifying day she stops it in the wall,
(04:45):
I mean, and he doesn't say a word to me.
He just keeps his mouth shut, which he knows better
than to say anything to me. So she starts last
because you know, she caused a red flag during during qualifying.
You start the back of the tack. She said, female
out there, seventeen cars on the grid, dead last. And
as we're watching this race, is that little girl passing
(05:06):
every boy? As we're watching the race? And we had
the commentators going, who is this girl? And we had
all the racing guys because I was you know, it
was very much a male dominated sports. Still there is obviously, unfortunately,
and who is this girl? And me and behold this
little girl won that race from the back of the pack,
(05:27):
from dead last. And then I looked at Kevira, I'm
like see and it was history from then on, and
so we moved her forward. Initially she came and this
is what with ben champcar. Yeah, and she she definitely
changed the face of champ Car changed the face of
(05:48):
open whale racing much more than Danic ever did. Danica
never did what Catherine did as far as little girls
wanted to be Catherine. And one thing that Kevin did
which they don't do for me to one which they
are starting to do more now because of Zach Brown.
He is taking Kevin's model and opening up the paddock
and making him more and more fans friendly situation. He
(06:08):
would let fans come into our garage, get in her car,
put kids in her car, get her autographed, get to
talk to her, and little girls just line that to
me Katherine, and it was so amazing And just to
see them think I could be a race card driver
if she could be a race card driver. And I
tell people, I mentor of the students at the University
(06:31):
of Nevada and Marino here, I lived in Lake Tahoe,
some honor students, and I tell him that story, and
I say, you know, I'm one of my best friends
is a female race car driver, because they know my past,
that I that I'm in the sports and things. And
I tell him that story and I said, this is
why I tell you that you should live your life
in the why not instead of the what if? Because
(06:53):
Catherine followed her dream and look at her and that's
a you know, she's a perfect example of fact. She's
coming out to have some girl time with me. This
one turned is a skiing and all my students want
to come meet her because they think she's like the
coolest thing and they want to meet a person who
followed their dream and that.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Would be awesome. Yeah, I hope that even if I
inspire one person to do that.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Yeah, oh, you know, they're also excited to you.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
That's amazing. We're going to take a quick break, but
we'll be right back. Welcome back to Toronto Therapy. Now
the world knows our connection. I want to circle back
to Kim and young Kim when you're at school and
(07:41):
like your hopes and dreams and aspirations, like what you
wanted to be when you grew up and how you
ended up in corporate America.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
To start with, I went to school in what was
a very small town here in Silicon Valley, which is
now a very big town, but at school, very small town.
My parents were teachers. My whole family's teachers, so I
was just to be a teacher. So I was not
going to be a teacher, and I went to you
Se saut of Barbara, which went back then when I
was there, was rated the number two party school in
(08:09):
all the nations. Go gage, something I'm very proud of.
And back then, I mean I'm sixty. So this was
I graduated from Santa Barbara nineteen eighty seven. And back
then it was just a path he followed. You got
at school, you got married, and I married my college sweetheart.
You got married, you got a job, you got married,
you had kids. You just followed this path. You know,
(08:30):
you don't do that anymore. And that's good. My kids
are in the thirties when they're not. One of them
just got engaged. I mean, it's no, it's a different world.
And so I was a math and economics major. So
I went into finance. And one day I was on
my first day back from attorney to leave with my
older son Alex, and this new CEO came in and
(08:51):
it was his first day and he was coming around
with the company. We were a pretty small company, coming
around introducing yourself to everybody, and he spent a lot
of time in my cubicle. And a couple of months later,
I had a whirl walled office, and we were just
the best of friends for a long time. And then
both of our religions, my marriage and his relationships were
(09:13):
falling apart, and we ended up more than friends, I'm
to say, but nothing, nothing that was irresponsible at the time.
But and I did leave. I left the company. I
went to another company. What was the company called, It
was called e Tech, and we were at we were
at Uniphase. And then as I left, he merged with
JDS and JDS Unaphase, which was at that time the
(09:36):
Internet was booming and they were the darling of Wall Street.
