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.
