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Twenty-five cars are approaching the magic 250th lap. It's the latest round of the FedEx CART Championship in Michigan and the lead is changing hands with monotonous regularity. Incredibly, having started at the back of the grid, Dario Franchitti is now out in front. The next moment he's down to second, then he leads, he's passed, he leads again. And so it goes on, by turns exciting and agonising, as he works out how many corners he has left and whether he should overtake now or wait. With less than a mile to run, he hits the front. Bad move. As the last bend comes into view, Patrick Carpentier jabs at the fuel boost button and side-steps past Franchitti for his maiden Champ car victory.
"The aerodynamic rules that CART has introduced means the front car has to break the air," explains Franchitti, watching a re-run of the race the following week. "The aerodynamics were changed to bring the speeds down because we were averaging over 240mph, but it's like towing a parachute behind you."
A big noise in the States, Franchitti is less well-recognised in Britain, a fact he revels in when it means he can walk through Edinburgh or Glasgow without being hassled. CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams, or Champ Cars) is only shown on Eurosport in the UK, so by comparison with, say, David Coulthard, his profile is low.
But all that's about to change with the opening of the UK's first Champ Car track at Rockingham in Northamptonshire, built at a cost of GBP 50 million. When we meet, the inaugural UK CART race is just eight weeks away. Dressed in his Team KOOL Green suit, Franchitti cuts a slightly incongruous figure in the empty pit lane at Rockingham. Race circuits, like nightclubs, are not at their best when devoid of people, and Rockingham is no exception. On race day, bristling with cars, drivers, mechanics and the attendant entourage, he will blend into the whirl of high-octane confetti, but today the Bathgate-born racer is a beacon in green and white.
Back in his Airstream motorhome, Franchitti eases himself into a position that is so laid-back it is hard to imagine anything ever ruffling his poise. But he quickly explains that...