And as I went to e Tech, he decided, oh
it was in the same space, same communication space. I
guess I need to acquire. So he acquires e Tech.
And then it was the point where one of us
needed to leave because it wasn't appropriate. So I couldn't
(09:58):
leave my job. I was I was divorced or getting divorced,
so that I couldn't leave my job, and he could
afford these jobs. So he retired and then we could
be publicly we start moving forward together. That was that
was fine. About three days after that retirement date, he
was pacing and going stir crazy, and he said, you know,
(10:18):
I think I'm going to buy a race team. I'm like,
you go, you go buy a race team, Get out
of the house.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Was he did he love racing at that point? And
then was he like an parafan or.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
He did in his late teens he was actually a
test driver for Lotus and he had a cash Yeah,
he had a horrific crash. He was he shouldn't have
survived it, you know, Kevin, He's survived almost everything. He
was given his last rights. I mean, he shouldn't survive
that crash. Where was that?
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Was that in Australia because he was originally Australian Now
it was in England. It was that Silver Show, Okay, Yeah,
horrible crush.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
And the other guy died and Kevi Yeah, so there
was not a race weep again for a while. But
he's still obviously loved motorsport. He bought a team that
was bankrupt and started to building back up. And then
we partnered with Jimmy Bassar when Jimmy was turning forty,
and you need to listen to this young lady. When
(11:14):
Jimmy was turning forty, I know, we informed Jimmy that
he had one more year in the car and we
would make him a partner with us and it wouldn't
cost him a dime. We wanted his his knowledge and
his ability to train a driver, to manage driver. So
we gave him his last year and his age forty
in a car. Can I just say yes.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Just to interrupt you, Like Jimmy's forty years were hard years.
I mean that man knows how to party. So I've
got a few years.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Jimmy and I at the same age. We actually went
to elementary school together and the middle did you really? Yeah,
I didn't know. I know how Jimmy, I know how
Jami party.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
It's not.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
So we partnered with Jimmy. Jimmy got out of the
car and started to develop being the team. You drove
for Jimmy, you drove as we developed a team, we
eventually in two thousand and eleven started working on how
are we going to win the five hundred? And that
was Kevin just started out there as a vision Kevin
(12:16):
was right, it's a visionary but not a tactical guy,
and Jimmy and I were more the tactical people. He
would have a vision and we would make it happen.
Jimmy was obviously more the one that made this happen
than I did. But he was the engineering genius and
he worked with all the engineers and they took two
years of working on that car. With everything that Jimmy
knew about the speedway and about driving in the five
(12:37):
hundred times, he'd never won it, and in twenty thirteen
we won it, and that was in credit. Was amazing. Yeah,
it was. It is incredible And at that point, okay,
so we run the five hundred, now what. So we
gave it a couple more years and then we're like, okay,
it's time to move on. So we sold the team. Yeah,
(12:58):
were still obviously involved in motorsports.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
But going back to Champ Card days, like Kevin, he
bought and revitalized Champ it was Car's car right in
which we we've got it. Yeah, and I think that
we didn't realize how good we had it as part
of Champ Car until it wasn't there anymore. I think
(13:23):
it was the best memories that I have for sure,
And I think the merged.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
The merge happened at the right time to get back
with with Indy Car. It was the right thing to do.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Were those stressful times for you and Kevin, like deciding
because you had so many people who were in that orbit, right,
all the teams, to drivers, the families, everybody else, like
to do the right thing. And I know that Kevin
was like a really good person too, Like did you
lose sleepover? Like what the right things in the right
(13:55):
place were at that time?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Was it stressed? Well, if we if we didn't do
remerge with Indy Car and Tony George camp Carr was
just gonna go bankrupt. It wasn't gonna it wasn't gonna
make it. We weren't getting the sponsorship that we needed,
and we couldn't put any more money into it. I mean,
we we put so much money into not only our
team but the series because we owned serious right. So
it was the right thing to do for motorsports in general.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
It showed good face that we could actually everybody said,
oh there is this big, big rift between cal cob
and George an Tony George, It really wasn't, you know.
