{"id":1553,"date":"2010-01-15T13:16:33","date_gmt":"2010-01-15T18:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racinginfocus.com\/rif\/?p=1553"},"modified":"2012-03-17T18:34:19","modified_gmt":"2012-03-17T22:34:19","slug":"marino-franchitti-joins-patron-highcroft-dream-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/alms\/marino-franchitti-joins-patron-highcroft-dream-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Marino Franchitti joins Patr\u00f3n Highcroft Dream Team"},"content":{"rendered":"
Will be a constant presence with Brabham, Pagenaud in 2010 <\/span><\/h5>\n

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Patr\u00f3n Highcroft Racing has locked in another American Le Mans Series race winner for its 2010 driver line-up with Marino Franchitti joining forces with David Brabham and Simon Pagenaud.
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\n\"MFranchitti011410_1\"<\/p>\n

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Franchitti took two LMP2 class victories for Dyson Racing <\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/a>in 2009, but will now line-up aboard the Honda Performance Development factory-backed ARX-01c Patr\u00f3n Highcroft Racing entry for the 2010 Twelve Hours of Sebring, the Monterey Sports Car Championship at Laguna Seca and the season-ending Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
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Franchitti has established himself as one of the world's foremost sports car stars, especially in prototypes.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Marino will have a significantly enhanced scope of responsibilities to those given to his brother, Dario, by the team last season. Alongside his three confirmed race outings, the popular Scotsman will be behind the wheel for additional test duties as well as attending each round of the ALMS championship.
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\nFranchitti took three pole positions, three fastest race laps and 10 podiums from 10 races last season, two of which were ALMS LMP2 class victories alongside Butch Leitzinger at Lime Rock Park and at Petit Le Mans with Leitzinger and Ben Devlin.
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\nThe 31-year-old originally made his American Le Mans Series debut aboard a Ferrari 360 in 2001.\u00a0 After several seasons in GT machinery, Franchitti graduated to the LMP2 class in 2007 with Andretti Green Racing (AGR).\u00a0Strong results for the factory Acura AGR squad earned Franchitti a full-time ride with Dyson Racing in 2008 which grew into a factory Mazda entry last season.
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\nThe three Patr\u00f3n Highcroft Racing<\/span><\/em><\/strong> <\/a>stars will join the team in Danbury next week for their pre-season seat-fitting.
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\nFranchitti, Brabham and Pagenaud will then undertake their first laps aboard the newly-revised ARX-01c the following week.
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\nThe team’s 2010 livery will be revealed at the annual Winter Test at Sebring on February 22-23.\u00a0 The opening round of the 2010 American Le Mans Series at Sebring is scheduled for March 20.
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\nMARINO FRANCHITTI<\/strong>
\n\u201cIt\u2019s great to be joining the championship-winning team and linking up not only with last year\u2019s two fastest drivers in LMP1 in the American Le Mans Series, but also two good friends who will be my teammates. Brabs I\u2019ve known and admired for years, and Simon became a friend almost from the time he came to the ALMS.
\n\u201cI\u2019m very excited about my role with the team because I will not only be doing the long races at Sebring, Laguna Seca and Petit Le Mans, but I will also be attending all the other races.
\n\u201cMy job will be to sit in on all our team briefings and hopefully be able to learn and also lean on some of the experience I\u2019ve gained in recent years in order to have a positive input into the development of the car.\u00a0 There are also a lot of test miles planned in preparation for the championship defense so I know I won\u2019t be idle.
\n\u201cDuncan has made no secret of his desire to contest the 24 Hours of Le Mans and also expand the team into a second car, so obviously there are some great opportunities ahead.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve been friends for a long time and you can\u2019t help but be impressed by what Duncan and his team have accomplished in recent years.\u201d
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\nDUNCAN DAYTON<\/strong>
\n\u201cThe calendar clash with Petit Le Mans and IndyCar forced us to look for a new third driver for this year and we were very fortunate to be able to keep it in the family.
\n\u201cBut Marino\u2019s surname really had nothing to do with the decision.\u00a0 He has been extremely impressive over the past couple of seasons and we jumped at the opportunity to grab him when he became available.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve been friends for quite a few years and he shares the same passion for the sport that we all have here in Danbury \u2013 both for modern and historic racing.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re excited about his role for Patr\u00f3n Highcroft Racing. We’re looking to build for the future and as we expand program, we\u2019d like Marino to be a part of that.
\n\u201cBrabs has played an integral role for our team and we want him to be a part our organization for many years to come \u2013 but he may not want still to be behind the wheel in 10 years time.
\n\u201cBringing younger guys on board like Simon and Marino is important for securing our future.
\n\u201cI\u2019m truly excited about our lineup for the 2010 season and can\u2019t wait to kick off our championship defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source ALMS<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a9 RIF<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Will be a constant presence with Brabham, Pagenaud in 2010 \u00a0 Patr\u00f3n Highcroft Racing has locked in another American Le Mans Series race winner for its 2010 driver line-up with Marino Franchitti joining forces with David Brabham and Simon Pagenaud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[9],"tags":[5264,40,38,5285,170,5296,37,109,5279],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1553"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1651,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553\/revisions\/1651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}