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| Franck Fréon | |
|---|---|
 Franck Fréon at Indianapolis Speedway in 1995 | |
| Nationality |  French |
| Born | (1962-03-16)16 March 1962 (age 63) |
| Previous series | |
| 1986-87 1988 1989 1990 1991-93 1994-95 1995-97 1996 | French Formula Renault Turbo German Formula 3 French Formula 3 International Formula 3000 Indy Lights CART/Indycars IMSA GT Championship Japanese Formula 3 |
Franck Fréon (born 16 March 1962, inParis) is a French race car driver.
He began his career in the FrenchRenault 5 Turbo Championship in 1986 and 1987 then competed in FrenchFormula Three from 1988 to 1989. In 1990 he competed inInternational Formula 3000 and failed to qualify for four of his first five race attempts, but was credited with 5th place in his first successful start although he did not finish the race. He subsequently left his team and joined another for the final two races of the year where he qualified but failed to point. His fifth place was good enough for 19th in the championship.
He moved to theUnited States and participated inIndy Lights from 1991 to 1993 capturing 4 wins and finishing runner up in both the 1992 and 1993 standings, behindRobbie Buhl andBryan Herta respectively. However, he had trouble finding a good team inCART, making 4 starts (and 1 DNF) for 3 different teams in the 1994 season with a best finish of 12th in his CART debut at theLong Beach Grand Prix. 1995 wasn't much better as Fréon finished 15th in the Long Beach season opener, then failed to qualify for theIndianapolis 500 in a 3 year oldLola chassis and returned 5 months later only to fail to make the show atLaguna Seca Raceway.
Fréon then ventured into endurance car racing, driving marginally competitive LMP vehicles in the24 Hours of Le Mans from 1995 to 1999. He then signed onto theChevrolet factory team to drive theChevrolet Corvette C5-R. He teamed withRon Fellows andJohnny O'Connell to win the24 Hours of Daytona in 2001. He continued with the team until 2004.
Nearing his retirement, Fréon leveraged his knowledge, experience and passion for cars to establish his business Pumpkin Fine Cars & Exotics in 1998.[1]
(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position; races initalics indicate fastest lap.)
| Year | Entrant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | DC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Galaxy Racing | DON DNQ | SIL DNQ | PAU 5 | JER DNQ | MNZ DNQ | PER | HOC | BRH | BIR | 19th | 2 | ||
| Apomatox | BUG 14 | NOG 16 | ||||||||||||
| Year | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Rank | Points | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Fréon Racing Services | LBH 4 | PHX 7 | MIL 3 | DET 2 | POR 2 | CLE 6 | MEA 6 | TOR 4 | DEN 6 | MDO 3 | NAZ 9 | LS 8 | 4th | 121 | [4] |
| 1992 | Landford Racing | PHX 11 | LBH 1 | DET 5 | POR 1 | MIL 4 | LOU 2 | TOR 12 | CLE 1 | VAN 4 | MDO 6 | NAZ 2 | LS 3 | 2nd | 159 | [5] |
| 1993 | John Martin Racing | PHX 9 | LBH 2 | DET 18 | POR 4 | MIL 1 | NHA 3 | TOR 2 | CLE 7 | VAN 5 | MDO 6 | NAZ 3 | LS 17 | 2nd | 122 | [6] |
| Year | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | Rank | Points | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Project Indy | SRF | PHX | LBH 12 | INDY | MIL | DET | POR 15 | CLE | TOR | MIS | MDO | NHM | 32nd | 1 | [7] | |||||
| Euromotorsport | VAN DNQ | ROA 29 | NZR | ||||||||||||||||||
| Indy Regency Racing | LS 18 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1995 | Project Indy | MIA | SRF | PHX | LBH 15 | NZR | 36th | 0 | [8] | ||||||||||||
| Indy Regency Racing | INDY DNQ | MIL | DET | POR | ROA | TOR | CLE | MIS | MDO | NHM | VAN | ||||||||||
| Payton/Coyne Racing | LS DNQ |
| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 |  Team Artnature | Yojiro Terada Pierre de Thoisy | Mazda RX-7 GTO | IMSA GTS | 250 | 15th | 2nd |
| 1995 |  D.T.R.Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd. | Yojiro TeradaJim Downing | Kudzu DG-3-Mazda | WSC | 282 | 7th | 3rd |
| 1996 | Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd. | Yojiro TeradaJim Downing | Kudzu DLM-Mazda | LMP2 | 251 | 25th | 1st |
| 1997 | Team T.D.R.Mazdaspeed | Yojiro TeradaJim Downing | Kudzu DLM-4-Mazda | LMP | 263 | 17th | 6th |
| 1998 | Courage Compétition | Yojiro TeradaOlivier Thévenin | Courage C41-Porsche | LMP1 | 300 | 16th | 4th |
| 1999 | Autoexe Motorsport | Yojiro Terada Robin Donovan | Autoexe LMP99-Ford | LMP | 74 | DNF | DNF |
| 2000 | Corvette Racing | Andy Pilgrim Kelly Collins | Chevrolet Corvette C5-R | GTS | 327 | 10th | 3rd |
| 2001 | Corvette Racing | Andy Pilgrim Kelly Collins | Chevrolet Corvette C5-R | GTS | 271 | 14th | 2nd |
| 2002 | Corvette Racing | Andy Pilgrim Kelly Collins | Chevrolet Corvette C5-R | GTS | 331 | 13th | 2nd |
| 2003 | Corvette Racing |  Ron FellowsJohnny O'Connell | Chevrolet Corvette C5-R | GTS | 326 | 12th | 3rd |
Headquarters:Plainfield,Illinois | |
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