We everybody had motorsport in their best interest and we
are really good friends. I'm still very good friends. Even
though Kevin's pastor is still great good friends with Tony
Mr George, and we did it because it was the
(14:41):
right thing for the sport and the right thing for everybody.
And it happened one day. This is like the funniest story.
We were actually at our we had a place in
Stonemas and AskMen and it was the summertime, and Tony
came out and Mario and Ready came out to negotiate this.
He was going to make this happen. Mario said, you
guys got to do the You need to get along,
(15:01):
and he came out and the three of them rode
the gonzo up to the top of Ajax Mountain Aspen
and hiked down and by when they got down there,
they formed a deal and broke with The deal between
wasn't financial. Wasn't the financial side of it. That was easy.
It was the emotional deal and a psychological deal. And
by the end of the end of that hike, the
three of them sat down and met us for lunch
(15:23):
and said, we're getting back together.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
That's amazing. Yeah, yeah, it was an amazing story. And
it was not quite as amazing as my assens know.
My story.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I don't remember a lot of those.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Yeah, I remember Kirsty and I were in the townhouse
and yeah, we were in the hot tub and we
got locked in or locked out or something and we
had to climb over the fence. And then Kevin cooled
us and he was like, we see you climbing over the.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
We have a lot of stories about Catherine. I could
sit here all day. There's a lot of You.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Had a lot of fun. Do you remember the turbo
tour that we did as well. Yes, we were on
Kevin's skulfstream for a week, going from city to city.
That was a lot of fun, A lot of those stories. Yeah,
So did you have any interest in racing before Kevin
introduced him to it at all?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Absolutely? No one. But if I didn't take interest once
he decided that he was going to go buy a
race team, I was going to get left behind every weekend, right.
I had small I had small children back then, so
I couldn't go to everything. So obviously I started going
to Long Beach just because it was close and easy
to go to. And once you go to Long Beach
(16:39):
and you kind of become, you know, the Queen Long Beach,
You're hooked. And I'm still the Queen Long Beach. You
are go down there.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Yeah, yeah, you you owned Long Beach though, for it's
only recent.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
That I just sold it now, coming up on two
years ago.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Yeah, and it's two years already. It seems like it
was this year for some reason.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Time flies, it was it was just after the twenty
four race when you got your.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Star right, Oh that's right, yeah, yes, that when.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I got my twoteen minutes a day my mom Beach News.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
It was definitely my favorite race, like I'm probably still
is one of my.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Favorite races that I think. It's Ronto are my two
favorite races. I love the Toronto race. It's a great course.
It's a hard course, but it's really fun race. It's
a hard it's a hard course.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
It is it's a hard course, but it doesn't it
doesn't evoke the same emotion in me that Long Beach.
Of course, I think that was because it was my
first race in North America and I won it, and
so of course it's then it's sticking in my brain.
But I love street racing, and street racing was a
big part of Champka, right like that. Bringing the racing
to the people really was started by Kevin, Like the
(17:53):
San Diego and Edmonton and all of these races, and
that was a fun race. Yeah. I mean now Nascar
I've been and they're doing, you know, following the same
model with Chicago and San Diego and they're realizing what
a great format is. So it was yet another trend
started on the cal cove in front. Yeah, he was
(18:15):
a visionary, definitely a visionary.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Woyah blessing.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
So he unfortunately passed away a few years ago now
past four years, which is doesn't even seem will be four.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Years in stature. It was.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
It was so quick as well.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
It was as unfortunately, Yeah, it was. It was multiple
traumatic brain injuries that it was caused. One was skiing first,
one was skiing, okay, yeah, then and then thirteen years
later he had a fall that he hit the same
part of his head in the back of his head
sort of front a lobe hit the front of his
head is like boxing to say, and also football players
(18:51):
the same injury overall again and he died within six
months for that second, that second Paul, and we brought
him home. We knew he was terminal. We brought him
home and I had a good team. My family is here,
my my Solaugh and my grandsons, we're here and we
just let him, let him go.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
And so sorry that it's devastating because he he was
still so young and had so much life in him
and did you know.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, no, he part of the complication that he thought
was that he developed to mensha very fast. He knew
he was dying, he could acknowledge that, and he was
very afraid of that. And that was very hard to
see a man that brilliant become that afraid and that
to mint it it was really hard. I mean, by
the end the I'm the only person that he really knew,
and my grandson, Lyle, he knew, he knew Lytle. Yeah,
(19:41):
it was a very sweet story about Lyle. So Lyle.
