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American LeMans
FRANCHITTI: A Dream Win At Petit
What a great result for the BP Dyson Mazda team at Petit, of course it’s not the way we wanted the race to end, but you can only worry about what you can control
Marino Franchitti  | http://www.marinofranchitti.com  |  Posted October 05, 2009   London (ENG)
Marino (R) and Mazda's John Doonan share in the joy of their Petit Le Mans win. (LAT)
What a great result for the BP Dyson Mazda team at Petit, of course it’s not the way we wanted the race to end, but you can only worry about the things that you can control and the weather is certainly not one of those!

I promise, I’ve not copied and pasted the next bit from previous files…..

The car was stunning off the truck once again, our best time in practice for the whole week ended up being a 1:11.2 and after 5 laps (mostly spent bedding in transmission parts) on Wednesday we did an 11.5. We had not tested at all here with the coupe so again Peter Weston, Chief Race Engineer at Dyson Racing, and Vince Wood, Engineer on Car #20, get an A plus for doing their homework so well and for giving us such a rocket of a car.

All three drivers in the #20 car got some running during that first session, but we had a failure near the end which stranded Ben out on track. We had to make a precautionary engine change after this and as our race engine was still on route, we didn’t run during the day on the Thursday. The engine arrived late afternoon and the team moved heaven and earth to get the motor fitted in time for us to be able to do our mandatory 3 laps of night practice, the boys are just the best because if we had not made it out we would have had to start the race from the back of the grid. We have to thank Firstair, who take care of shipping for the team, as they made sure everything ran smoothly and that the engine arrived right on time.

The ALMS again showed their green credentials and that the Series is the place for innovation by allowing our sister car to run BP’s new ethanol and biobutanol blended fuel. Although the #16 car was to run unclassified, we were very excited as a team to be the first to run this fuel, it was particularly nice to show that BP is not just a name on the side of our car, but a true technical partner of Mazda and Dyson Racing. So, as the Guv’nor said, we won two classes, the unclassified class and LMP2!

Qualifying was just fantastic, we were going for our third pole position in a row and I felt pre-session that it was achievable, but I never expected to have the advantage we ended up with as the class had been very close through all the sessions. The car was so hooked up and my pole lap was just one of those that you dream about, it was without doubt the best of the three I’ve had and for the margin to be 1.2 seconds over the competition was very satisfying.

As had been forecast, it was wet on race day and as the water table was so high after the heavy rain of the previous week, it was not going to take much to flood the track. We had huge downpours in the morning which meant a delay in warm-up.

The rain stopped just before the race began, though there were still huge amounts of standing water and rivers running across a few areas of the circuit. It was a case of trying to find a hole in the spray at the start rather than trying to pass any of the P1’s ahead and we settled (as much as you can in such tough conditions!) into a good pace, which saw us pull out a lead over the Fernandez car. We had a few issues with the screen in the rain, especially with fogging up, though it was a good step forward from Mosport so we’re going in the right direction and we gained a huge amount of knowledge in every kind of weather in the race which is good news.

The team were keeping me informed about the speed of the Cytomax Porsche early on and how he was closing in, and we were pretty happy to let him go by as it looked as though he was driving a bit over the edge; and so it proved when a little later after going on to slicks he went off causing him to lose many laps.

About 8 laps into the race the car stuck in gear just as I was coming into the final chicane, it happened in a fortunate spot because it meant I could pull straight into the pits. However the toughest challenge was trying to stay within the pit speed, but we managed not to pick up a time penalty as the unscheduled stop was penalty enough! The crew found we had an actuator failure and they did a mega job of fixing it and not losing us too much time. There was no panic when the incident happened, everyone knew their job and did it perfectly, you could feel the confidence within the whole team and the belief that we could come back from it. That’s why I love the endurance races, there is time to come back from an incident and that’s what sports cars is all about! Over the next hour or so using good strategy and outright speed we made up three laps on the leading LMP2 car, and even passed a Peugeot along the way!

After two hours we took the opportunity of a yellow to do our first driver change and Butch took over. Shortly after the change the leading Fernandez car had an issue which allowed us to re-take the lead (though we were closing them down at a rate of knots) and it was a lead we would hold until the race was prematurely ended by the rain.

Butch completed his stints and handed over to Ben who was joining us again for the endurance race, and he did a good job keeping the car on track when the heavy rain came, as anyone who saw the TV coverage and cars flying off everywhere would know, that was no easy job!

It was absolutely the right decision to stop the race, in those conditions we’re not driving as much as trying to will the car not to go off because we have zero control and I can’t tell you how bad a feeling it is when you have such extreme aquaplaning and the car turns into a rudderless boat.
Surviving the conditions was key at Road Atlanta, and the #20 DP Dyson Racing Mazda team held on when it mattered most. (LAT)

I felt so bad for the fans that were stuck out in that rain, it was the worst I’ve seen for a long time, and I’m from Scotland!!! It was a real shame we could not get the race restarted, but there was just way too much standing water, mud, etc., in multiple places on the track. Another factor that some hadn’t taken into consideration was that we need to pre-heat the engines and that alone takes at least 45 minutes over and above the rain stopping and the flooding subsiding. It’s one of those situations where people are going to be unhappy but, trust me as someone who loves racing in the rain, if it had been possible we would have been out there and I was as disappointed as anyone.

So, it was a strange end to the race, though it’s always fantastic to win and I was so happy for us to get the victory at Petit Le Mans, the whole BP Dyson Mazda team and my team mates really deserved it. For me personally, I’ve been second here and in Sebring so I really wanted to get a big endurance race win and as it was my last time qualifying this year, so I really wanted to win a race from pole as we’d come so close in the last couple of events. Our sister car was actually seven laps up on us, they had a perfect run, but as I mentioned earlier, they were unclassified.

I can’t believe we’re heading into the last race of the season, it feels like Sebring was only yesterday, but it’s nice to look back over the year and see the progress we’ve made with the whole package. Hopefully we can finish off the year with a win at Mazda raceway Laguna Seca.

~Marino

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, SPEED, FOX, or NewsCorp.

Marino Franchitti drives the #20 BP Dyson Racing Mazda LMP2 car alongside teammate Butch Leitzinger. Now in his second season with the Dyson team, the native of Scotland has distinguished himself as one of the fastest and most engaging drivers in the American Le Mans Series.

In his first sportscar racing season, driving for Porsche Cars Great Britain, Marino won the British GTO Championship in emphatic style, 11 podiums from 13 races which included 8 wins and 2 fastest laps. He mirrored his GT accomplishments when driving his first LMP2 prototype; breaking the lap record, he went on to take pole position and win the race. Now a skilled and experienced road racer in both GT and prototype categories, he is currently the only driver in the ALMS to have driven all three competing manufacturers in the LMP2 category, Acura, Porsche and Mazda.

Highly ranked amongst his career achievements so far is his overall win last year in a 4-hour race on the infamous 20km Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit in Germany. A true sportscar enthusiast, there are no barriers to Marino's love of competition; in particular his passion for historic racing. Competing at Goodwood is a priority and last year he drove arguably one of the historic greats, the Ferrari 250 GTO.

Learn more about Marino at www.MarinoFranchitti.com. His BP Dyson Racing Mazda team's site can be found at www.DysonRacing.com.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
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Marino Franchitti

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