Motor sport: Franchitti face off at Petite Le Mans

Oct 9 2008 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

THEY raced each other countless times growing up on the go-kart tracks in and around their hometown of Bathgate but this weekend the Franchitti brothers had the chance to race for real.

The 11th running of the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta drew a record crowd of 113,000, and a grid of 38 cars, 20 in the prototype category, 18 in the GT class and also the two West Lothian born and bred motor-sport stars.

Both were excited at the prospect of out-manoeuvring and out-thinking the other on the track, and Marino admitted before the race: “Out of the car, it is great just to be able to hang out with Dario, but on the track, in the type of racing we do, Dario is a driver in a multi-driver line-up competing in a race car in the same category as my Dyson Racing Porsche Spyder.

“So he is another competitor that I, and my co-drivers Butch (Leitzinger) and Andy (Lally) are competing against.”

But fate dealt them a cruel blow with an early crash dashing the duo’s hopes.

Elder sibling Dario didn’t even get a drive after Patron Highcroft Acura team-mate Scott Sharp crashed and retired their car just 16 laps into the race.

So it was left to Marino to fly the Franchitti family flag and he did so superbly after a gruelling motorsport marathon.

Marino took his place in the Dyson Racing Porsche RS Spyder Marino, alongside regular co-driver and team-mate Butch Leitzinger, and Andy Lally, who was rejoining the team.

Friday’s qualifying sessions were driven at such a pace that all four pole drivers in each of the four categories beat the previous year’s lap records.

Despite a small technical problem, Marino qualified, taking the car around the 2.54 mile Road Atlanta course to 14th overall and 9th in his class in a lap time of 1:08.446, which in itself was just over four-tenths of a second quicker than the pole-sitting time of the LMP1 Audi R10 TDI at last year’s event.

As the green flag fell it was Marino’s co-drive Butch who had settled behind the wheel of the car for the first double stint of the race.

It was almost two hours later, around 1pm, when Butch passed the car over, seventh in class, to Marino, but also one lap down on the leaders.

Marino slid into the cockpit for what turned into almost a two-and-a-half hour session, determined to get the car back on to the lead lap.

This he did, gradually passing other LMP2 competitors on the way, consequently when he handed the car over to Andy Lally around 3.30pm Marino had not only moved back on to the lead lap, but was also fourth in LMP2 class.

The pit stops cycled by, with Andy handing the car over to Butch and finally, as darkness began to fall, Marino was again back behind the wheel, this time to take the car to the finish.

And finish in style he did, setting the two-car team’s fastest lap of the race at 1:09.613 in the pitch darkness.

When Marino took the chequered flag he had moved to seventh overall and fourth in class, not only the first “privateer” to cross the finishing line, but also to assist his team in finishing fourth in the prototype class for the inaugural Green Challenge Award, and again the first privateer placed car in the top five finishers and sandwiched in between the No1 No2 car respectively – the two Audi R10 TDI’s.

Marino said after the race: “It was a good result for Dyson racing and we had a really clean run from start to finish, with no unscheduled stops and no contact with other cars.

“We lacked some luck with the yellows, which lost us a couple of laps, but we can be proud that we got the most from the Porsche RS Spyder and finished as the top privateer car.

“With only one round to go, it would be nice to finish the year as we began, with a podium, and we’ll give it our all to make that happen”.

The 11th and final round of the American Le Mans Series will be held in next week.