George Dario Marino Franchitti (born 19 May 1973) is a British motorsport commentator and semi-retired motor racing driver from Scotland. Franchitti won the IndyCar Series Drivers' Championship in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011; the Indianapolis 500 in 2007, 2010 and 2012; and the 2008 24 Hours of Daytona driving for Andretti Green Racing (AGR) and later Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR).
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.
Early life and family background
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, 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. 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. 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. which included a test in a McLaren MP4/10B Formula One (F1) car at Jerez at the end of 1995.
thumb|left|Dario Franchiiti, Thruton British F3 1994
The following year, Franchitti became a racing school instructor, and earned money running circuit days for BMW and Nissan. He returned to the Formula Vauxhall Lotus Championship for PSR in a single-seat Vauxhall-powered car, winning the championship at Brands Hatch in August of that year with three races remaining. Franchitti had six victories and four podium finishes, and was named the series' Driver of the Year. Stewart promoted Franchitti to the British F3 Championship in 1994, hoping he would later progress to F1, and he was expected to challenge for the title. Franchitti finished fourth overall with 133 points in a PSR Dallara F394-Mugen Honda, a single victory at Silverstone and six top-three finishes after errors prevented him from challenging for the title. Franchitti also finished twelfth at the 1994 Masters of Formula 3 and sixth at the 1994 Macau Grand Prix.
Touring car career
thumb|left|Franchitti competing in the [[1995 Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft|1995 International Touring Car Series round at Donington Park]]
Franchitti did not have enough money to progress to Formula 3000 and did not race in F3 for another season as expected because he did not want to incur more debt. Franchitti drove a Mercedes C-Class V6 for the AMG-Mercedes team, Mercedes-Benz's sports-car competition division.
Franchitti competed in the 1995 DTM and the 1995 ITC. His fourteen-race DTM season put him fifth in the Drivers' Championship with two pole positions, four podium finishes and 74 points. During the ITC season, Franchitti won his first touring car race at Mugello, twice finished second at Donington Park, and third at the second Estoril round for third in the Drivers' Championship with eighty points. and the company assigned Franchitti to drive the 9 Reynard 97i-Mercedes-Benz car for the single Hogan Racing customer car squad in the 1997 CART World Series. In the following race, Franchitti achieved his best result of the season, finishing in ninth place at the 1997 Sunbelt IndyCarnival. Franchitti was 22nd in the Drivers' Championship with 10 points and was third in the Rookie of the Year standings. Franchitti had six top-ten finishes, including a second-place finish at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, and qualified in pole position at the Rio 400, the Molson Indy Toronto and the Miller Lite 200 in the season's first 13 races. Three weeks later, Franchitti won the Molson Indy Vancouver from his fourth pole position of the season. After finishing fourth at the Honda Grand Prix of Monterey, Franchitti's manager Craig Pollock advised him to remain in CART to gain more experience and he rejected an offer to join Stewart Grand Prix in F1. Franchitti took seven top-ten finishes in the first ten races. Franchitti finished the race tenth and Montoya fourth, ending the season with the same number of points as the latter, who was crowned champion because he won seven races while Franchitti had only won three.
2000–2002
Prior to the 2000 CART season, Franchitti was hospitalised after a crash during pre-season testing at Homestead; part of the car's suspension hit his head, and he sustained displaced fractures in his left hip and pelvis, and multiple minor brain contusions. As a result, Franchitti underwent physical therapy five times a week, before CART's medical director Steve Olvey declared him fit that March. His performance deteriorated due to a lack of testing and his team changing personnel, and he drove an unreliable car he occasionally crashed. Franchitti finished second at the Firestone Firehawk 500 and the Molson Indy Vancouver, his best finishes of the season, in which he scored two pole positions and six more top-ten finishes—including third place at the Michigan 500 and the Honda Grand Prix of Monterey. Franchitti was 13th in the championship with 92 points. The season's opening eight rounds saw Franchitti achieve six top-ten finishes, including a second-place finish at the Tenneco Automotive Grand Prix of Detroit. His performance for the rest of the season was sub-par, with four top-ten and two second-place finishes at both Harrah's 500 and the Texaco/Havoline Grand Prix of Houston. Franchitti concluded the season seventh in the championship standings with 105 points. He finished second at the season-opening Tecate/Telmex Monterrey Grand Prix and took three third-place finishes at the Bridgestone Potenza 500, G.I. Joe's 200 and the following CART Grand Prix of Chicago, starting from pole position in Chicago. Three races later, starting from second, Franchitti led 43 laps to win the Molson Indy Montreal. He won in the Sure for Men Rockingham 500 in his only CART oval track victory two races later. Franchitti finished the season's final four races within the top ten to place fourth in the Drivers' Championship with 148 points. Starting from 28th,
Although he wanted to remain a CART driver because of the series' competition and variety, Franchitti moved to the IRL for the 2003 season with the renamed Andretti Green Racing team (AGR) following his rejection of an offer to drive for Newman/Haas Racing in place of Christian Fittipaldi.