In this 2009 file photo, Dario Franchitti (left) and team owner Chip Ganassi celebrate Franchitti’s win at the Firestone Indy 300 in Homestead, Fla.Terry Renna/The Associated Press
A few hours into IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe's post-2011 Toronto Honda Indy bash, Dario Franchitti grabbed my arm and said in a stern voice: "I want to talk to you."
My immediate thought was that I had written something with which the Target Chip Ganassi driver took issue and I was about to get a well-thought out and accurate account of why I was wrong.
When I asked the IndyCar veteran flat out what I had done, Franchitti smiled broadly and said: "You know me Jeff, if I had a problem with you, you'd know about it already."
The blunt answer was typical Dario Franchitti: Honest, genuine, and straight to the point.
Instead, the four-time IndyCar champion and three-time Indianapolis 500 winner wanted to talk about the News of the World phone hacking scandal, which saw the U.K. newspaper publish its last edition on the same day as the 2011 Honda Indy Toronto.
He put me on the hot seat, asking a series of penetrating questions about the scandal and journalism as he tried to make sense of the seemingly complete abandonment of ethics in order to get a story. It wasn't about blame or anger, Franchitti just wanted to try to understand the pressures and circumstances that could cause this sort of thing to happen.
That kind of conversation was typical Franchitti too, and what most journalists regularly covering IndyCar came to expect from the articulate Scotsman. It's also why he was always a pleasure to interview: With Franchitti you never got the easy answer or the rehearsed media line; instead, he offered well-thought out and intelligent responses that inevitably pushed the conversation to a higher level. Sometimes he did it with a serious tone, while other times he hammered home his point with side-splitting jokes worthy of stand up routine.
That may now be a thing of the past after the 40-year-old veteran Scot announced his sudden retirement last week due to injuries sustained in a heavy crash on the final lap of the October street course race in Houston. His car got airborne after touching wheels with another car and flew into the catch fencing. He suffered a concussion, fractured vertebrae, and a badly broken right ankle.
While it could have been much worse, the abrupt end to Franchitti's career also underlines the dangers that drivers face when they strap themselves into their cars. This risk is something that he knows all too well after losing two close friends in racing accidents, Canadian Greg Moore in 1999 and Dan Wheldon in 2011.
Franchitti is walking away after an open-wheel career that included three Indianapolis 500 titles, four series championships, 31 career wins, 34 poles, and 89 podiums, in 265 starts over 17 seasons in IndyCar and the former Championship Auto Racing Teams Series, commonly known as CART.
In many ways, Franchitti would have fit in perfectly racing next to his idol and fellow Scot Jim Clark in the 1960s, in an era before racing became a business where gentlemen owners and drivers competed for the sheer love of the sport.
He also has a driving style similar to Clark, who many list as one of the greatest racers in history. When three-time world champion Jackie Stewart described Clark's driving as smooth, clean and full of finesse, he could have been talking about Franchitti. Like Franchitti, the unassuming Clark was a fan favourite at Indianapolis . Clark died in a Formula Two accident in April 1968.
The IndyCar series will need to deal with the absence of its more recognizable ambassadors and leading supporters on the grid. And behind the scenes, many young drivers who sometimes gladly endured Franchitti's playful ribbing in return for freely given sage counsel will feel a huge void.
A typical Franchitti move was to make a point of congratulating rookies on a good drive, even just breaking into the top 10 because he knew the kids needed a boost in their confidence, and the huge personal accomplishment would likely go otherwise unnoticed.
A few years ago, Hinchcliffe and Franchitti shared a sponsor and that allowed the young driver to get to know the veteran before he made the jump to IndyCar.
The relationship had a tremendous influence on the Oakville, Ont. native, because having Franchitti's help smoothed the Canadian's transition from Indy Lights to the big leagues in 2011.
"Dario is one of those unique athletes whose tremendous success at his given craft is matched only by the quality of his character. He was really one of the first IndyCar drivers who would give me bits of advice here and there – he didn't have to do that, but he did and it made a huge difference to me," said Hinchcliffe, who drives for Andretti Autosport.
"I'll always remember at my second ever [IndyCar] race in Long Beach [Calif.], I was still pretty overwhelmed by the whole situation. I was chatting with him in pitlane and he said something that really helped me stop looking at all the other drivers like these superstar racers and just see them as people: 'Hinchy my boy, you spend your whole career trying to get here and then you do and realize you're racing against the same jackasses you have been since karts.'"
Canadian team wins Macau Grand Prix
After a two-decade absence, Theodore Racing made a triumphant return to the Macau Grand Prix with English driver Alex Lynn taking the team's seventh win on Sunday in the 60th running of famed event.
Lynn took the chequered flag 1.173 seconds ahead of Portuguese driver Felix da Costa, who won the race last year. The victory also came on the 30th anniversary of the late three-time world champion Ayrton Senna taking the team's first F3 win.
The original Theodore Racing was founded by the late Teddy Yip Sr., who was a huge supporter of the Macau race and won the event six times between 1974 and 1983. Yip also fielded a Formula One team under the same name between 1976 and 1983, entering 64 grands prix.
The team name was revived this year by Yip's son, Teddy Jr., who was born in Vancouver, and entered the Macau race as a tribute to his father.
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Jeff Pappone