Motorsport: Marino loses by a fraction

May 21 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

MARINO Franchitti came within half a second of first place in Salt Lake City on Sunday in Round Four of the ALMS.

The Bathgate driver and his race partner Butch Leitzinger produced a superb race to come agonisingly close to victory on the longest circuit on the ALMS calendar.

The start of the race weekend had not been kind to the pair’s No.20 BP Dyson Lola Mazda as in the test session on Friday, Butch Leitzinger only managed a total of three laps before gremlins struck and he had to bring the car back to the pits.

Marino got the nod to start the race where he was in sixth spot after six laps.

Two laps later he moved to fifth and by lap 10 he was back to his original starting place of fourth overall.

However, not happy to settle with that, by lap 18 he had moved to third overall and first in LMP2.

It was there he remained until his first pit stop.

By lap 35 when the Lowes Acura made its pitstop, Marino was back up to third overall and was leading the LMP2 category, a position he retained right up until he handed the keys over to Butch.

At the stop the lead went back to the Lowes Acura, but 10 laps later as the Acura pitted, it was Butch who regained the LMP2 lead, but with a question mark over whether the No.20 car could get to the end without having to refuel.

That question was answered nearly 20 laps later, when on lap 87 with just 19 minutes of the race remaining, Butch had to come in for fuel.

The Acura passed Butch as he was being released from his pit, and the chase was on, but try as hard as he could, and closing to within 0.585 seconds behind the Acura, that was how the gap remained.

There is now a break in the run-up to Le Mans 24 hours event in mid June.

The ALMS Championship will continue its schedule on Saturday, July 18, when the fifth round is run at the Dyson team’s home track of Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut.

But Marino will be back behind the wheel before then as he returns to the Nordschleife for the Nürburgring 24 Hours.

Marino will be part of a team driving a new Porsche Cup S car in the 24 Hours event

The race begins at 4pm in Germany (3pm UK time) on Saturday.