He The second fall was that Lyle's wedding we were Mexico.
He was officiating.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
It wasn't he officiated it.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
And it was during COVID in Mexico. Cancion was one
of the two places that everybody could go to because
it was during COVID. So the Brits could go because
he married I girl from London and he's he's from
New Zealand. The Americans could go, and Kevin had been
pretty pressure on Lyle and his now wife Alice about
starting family, and they'd been talking about, no, we will
(20:11):
start a family Kevin, and he starts, what are we
going to name? And he wanted names, and they decided
both both of them had a grandfather named Fred and
both of those Freads have now passed. But and Kevin's like, well,
I like Fred and he's like, I like Freddie And
so Lyle bless his heart. This happened at Lyle's wedding
the second Hall, and when we knew when Kevin had
(20:33):
to have multiple brainser through them, and this was a
big deal. We were in hospitals for months before no,
we actually got him home. And ay, we were in
three different hospitals for three months of major brain surgeons
and we couldn't save them. But Lyle came to the
States to be with me through all of this, and
(20:55):
his brother Nathan was here in the States, and my
son Alice was here, and we all we had an
airbd right next to the hospital and we named it
Kappa Kappa Hoe. We had of our open little fraternity,
three of us and my son and Lyle went home
three told times right after he got married. And the
third time you went home with Christmas Eve and he
(21:17):
walks in the front door and his wife hands him
a package and he said, oh, we don't open present. Still.
Christmas morning he's like, you need to open this, and
it was it was a little ones day. It said
baby Davenport coming and it was a positive pregnancy test.
He got the deal done at Thanksgiving, Christmas and he
facetimed me Christmas morning and he's crying and I thought
(21:39):
that her grandfather passed because he had cancer. Fred died
and he said cry, He's like, no, pregnant And this
was just I mean, Kevin died. This was nine days
ten days before Kevin died. And I said, he knew
I was talking to you know, I was Lyle and
I said did you get that? And he just gave
me kind of a blank stare because he was dementia.
(22:00):
And I said, we're pregnant and he didn't know what
I was saying. And I said, there's a baby. Didn't
know what I was saying. And I said Freddy's coming,
and he gave me this ear to ear grin and
that was the last two way conversation we had.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
And so we did find out that Freddy was a
boy because we had to see a calling Freddy or
a girl Freddy because she was going to be Freddy.
That he is a boy and he is Freddy for Kevin. Yeah,
he is, and he emulates Kevin. He is a little
spirit of Kevin. Kid. He's three years old. Oh my goodness,
he's Kevin ju. But yeah, his spirit lives on now
and my life moves forward, but his spirit does live
(22:38):
on a little.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Yeah. I mean he left such a mark on so
many people's lives that his spirit will live on forever.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
People ask me every day, like do you miss him on?
Like some days more than others. There's there's something. He
wasn't easy. He was not an easy person. He was
a lot. He was a lot and and you know
I I dealt with a lot, a lot of people,
and you be all this, Catherine. Most people went through me. Yeah,
(23:05):
when they had a problem or they had to talk
to him, it was safe. Say how do you think
I should approaches? Or will you talk to him for me?
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yes, that was every time, like will you ask him
this or that?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
How do you think he's going to respond to this.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
We're going to take a quick break, but we will
be right back, Welcome back to Toronto Therapy. The aftermath thing,
I know you're still dealing with, Like it must be
so hard because it happened so suddenly, like things like
(23:44):
the Long Beach GP and the business and Cluseworth and
all these things. You are now the CEO, and so
now you have to scramble and figure out Kevin's web
that he weaved and try and unravel that. And that
must have been like there's no time for you to
grieve when you have to do all these things too,
you know.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Yeah, that it kept me busy and also part of
part of being his partner, not just his wife and girlfriend,
but being his partners that he was always the visionary
and I was always the executor right he would he
was he was definitely would get an idea and it
would be like he would say I have an idea,
(24:24):
and I would say, oh, laugh because it worked for you.
