Dario Franchitti

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Franchitti began kart racing at the age of ten and had early success before progressing to car racing at the age of seventeen, winning the 1991 Formula Vauxhall Junior Championship and the 1993 Formula Vauxhall Lotus Championship. In 1995 and 1996, he competed in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft and the related International Touring Car Championship for the AMG-Mercedes team, winning two races. Franchitti debuted in Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) with Hogan Racing for the 1997 season. The following year, he joined Team Green and finished third in the championship with three victories. After tying Juan Pablo Montoya on points and winning four fewer races than Montoya, Franchitti finished second in the 1999 season. His form declined over the next three years but he won four races. In the Indy Racing League in 2003, Franchitti joined the renamed AGR team but injury limited him to three races that year. He won two races in the 2004 and 2005 seasons, finishing fourth and sixth overall. Franchitti won his first IndyCar Drivers' Championship in 2007 with four victories, including his first Indianapolis 500 win, before joining CGR for the following year's NASCAR programme. In 2009, he returned to IndyCar, winning three consecutive championships from 2009 to 2011, and 12 more races, including the 2010 Indianapolis 500. Franchitti's form deteriorated during the 2012 championship as he struggled to adapt to a new car but he won his third Indianapolis 500. Following contact with Takuma Sato's car in the penultimate round of the 2013 season, Franchitti sustained two fractured vertebrae, a broken ankle and concussion, bringing his racing career to an end. Franchitti competed in 265 races in American open-wheel car racing, winning 31 and finishing on the podium 92 times. After retiring, Franchitti became an advisor and driver-coach for CGR, as well as a co-commentator and driver pundit on the all-electric Formula E racing series' television world feed. He has been inducted into the Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame, the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame, and was named the 2007 BBC Scotland Sports Personality of the Year.

In Their Own Story

The checkered flag waved at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Dario Franchitti eased off the throttle, his car a blur of red and white. The crowd roared as he took the victory lap, the taste of milk sweet on his lips. For a moment, he thought of his father, who had taught him to race on the winding roads of Scotland. This win—his third at the Brickyard—was for him. But it wasn't just the victory; it was the way he'd carved through traffic on the final restart, a surgical strike that left rivals Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon scrambling.

Reader's Guide

George Dario Marino Franchitti was born in Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland, on 19 May 1973. He is the son of Inverness-born tourist board employee Marina Franchitti, and ice-cream parlour owner and amateur racing driver George Franchitti. He is of Italian descent; three of his grandparents originate from the town of Cassino. His younger brother Marino, his cousin Paul di Resta and his godson Sebastian Melrose are also racing drivers. Franchitti has a sister. When Franchitti was eight years old, he moved to Whitburn. He was educated at Edinburgh's private Stewart's Melville College, where he did not feel at ease due to its traditionalism. When he was three years old, Franchitti was given a Honda-powered go-kart. His wish to become a racing driver began when his father took him to the West of Scotland Kart Club and other kart tracks as a child. When he turned ten, Franchitti started kart racing; his first race ended after two laps due to engine failure. He started racing at the West of Scotland Kart Club and tracks in the north of Scotland, and he tested karts at Knockhill near Dunfermline. In 1984, at the age of eleven, Franchitti won the Scottish Junior Championship; he also won the British Junior Karting Championships in 1985 and 1986. Franchitti retired from the 1987 Karting World Championship final after colliding with Luca Badoer. In 1988, he won the Scottish Senior Championship and was runner-up in the 1989 British Senior Karting Championship. Franchitti raced part-time in the 1990 British Senior Kart Series. Overall, Franchitti won more than one-hundred races and twenty karting titles. In 1990, racing driver David Leslie's father suggested to Franchitti he join Leslie's team and work on his cars at races. Aged 17, Franchitti began racing a single-seater vehicle for David Leslie Racing in the inaugural Formula Vauxhall Junior Championship. Franchitti's father remortgaged the family home to pay for his son's racing. Franchitti won the championship with four victories, three in the final three rounds, and three podium finishes. Paul Stewart Racing (PSR) offered Franchitti a Formula Vauxhall test after a team member observed him driving. Team owner Jackie Stewart promised Franchitti if he drove for PSR, Stewart would find funding from Scottish sponsors. Stewart became Franchitti's informal coach, teaching him how to race more quickly and more consistently

Did You Know?

• Franchitti won the 2008 24 Hours of Daytona driving for Andretti Green Racing (AGR) and later Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR).
• He won the Indianapolis 500 in 2007, 2010, and 2012.
• Franchitti won the IndyCar Series Drivers' Championship in 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011.
• He was named the 2007 BBC Scotland Sports Personality of the Year.