Looking back on the year as a whole, I’m really happy and proud of the job we all did and what we were able to achieve as team. Making the progress we did - getting fastest laps, poles and race wins - is testament to the hard work of each and every member of not only Dyson Racing, but our partners at Mazda and BP too. On a personal note I want to thank Rob and Chris Dyson, Robert Davis and John Doonan for the great opportunity they gave me this year, it was great to be able to repay the faith they have shown in me.

Teamed with sportscar veteran Butch Leitzinger, Franchitti had the best year of his career, firmly establishing the Dyson Racing Mazda program as one to watch at every round. (LAT)

My big brother Dario was battling for the IRL title at Homestead almost the same time as we were racing, so I was able to avoid the stress of watching that live. As usual we were in close contact all weekend, he’d done the first part of the job by winning the pole and I can’t tell you how happy I was when I heard he’d won not only the race, but the Championship too!! The way I found out was very funny….

We had gone out of the race barely 2 minutes earlier and I was pretty upset and unhappy, then someone said to me “Hey, I just heard your brother won the Championship!” I responded with an expletive and could hardly believe it, in fact, I didn’t believe it so I had to go and find out for myself. Bob Leitzinger (Butch’s dad and no mean racer himself!) has an iPhone so we got together and tried to find out what was going on, but guess what, he had no service! So, he and I were running around behind the pit until we finally got the information about the race. Well, we went crazy, we started hugging and jumping up and down so you can imagine the looks we were getting from people who had seen our car go out only minutes earlier, they clearly thought we’d gone quite crazy! However, the good news quickly spread and I was grinning from ear to ear.

I can’t tell you how proud I am of my brother, he’s done such a fantastic job this year along with his Target Chip Ganassi crew and for him to return to Indy and win in his first year with a new team says it all. Most impressive for me (apart from his hair of course!) was how hard he pushed himself in all areas and how he continued to learn, improve and basically sharpen up edges that were already pretty damn sharp! One day I hope we not only get to do the endurance races together, but that we get to do a whole season of ALMS sharing a car, now that would be cool.

After the race we had some dinner and headed out with the crew to celebrate the end of a very encouraging first season with the new program. The next evening was the ALMS awards banquet where we celebrated the champions of the respective classes. It was nice to be picking up some silverware, though hopefully next year we’re there picking up the first place prize instead of the second.

Talking of next year, I’m working hard on my plans right now so I look forward to bringing you news on that in the near future.

Before I go there’s one important last thing. On Saturday, 31st October, it will be 10 years to the day since our friend Greg Moore tragically lost his life, so please take a moment to remember him and the fantastic person (and bad ass driver) he was. He’s still so badly missed and I’m glad my bro could win that Championship in his honour.

See you at the front.

~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