Oh no, here we go, and and he beteen myself
and the few people who worked for him or for us,
we would get it done. Yeah. So I was used
to that anyway, So I knew a lot of the
inside of everything. I just needed to then close things up.
So I did sell the Grand Prix. I recently did
(24:47):
sell Couseworth. It needed to be done. It was time.
There's things that I'm I'm buttoning up and moving forward
to do a lot of things for me. Now. Yes,
I live with his legacy, but I'm starting to create
my own legacy and I need to. I need to.
I do a lot of philathrophy things. I can actually
say that word now, it's a big word. I can't say.
(25:08):
I do a lot of I do a lot of volunteering.
I'm getting really involved where I live. I live up
in Lake Tahoe. I live in North Star in a
ski resort. But my hometown is a very small town
called Tarcky, and the town of Tarchy lives after me.
I'm known as the widow cal Coman and it's has
its pros and cons. They all look after me. They all,
you know, they all know my story. They're very sweet.
(25:28):
There's pros. There are also cons that they all know
what I'm doing all the time, all the time. Yeah,
very It's very Mayberry Stepford.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
But how did you end up there? Because you're in
the Bay Area for the longest time and you had
a Aspen houses. But like, what made you decide Tahoe
is the place to be.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Well, I grew up coming up here with my parents.
My parents were teachers, like I said, so we would
spend a month in the summer up here at a
month inan Diego. That was our summers are my summers.
And I didn't care for Aspen itself, Aspen proper. I
just didn't care for the snootiness of it. And I
loved our house in Snow Mass. I loved the snow
in Colorado and all that. But and I kept asking,
(26:11):
can't we just go to Tahoe. And he didn't like
the California snow, and I agree with him. Compared to
the Colorado snow they call it, they call it the
Northwest cement. It is very wet, it's a very different snow.
And he had never been here in the summer. And
so eventually when our grandkids from Kirsty started giving all
(26:31):
to ski and wanting to come ski with us, it's
so much easier. They live up just as as Seattle
and Takoma. Then to get here, then to get all
the way to AskMen, it's hard to get to ask
the oh right, so the case could get the get
to Reno direct, you know, why don't we look at
North Star. I don't want to live in North Store, like,
give me a stomach. And I brought him up here
(26:53):
for two weeks, so I got lucky. It was the
most perfect weather, and we stayed with some friends who
have a house right above the street above me, and
this lot opened up across the street from a ski
with and at the end of those two weeks, he
said sold, and he put the house and has been
on the market. And we built here and this was
home base and this is it. And after a year
of Olivia, it was two years to build. And then
(27:14):
for the first year of living here, he thanked me, Sie,
this is the best decision to ever mad because then
everybody left, all of our friends from the area could
come up. The whole family could get here easily. And
our house was always full of This house is a
very big house, and our house was always full of
family and friends. And when they do come back, you know,
it's open arms to them. As the house. Four people
(27:36):
asked me when he died, what are you going to do?
And I said, as long as my old body can
tolerate these easy California winters, you know, I'll stay. Because
I'm here for the summoners, and I do ski, but
not very well, not without him. I used to skip
better behind him. He's a great skier, he was.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
He used to get a meal at the time for
not having a good to see.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
One of my funniest Catherine's statements is I've never heard
Kevin ever say this other than we were Catherine, slow
the hell down.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Remember essential Terrence only, and Kevin I was like, no, Catherine, okay,
yeah exactly, but people, are you going to stay?
Speaker 2 (28:14):
And this was in January twenty two, and that next winter,
the West Coast got the winter from Hell. I had
fifty seven feet of snow at my house and I'm
living by myself for the first time ever, this little
old lady living in the woods. There's nobody else, you know,
on my street. I'm the only one who lives here. Mike, Oh,
(28:34):
this was winter, but I made it, and now I
know what to do.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
So did you start of splitting your time between California
and Tahoe? What did you just commit to Tahoe?
