Marino Franchitti back behind the wheel of an old friend

Mar 4 2010 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

Marino Franchitti

MARINO FRANCHITTI reckons getting back behind the wheel of his car, the LMP2 Acura, was like being reunited with an old friend.

The Bathgate motorsport star last month penned a deal to race for Patron Highcroft Racing and his new team have spent much of the past week at Sebring’s International Raceway in Florida participating at the annual ALMS “Wheels-Up” Winter Test.

Together with his two new team-mates, David Brabham and Simon Pagenaud, Marino has been putting the recently upgraded LMP2, with its Honda Performance Development centre-backed ARX-01c chassis, through its paces around the historic 3.7mile circuit in preparation for the 58th running of the 12-hour race next month.

The first round of the ALMS 2010 season begins with the 12 Hours of Sebring at the Sebring International Raceway on Saturday, March 20.

“Having raced the LMP2 Acura chassis in the ALMS back in 2007, it was a bit like being reunited with an old friend,” said Marino.

“It important to see what the final regulations will do to the LMP category for the season, but for Sebring we have to concentrate on the LMP2 cars, and clearly the Porsche Spyder and Mazda Lola will be our toughest competitors”.

The team completed a total of 202 laps over the two days, with each day split into two four-hour sessions. In warm and humid Florida conditions all three drivers took their turns behind the wheel of the No 1 Patron Highcroft car, and the fastest time came in the morning session when Marino set a lap time of 1:48.153.

Marino added: “It was a fantastic test for the Patron Highcroft team. We worked through a wide ranging programme that gave us a huge amount of information which will help us finalise our set up for the race.

“We also managed to be fastest in class while doing that – which was cool.

“My team-mates David and Simon and I were all happy with the car so we can’t wait for the race, hopefully we can start the season with a victory which would be the perfect ‘thank you’ to our crew who are working flat out to give us the best chance to achieve that.”