Marino Franchitti

Marino Franchitti in the Andretti-Green-Acura ARX-01a at the 2007 Road America 4-hour race

Marino Franchitti in Level 5 Motorsports -HPD ARX-03b at the Le Mans 24-hour race 2013

The Ford Chip Ganassi UK driver team with the Ford GT for the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship . In front of the car are the four pilots (from left) Olivier Pla , Marino Franchitti, Stefan Mücke and Andy Priaulx

Marino Alessandro Cesare Franchitti (born July 7, 1978 in Bathgate ) is a British racing driver .

family

Marino Franchitti is the younger brother of Dario Franchitti , who was born in 1973 and is therefore five years older. Both parents, Marina and George Franchitti, are of Italian descent but were born in Scotland . Through his mother Marina's sisterhood with Marie MacCracken, who was first married to Marie di Resta, Dario and Marino are cousins ​​of Paul di Resta .

Marino Franchitti is with Holly Mason, daughter of former Pink Floyd - drummer and passionate racing driver Nick Mason married. The couple has a son.

Racing career

Marino Franchitti followed his brother Dario into international motorsport in the late 1990s. In contrast to his brother, who was already very successful in karting and won the 1992 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award as the best young driver in Great Britain, Marino's talent for this sport is not immediately apparent. In 1998 he had an unsuccessful year in Formula Vauxhall and after a year break, he switched to Formula Ford in 2000 . He drove 12 races in the British championship and finished the season with seven points in 18th place in the final standings. Master was James Courtney and Franchitti placed behind later successful pilots like Anthony Davidson , Rob Bell , Hideki Muto and Patrick Long .

After switching to GT racing in 2001, he quickly achieved success. With eight wins of the season, he and teammate Kelvin Burt won the GTO class of the British GT Championship in a Porsche 911 GT3 RS . In 2002 he began his ongoing involvement in the North American GT and sports car scene . He drove his first full season in the American Le Mans Series , making his debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring .

In 2005 he became a works driver at Panoz and took part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time with their Esperante GT-LM . In 2007 he followed his brother Dario to Andretti Green Racing . While his brother next operations in the American Le Mans Series for the team, the 500-mile race at Indianapolis and the Appreciation of the IndyCar Series this year , won Marino denied for Michael Andretti only sports car racing. Together with Bryan Herta and Tony Kanaan in the Acura ARX-01a, he finished second overall in the Sebring 12-hour race , beaten only by Frank Biela , Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner in the Audi Sport North America - R10 TDI . Another second final place in 2007 he reached with partner Herta at the 2.45 hour race in Houston ; this time behind Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard in the Penske Racing - Porsche RS Spyder .

At the end of the 2007 racing season, the Franchitti brothers Andretti Green Racing left. While Dario moved to NASCAR and returned to the IndyCar Series after a disappointing 2009 for Chip Ganassi Racing , Marino signed a deal with Dyson Racing in 2008, where he stayed until 2009. In 2008 he drove a Porsche RS Spyder with partner Butch Leitzinger in the American Le Mans Series, finished second overall in the Sebring 12-hour race and finished the season in fifth place in the LMP2 classification. Until the end of the 2013 season he was a regular driver at Level 5 Motorsports . After team owner Scott Tucker had considerable problems with the US judiciary and the resulting cessation of racing operations, he had to look for a new team for 2014 . The choice fell on Chip Ganassi Racing, where his brother had driven until he retired at the end of 2013 . The second race for the new racing team already brought the greatest success in international motorsport to date. Together with Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas , he won on a Riley MkXXVI the 12-hour race at Sebring .

In 2016 , Marino Franchitti drove the Ford GT for Chip Ganassi in the FIA World Endurance Championship . The best place was second place in the GTE-Pro class in the 6-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2005	Panoz Motor Sports	Panoz Esperante GT-LM	Patrick Bourdais	Bryan Sellers	failure	malfunction
2009	Drayson Racing	Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT2	Jonny Cocker	Paul Drayson	failure	malfunction
2010	Highcroft Racing	Acura ARX-01C	Marco Werner	David Brabham	Rank 25
2012	Highcroft Racing	Nissan DeltaWing	Michael Krumm	Satoshi Motoyama	failure	accident
2013	Level 5 motorsports	HPD ARX-03b	Ryan Briscoe	Scott Tucker	not classified
2016	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Ford GT	Harry Tincknell	Andy Priaulx	Rank 40

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2002	MSB Motorsport	Ferrari 360 Modena GT	Ralf Kelleners		failure	Engine failure
2003	Risi Competizione	Ferrari 360 Modena GT	Kevin McGarrity		failure	accident
2004	Edge Racing	Lola B2K / 40	Derek Hill	Andy Lally	failure	suspension
2005	Spyker Squadron	Spyker C-8 Spyder GT2 R	Frans Munsterhuis	Peter van Merksteijn	failure	malfunction
2007	Andretti Green Racing Inc.	Acura ARX-01a	Bryan Herta	Tony Kanaan	Rank 2 and class win
2008	Dyson Racing Team	Porsche RS Spyder	Butch Leitzinger	Andy Lally	Rank 2
2009	Dyson Racing Team Inc.	Lola B08 / 86	Butch Leitzinger	Ben Devlin	failure	mechanics
2010	Patrón Highcroft Racing	HPD ARX-01c	David Brabham	Simon Pagenaud	Rank 5
2011	Highcroft Racing	HPD ARX-01e	David Brabham	Simon Pagenaud	Rank 2
2013	Level 5 motorsports	HPD ARX-03b	Ryan Briscoe	Scott Tucker	Rank 6 and class win
2014	Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates	Riley MkXXVI	Scott Pruett	Memo Rojas	Overall victory
2017	Mazda Motorsports	Mazda DPi	Tom Long	Joel Miller	failure	accident

Web links

Commons : Marino Franchitti  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website
• Marino Franchitti at the Driver Database
• Marino Franchitti at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ About Dario and Marino Franchitti and their parents (English)
2. ↑ About Paul di Resta's mother
3. ^ British Formula Ford Championship 2000
4. ↑ 12-hour race at Sebring 2007
5. ↑ 2007 2.45 Hours of Houston
6. ↑ American Le Mans Series 2008
7. ^ 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps 2016