Speaker 2 (28:45):
How was it because we sold this little Carley house
and the Florida house at the same time as we moved.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
That's right. I forgot about Florida. I wasn't around for
the Florida portion of the time, so.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
How long you didn't as much? So we sold both
this house at the same time that we built this
once just ended up this was home and it ended
up being the best thing we could do. And I'm
very happy here. I've made it through everything that I've
got through. I'm establishing friends, I'm establishing roots here and
it's going great.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
So that's amazing. I have my dogies and you still
come to still come to the races.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
You're a Nashville and the race and I'm getting I'm
getting more and more back into the races. I mean
I'll be or whenever you race in in the open whale,
I will be there. I mean I went obviously, I
went to the Long Beach that year because you were
getting your award and then you were racing. Are you
You didn't race that year, you just got your award,
But I came when you qualify for five hundred. Yeah,
(29:37):
And I will be there whenever you have a drive.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
When I'm trying to get an Indy car drive for
the hundred this yes, keep everything crossed for me.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Oh yeah, I am. I'm open, and I'm leaving that
because I've got some travel plans that actually I'm keeping
up that we can open as part of my travel
plans so I can come. I'm also getting much more
into Formula One because of Zach. This just helped and Fianna,
and I'm still proud little girl.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Fiona is now she's a Californ Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Yeah, and Andretti and she's back. I told you she's
like I told Will will Power when he got his
ride with Andretti, and I congratulated him, I said, and
Fiona's got her little boomerang back because she looked after
him when he came over the first thing for us,
and she too, she would look after him. She has
to look after him again.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Oh wow, what's Jimmy doing now?
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Sports cars and they're doing great?
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Okay, good?
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Oh that's right.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
They won.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
I don't think they won. I don't think. I don't
think they win this year. I think their second place
last year they won all the time.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Ye.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Sorry.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
My first oval racing two thousand and six for kV
Racing p kV Racing as it was, Yeah, down with that, yeah,
and my first oval race ever in a champ car,
and I say to Jimmy, Okay, what do we do? Like,
I have no idea, how is it differently? What do
we do? And you know what you told me? He said,
(31:01):
stabbing steer, Baby, stabbing steering. Jimmy, Yeah, that's not advice.
He's let you'll figure it out. And then I thought
out the question the notes. It went from there, but
it was like typical Jimmy fashion. Jimmy's wine is really good.
Good boy, folks, it is so good. We had we
started our wine within a couple weeks of each other.
We planted our gretes and there was a competition to
(31:24):
the to the first good bottle of wine, and there
was a large panel for me who wanted to test.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
He kicked our butt. He kick gar but he had
much better He had much better stock and a much
better location. And his one is really good. I take
all the friends up there to see his sister and
she does. She gives us get tasty. Yeah, and it's
done a lot of good minis and it's he gets
a good pricing for it too in the restaurants. Yeah,
(31:49):
very happy for very cool.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Well, Kim, thank you so much for sharing our Thank
you for having me the Torottle Therapy Universe. I appreciate it.
I will see you very soon and we'll.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Be having some bottle therapy.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Yes, thank you very much, and it was a pleasure
to hear your story and I'm very grateful. I will
always be very grateful to you and Kevin and Kirsty
for my career.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Which is as like I said, you do this. I
didn't do this for you. All I did was open
one single door. I told him to give you a first.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Yes, you also stuck by me.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Yeah, but I told him that I don't know any
I didn't know anything about racing by but now I
probably would still tell him to give you a test.
But I didn't know anything about all the stuff you
told me. I was like, I just like this girl
because she has the gumption to do this. Give her
a try.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Thanks for listening to Throttle Therapy. We'll be back next
week with more updates and more overtakes. We want to
hear from you. Leave us a review in Apple Podcasts
and tell us what you want to talk about. It
might just be the topic for our next show. Throttle
Therapy is hosted by Catherine legg Our. Executive producer is
Jesse Katz and our supervising producer is Grace Fuse Listen
(33:06):
to Throttle Therapy on America's number one podcast network, iHeart,
open your free iHeart app and search throttle Therapy with
Katherine leg And start listening
Host
Katherine Legge
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