 |
Born: July 7, 1978 Place: Edinburgh, Scotland Lives: London, England Status: Married, Holly Current Series: American Le Mans Series Current Team: Highcroft Racing V8 Supercar Team for the Gold Coast: Gulf Western Oil Racing |
Career Highlights:
• 2010 American Le Mans winner as part of Highcroft Racing
• 2009 and 2010 Petit Le Mans Class winner
• 2008 Sebring 12 Hours 2nd in class and 2nd overall
• 2008 VLN Nordschleife winner
Interesting Facts:
• Marino is the younger brother of and three-time IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti
• Marino is married to the daughter of Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason
• From 53 ALMS starts, he has 4 wins, 19 Top Three finishes, 29 Top Five Finishes, 50 Top 10 finishes and 13 pole positions
Marino Franchitti currently races in the American Le Mans Series with Highcroft Racing, joining the team for the 2010 season and making a great debut to score pole for the 12 hours of Sebring.
Born into a racing family, Marino and his brother Dario have carved out highly successful international careers. While his brother has recorded considerable IndyCar success, Marino has proved to be a force to be reckoned with in sportscars.
He has scored podium results in no less than 11 GT class cars – piloting the Porsche GT3RS and GT3RSR, Ferrari 360 Modena, Chrysler Viper GTS, Audi 4-wheel drive A4, Panoz Esperante GTLM, Spyker C-8 Spyder GT2R, Porsche 996 GT3 Cup, Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT, Ferrari 430 and Maserati MC12 GT1.
Franchitti has also scored similar success in prototypes taking the Nissan-Lola B2K/40,
Crawford Pontiac DP, Riley Pontiac DP, LMP2 Acura ARX-01a, LMP2 Porsche RS Spyder and LMP2 Lola Mazda B09 87 to the podium.
Franchitti began racing at eight years of age, scoring a string of championship successes including taking the 1989 Scottish Open Championship, the 1993 Scottish Pro-Kart title and a class title win in the 1996 British Karting Championships before turning his attention to cars.
He won the Jim Russell Racing School award in 1996 before kicking off in open wheels in Formula Vauxhall and Formula Ford. Once he stepped into sportscars, Franchitti showed championship form, taking the British GTO title aboard a Porsche as a factory driver.
Originally making his prototype debut in 2004, Franchitti got his big break in 2007 when he was one of the original factory drivers for Acura at Andretti Green Racing. He moved to Dyson Racing in 2008, taking second place overall at Sebring aboard a Porsche Spyder. In the Lola-Mazda in 2009, he recorded three pole positions, three fastest race laps and 10 podiums from 10 LMP2 races and scored the class victory at Petit Le Mans – an effort he repeated last season at Highcroft at Road Atlanta