Legge makes history with Long Beach top ten.

Britain's Katherine Legge scored the highest finish for a woman driver in the history of the Champ Car World Series with an eighth place finish in her first series start on Sunday in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

24 year-old Legge bettered Janet Guthrie's ninth place finish in the 1978 Indy 500 as she rose from 17th on the starting grid to chase leading rookie Jan Heylen to the flag in a gruelling 74 lap battle around the concrete lined 1.968-mile Long Beach street circuit.

Despite losing a lap to the leaders in the first half of the race thanks to a minor spin, Legge's PKV Racing tam helped the Northampton born driver regain her place on the lead lap in the closing stages as she came within half a second of deposing fellow rookie Heylen for seventh place.

Legge was also the only one of the three-strong PKV line-up to finish the race after a weekend in which both her more experienced teammates damaged their cars at some point while she kept the nose clean on hers.

"We achieved what we needed to achieve, we finished the race and finished well but I'm a racer and you always want to do better," said Legge. "I made some mistakes but overall I have to be pleased. I think for me, the record is great but the less of a female novelty that this thing becomes, the better. I'm just trying to be a race car driver and do what these guys do."