Marino Franchitti

Franchitti at Le Mans in 2012
Nationality	British
Born	(1978-07-07) 7 July 1978
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years	2005, 2009–2010, 2012–2013, 2016
Teams	Panoz Motorsports Drayson Racing Highcroft Racing
Best finish	25th (2010)
Class wins	0

Marino Alessandro Cesare Franchitti^[1] (born 7 July 1978) is a British racing driver, and the younger brother of Dario Franchitti. He has spent the majority of his career racing in sports cars and grand tourers, with a career highlight of winning the 2014 12 Hours of Sebring.

Career

Born in Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland, Franchitti began his career in the mid/late 1990s, initially finding his feet in Formula Ford 1600 competing in The Champion of Oulton series against circuit specialists such as Alaric Gordon (Champion 1999, 2001 and 2018). These were times for learning and initially, results were poor and it was not clear that Marino had the talent to succeed. He moved on to Formula Vauxhall in 1998.

In 2001, he began driving sports cars and won the GTO Championship in the British GT Championship series. He joined his brother in America in 2002, and drove in Grand Am and the American Le Mans Series, winning 1 race in the LMP 675 class.

In 2003, he was a development driver for Scuderia Ecosse's Ferrari 360 effort, racing with the team at the 12 Hours of Sebring. In 2004, he was a driver for the Panoz Esperante factory team in ALMS as well as making a few Le Mans Series starts in a Porsche. He continued with the Panoz works outfit for the 2005 season, driving in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

In 2006, he returned to Scuderia Ecosse for their effort in FIA GT as well as making assorted other appearances in high-profile sports car endurance races, including the 24 Hours of Daytona for SAMAX Motorsport.

In 2007, he signed a full-season deal to join his brother at Andretti Green Racing and to be the full-time driver for their new ALMS P2 class Acura entry with teammate Bryan Herta. Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan, and Herta teamed up to win the P2 class in the first outing for the team and the car: the 2007 12 Hours of Sebring. Marino started with the team at the next race in St. Petersburg. Both Franchitti brothers left the team after the 2007 season and while Dario went to NASCAR, Marino continued in the ALMS, switching to Dyson Racing's Porsche RS Spyder, partnering with Butch Leitzinger.^[2]

He remained with the team for 2009, which fielded a Mazda powered Lola B09/86. He moved to Highcroft Racing for three events in 2010.^[3]

In 2011, Franchitti finished second at the Twelve Hours of Sebring in the Highcroft Racing Honda Performance Development ARX-01e, which turned out to be the car's first and only race. He made an end-of-year start with Level 5 Motorsports in one of its Honda Performance Development ARX-01g's at the Petit Le Mans.

For 2012, Franchitti was confirmed as the first driver of the Highcroft Racing DeltaWing, which ran as the 56th and unclassified entrant in the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans.^[4] Marino also drove for the PR1/Mathasian Motorsports PC team in select races, winning in his class at Mid-Ohio.

In 2013, Franchitti was hired by Level 5 Motorsports to drive an HPD ARX-03b for the 2013 12 Hours of Sebring. Franchitti won the P2 class with Scott Tucker and Ryan Briscoe and came 6th overall. Later, Level 5 signed on Franchitti for a full-season effort in P2.^[5]

Personal life

Franchitti is the son of Marina and George Franchitti, both born in Scotland. He is of Italian heritage, from the town of Cassino in Southern Italy.

Marino is married to Holly Mason, second daughter of Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason and a racer of historic cars herself.

Marino and Dario Franchitti are also cousins of fellow Scottish racing driver Paul di Resta, and are friends off the track with Allan McNish.^[6]

Motorsports career results

12 Hours of Sebring results

Year	Team	Co-drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class pos.
2002	MSB Motorsport	Ralf Kelleners	Ferrari 360 Modena GT	GT	12	DNF	DNF
2003	Risi Competizione	Kevin McGarrity	Ferrari 360 Modena GTC	GT	243	DNF	DNF
2004	Rand Racing	Derek Hill Andy Lally	Lola B2K/40-Nissan	LMP2	12	DNF	DNF
2005	Spyker Squadron	Peter van Merksteijn Sr. Frans Munsterhuis	Spyker C8 Spyder GT2-R	GT2	18	DNF	DNF
2008	Dyson Racing	Butch Leitzinger Andy Lally	Porsche RS Spyder Evo	LMP2	351	2nd	2nd
2009	Dyson Racing Team	Butch Leitzinger Ben Devlin	Lola B08/86-Mazda	LMP2	149	DNF	DNF
2010	Patrón Highcroft Racing	David Brabham Simon Pagenaud	HPD ARX-01C	LMP2	349	5th	2nd
2011	Highcroft Racing	David Brabham Simon Pagenaud	HPD ARX-01e	LMP1	332	2nd	2nd
2013	Level 5 Motorsports	Scott Tucker Ryan Briscoe	HPD ARX-03b	P2	346	6th	1st
2014	Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates	Scott Pruett Memo Rojas	Riley Mk XXVI-Ford	P	291	1st	1st

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class pos.
2005	Panoz Motor Sports	Patrick Bourdais Bryan Sellers	Panoz Esperante GT-LM	GT2	185	DNF	DNF
2009	Drayson Racing	Paul Drayson Jonny Cocker	Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT2	GT2	272	DNF	DNF
2010	Highcroft Racing	David Brabham Marco Werner	HPD ARX-01C	LMP2	296	25th	9th
2012	Highcroft Racing	Michael Krumm Satoshi Motoyama	DeltaWing-Nissan		75	DNF	DNF
2013	Level 5 Motorsports	Scott Tucker Ryan Briscoe	HPD ARX-03b	LMP2	242	NC	NC
2016	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Andy Priaulx Harry Tincknell	Ford GT	GTE Pro	306	40th	9th

24 Hours of Daytona

Year	Team	Car	Co-drivers	Laps	Class	Pos.	Class pos.
2012	SpeedSource	Mazda RX-8 GT 2.0L 3-Rotor	Jonathan Bomarito James Hinchcliffe Sylvain Tremblay	722	GT	16	6

References

External links

• Official website
• Marino Franchitti career summary at DriverDB.com