Highcroft confirms Franchitti for Petit LeMans

Highcroft has put out a press release saying that Dario Franchitti will rejoin David Brabham and Scott Sharp in its driver line-up for the Petit Le Mans later this month. Franchitti had previously driven for the squad in the Sebring 12 Hours.

"It is certainly an exceptional field with Audi, Peugeot and also the ORECA guys coming over," said Franchitti. "The P2 cars are also very impressive and been quite close to the P1 cars from time to time. Obviously I have been keeping an eye on my brother Marino and the Dyson boys as well."

"My job at Petit is certainly to be a team player – I'm not out there to be a star – I have to be conservative and make sure I hand the car back in perfect condition at the end of my stints," he said.

"Pulling off a strong finish will be extremely important for Patron Highcroft Racing's championship aspirations."

"Before I tested the LMP2 car prior to Petit last year, the previous run I had done on a road course was in a Nationwide Series car which was 20 seconds a lap slower around Road Atlanta," he said.

"When I got back in the Acura I was still getting up to speed with the performance of the prototypes initially.

"With driving IndyCars for the whole season the performance is a lot more similar to the sportscar so that should help me get up to speed a lot quicker in the limited amount of track time we have available."