Franck Fréon

Franck Fréon 1995

Franck Fréon with teammates Andy Pilgrim and Kelly Collins at the 2003 Le Mans 24-hour race

Franck Fréon (born March 16, 1962 in Paris ) is a French entrepreneur and former racing driver .

Racing career

Monopostosport

Franck Fréon began his international career in the French Formula Renault Championship , which he finished ninth overall in 1986 (champion Érik Comas ahead of Jean-Marc Gounon and Didier Artzet ). After finishing fourth overall in this championship in 1987, he moved to the French Formula 3 championship in 1988 . The formula 3 was used as a preparation for the transition and entry into the F3000 . In 1988 he finished the French championship in eleventh place in the final ranking. With 28 championship points reached, he had a gap of 108 points on the title winner Érik Comas at the end of the season. The start with a Reynard 883 in the German Formula 3 Championship this year remained a single event. His last season in this racing formula was in 1989 when he started again in the French championship. Fréon drove a Dallara 389 and finished the racing year in seventh place in the overall standings (the title of overall winner was won by Jean-Marc Gounon for Oreca ).

In 3000 the switch to the International Formula 3000 Championship took place . However, it failed to establish itself in this racing series. He reached only two championship points and finished the season in 19th place. Amazingly, this championship also won Èrik Comas, who had already won the Formula Renault and Formula 3 championships in which Fréon had participated.

In 2001 he continued his career in North America and competed in Indy Lights . To compete in the 1991 season , he built his own racing team, which he partially financed himself. Emergency car was a March 83A , with which he reached fourth place overall in the championship. At the end of the year he stopped running his own team and switched to Landford Racing , where he was runner-up behind Robbie Buhl with a March 86A . The following two years in the CART series suffered from a lack of competitive rolling stock. He changed racing teams several times and was only able to score one point during the two seasons.

GT and sports car races

In addition to his involvement in monoposto racing, Fréon began racing in GT and sports cars in the late 1980s . After individual outings, especially in the Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour race , and his debut in the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1994 , he drove regularly in the IMSA GT series from 1995 onwards . He achieved his best results for Corvette Racing , whose works driver he was between 2000 and 2003. 2001 he won together with Ron Fellows , Chris Kneifel and Johnny O'Connell on a Chevrolet Corvette C5-R , the 24 Hours of Daytona . In 2001, at the Sebring 12-hour race , he finished seventh overall. In 2003 he won the GTS class with his racing partners Fellows and O'Connell. In Le Mans he went into the race ten times as a driver, the best place in the overall classification was the seventh place in 1995 , which he brought in together with Jim Downing and Yōjirō Terada in the Kudzu DG-3 .

Entrepreneur

After the end of his racing career at the end of the 2003 season, Franck Fréon founded an automobile dealership in Egg Harbor Township . Used cars from European, Japanese and American manufacturers are sold. Franck Fréon has been married since 1997 and has two children.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1994	Team Arnature	Mazda RX-7 GTO	Pierre de Thoisy	Yōjirō Terada	Rank 15
1995	DTR with Mazdaspeed	Kudzu DG-3	Jim Downing	Yōjirō Terada	Rank 7
1996	Mazdaspeed	Kudzu DLM	Jim Downing	Yōjirō Terada	Rank 25 and class win
1997	DTR with Mazdaspeed	Kudzu DLM4	Jim Downing	Yōjirō Terada	Rank 17
1998	Courage Compétition	Courage C41	Olivier Thévenin	Yōjirō Terada	Rank 16
1999	Autoexe Motorsports	Autoexe LMP99	Robin Donovan	Yōjirō Terada	failure	Engine failure
2000	Corvette Racing	Chevrolet Corvette C5-R	Andy Pilgrim	Kelly Collins	Rank 10
2001	Corvette Racing	Chevrolet Corvette C5-R	Andy Pilgrim	Kelly Collins	Rank 14
2002	Corvette Racing	Chevrolet Corvette C5-R	Andy Pilgrim	Kelly Collins	Rank 13
2003	Corvette Racing	Chevrolet Corvette C5-R	Ron Fellows	Johnny O'Connell	Rank 12

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1996	Lee Payne Racing	Riley & Scott Mk III	Ross Bentley	Lee Payne	failure	Gearbox damage
1999	Autoexe Motorsports	Autoexe LMP99	Yōjirō Terada		Rank 26
2000	Corvette Racing	Chevrolet Corvette C5-R	Andy Pilgrim	Kelly Collins	Rank 16
2001	Corvette Racing	Chevrolet Corvette C5-R	Andy Pilgrim	Kelly Collins	Rank 7
2002	Corvette Racing	Chevrolet Corvette C5-R	Andy Pilgrim	Kelly Collins	Rank 13
2003	Corvette Racing	Chevrolet Corvette C5-R	Johnny O'Connell	Ron Fellows	Rank 8 and class win

Web links

Commons : Franck Fréon  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Franck Fréon at the Driver Database
• Official website of Pumpkin Cars

Individual evidence

1. ^ French Formula Renault Championship 1986
2. ^ French Formula Renault Championship 1987
3. ↑ French Formula 3 Championship 1988
4. ↑ German Formula 3 Championship 1988
5. ^ French Formula 3 Championship 1989
6. ↑ International Formula 3000 Championship 1990
7. ↑ 1991 Indy Lights season
8. ↑ 1992 Indy Lights season
9. ↑ 2001 Daytona 24 Hours