Margaret Edmondson

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Margaret Edmondson
Leah Cairns as Lieutenant Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson in "Flight of the Phoenix"
Race	Human
Gender	Female
Portrayed by	Leah Cairns
First appearance	"Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 2"
Callsign	Racetrack
Rank	Lieutenant Junior Grade
Affiliation	Colonial Fleet

Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson is a fictional character in the television series Battlestar Galactica, portrayed by actress Leah Cairns.

[edit] Character biography

Almost exclusively referred to by her callsign rather than her given or family name, Racetrack is an officer serving aboard the Battlestar Galactica, qualified as both a Colonial Raptor pilot and electronic countermeasures officer (ECO). When the Cylon infiltrator Sharon "Boomer" Valerii is temporarily pulled from flight duty after a botched suicide attempt, Galactica CAG Captain Lee Adama nominates her to partner Boomer's ECO, Alex "Crashdown" Quartararo. When Boomer returns to duty on a mission to destroy a Cylon Basestar above Kobol, Racetrack serves as her ECO. Racetrack panicks several times during the mission, even suggesting they abort and return to Galactica.^[1]

Racetrack pilots the Raptor carrying Lee Adama's SAR mission to Kobol, encountering fire from Cylon anti-aircraft missiles. Racetrack's Raptor destroys the Centurions on the ground with a volley of missiles, and recovers the trapped Galactica crewmen.^[2]

At the time that D'Anna Biers is shooting her documentary on life on board the Galactica, Racetrack is flying basic supply runs between Galactica and the fleet. In a recorded interview with Biers, Racetrack reveals that she is almost certain she will eventually die on a mission, and is determined to kill as many Cylons as she can before that happens. During a poker game with Starbuck, Racetrack makes several rude comments about Starbuck, Helo and Sharon and Starbuck assaults Racetrack.^[3]

Racetrack is one of the pilots who fails to understand Starbuck's disgust with the scorecards the Battlestar Pegasus pilots place on their Vipers.^[4] Racetrack pilots a Raptor as part of Kara "Starbuck" Thrace's rescue mission for 20 Raptors to make a sequence of ten jumps to Caprica to rescue the survivors there. On the first jump, Racetrack's Raptor jumps to the wrong coordinates, ending up in a gas cloud. As per orders, the main group carries on without her. Preparing to return to Galactica, Racetrack discovers a barely-habitable planet that the fleet could colonize. This planet is later named New Caprica, and most of the human survivors of the fleet settle there permanently.^[5]

Unfortunately, just over a year after New Caprica's discovery, the Cylons locate and occupy the planet. The fleet's few remaining spaceborne ships, including the Battlestars Galactica and Pegasus are forced to flee.^[5] Racetrack is part of Galactica's remaining skeleton crew, and leads the Raptor Pilots in part of the diversionary action intended to draw the Cylons' forces away from New Caprica while Galactica covers the civilians' escape.^[6]

After the Pegasus is destroyed above New Caprica, the Galactica air wing has an excess of qualified pilots. Desperate to keep up her flying hours, Racetrack volunteers to serve as Sharon "Athena" Agathon's ECO.^[7]

Later, as a pilot, she is involved in an accident in which her Raptor is destroyed as a result of contaminated fuel and she almost dies.^[8] She nearly dies two more times before the end of the third season; once, when a bomb is placed in her Raptor,^[9] and a second time when a Cylon missile nearly collides with her Raptor.^[10]

Racetrack acts as temporary Flight Instructor an after the deaths of both Kara Thrace and Louanne Katraine.^[11]