Dario Franchitti

George Dario Marino Franchitti, MBE , known professionally as Dario Franchitti, is a retired British racing driver. He is a four time IndyCar Series champion , a three time winner of the Indianapolis 500 as well as a winner of theHours of Daytona . Franchitti started his career in his native United Kingdom in the early 1990s, competing in Formula Vauxhall and Formula Three and was also the winner of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award in 1992. After Franchitti did not secure a singleseater drive in 1995, he was contracted by the AMG team to compete in touring cars in the DTM and its successor the International Touring Car Championship. Despiteseasons with relative success, the series folded at the end of the 1996 season, again leaving Franchitti without a drive. Mercedes placed Franchitti in CART in 1997 with the Hogan Racing team.

Franchitti was born in Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland. While attending Stewarts Melville College in Edinburgh, he became interested in karting. Allan McNish credited a large part of the start given to himself, Franchitti and David Coulthard as being down to David Leslie senior and junior. Franchitti won the Karting Scottish Junior Championship in 1984, the British Junior Championships in 1985 and 1986 and the Scottish senior title in 1988. He progressed to Formula Vauxhall Junior where he won the championship with four victories in 1991.

Source: Wikipedia