Kathryn “Kat” Teasdale born December 25, 1964, Toronto, Ontario - passed June 2, 2016 was a trail-blazing Canadian race-car driver and businesswoman who broke gender barriers across multiple disciplines of North American motorsport. Initially an alpine skiing racer, a knee injury in 1981 redirected her competitive ambitions to motorsport where she began full-time racing journey in the Player's LTD/GM Motorsport series in 1988. 

Over her decade of professional racing, Teasdale achieved numerous prestigious victories, secured consistent top-five and top-ten finishes, and built a reputation for relentless determination and off the track. 

Teasdale was the first Canadian woman to obtain an international racing licence, the first woman to compete in the Indy Lights open-wheel series and the first female driver in the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series North (now Xfinity Series). She also founded and ran her own team, Black Kat Racing which later became Kat & Co. (Katko) Racing, demonstrating rare entrepreneurial initiative for the era. 

Despite her competitive success, Teasdale’s later life was overshadowed by health issues, particularly Lyme disease, which played a role in her early retirement from professional racing (1998) and ultimately led to her unexpected passing in 2016. 

Her legacy remains as a pioneer for women in motorsport and a champion of persistence, both within the cockpit and in the boardroom.