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British star's two crashes in one week
13 August 2007 The driver from Bathgate in Scotland has flipped his race car at high speed twice during races in the past week. Trackside’s Keith Collantine takes a look at Franchitti’s amazing escapes. Last week we featured Dario Franchitti’s astonishing 215mph flip at the Michigan International Speedway as our video of the week. Franchitti tangled with fellow Briton Dan Wheldon and flew into the air. Amazingly he landed on championship rival Scott Dixon, and all the drivers involved in the accident were unhurt. But the fearless Franchitti has been at it again – this time crashing after the Kentucky round had finished. The Team Andretti-Green racer must have had déjà vu as he ploughed into the back of Kosuke Matsuura’s car and took another wild ride through the air. His car slammed down on top of a barrier - but once again Franchitti (and Matsuura) escaped without serious injury. After the Michigan crash he blasted rival Wheldon. But Franchitti held up his hands and admitted he was to blame for the Kentucky shunt. He said: "I'm pretty disgusted with myself right now. I made my feelings clear on last week's incident and where I thought the blame was, but this one was all me." Here’s what happened:
The two shunts mean Franchitti’s lead over Dixon in the title race has been cut to nine points – a slender margin in a series where you get 50 points for a win. With three rounds left Franchitti and Dixon are in a three-way title battle with Tony Kanaan, who won the last two races, and is 52 points behind Franchitti. It’s going to be an exciting climax to the Indy Car championship – even if Franchitti manages to keep his car on the ground. For those of you who missed Franchitti’s first crash see last week’s Trackside. Auto Trader links Hamilton vs Alonso: Team mates at war
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