Motor Sports Association congratulates Dario Franchitti
on becoming 2007 Indy Racing League champion
The Motor Sports Association wishes to congratulate Dario
Franchitti on being crowned the 2007 Indy Racing League champion.
The popular Scot’s success at the highest level in American
single-seater motor sport was achieved when he took victory
on the last lap of the IRL’s final round held at the
Chicagoland Raceway yesterday (Sunday). It follows on from
his milestone victory in this year’s running of the
world-famous Indianapolis 500 race.
Franchitti becomes the second Briton to have risen through
the UK motor sporting ranks to have gone on to win the IRL
title in the last two years, following Dan Wheldon’s
championship-winning performance in 2005.
MSA Chief Executive Colin Hilton says: “British motor
sport applauds Dario Franchitti on becoming the 2007 IRL Champion.
He has become a terrific ambassador for the sport both in
this country and right around the world and he richly deserves
this crown. His success is yet another reminder of the strength
and depth in talent of British motor sport which continues
as a world leader in all aspects of the sport.”
Dario, aged 34 from Edinburgh, started his racing career in
karts in his native Scotland while just ten years old with
almost immediate success. He won two British karting titles
before moving into cars, winning the Formula Vauxhall Junior
title in 1991 and Formula Vauxhall Lotus crown in 1993. By
then he had already been voted winner of the prestigious McLaren/Autosport
Young Driver of the Year award (1992).
Following a strong debut season in the MSA British Formula
3 Championship, his international career brought wins for
Mercedes-Benz in the FIA International Touring Car (ITC) championship.
Then, in 1997, came his move to the USA where he contested
six seasons of ChampCar World Series and emerged as a prolific
race winner missing out on the title in 1999 on a tiebreak,
having finished level on points with Juan Pablo Montoya.
Franchitti’s career took a knock in 2000 when he badly
injured his back in a motorcycle accident but, after a full
recovery, he has again emerged as a top name in US motor sport,
which yesterday culminated in his outstanding IRL championship
victory.
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