Franchitti Out at Ford for Remainder of Season

Photo: Drew Gibson/Ford

Marino Franchitti will sit out the remainder of the FIA World Endurance Championship, in a driver lineup shakeup announced by Ford Performance on Tuesday.

The Scot, who has teamed with Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell in the No. 67 Ford GT, will “take a step back” in the final three races of the season at Fuji, Shanghai and Bahrain.

A reason for the change was not given by Ford.

The shakeup brings both Ford GTs into two-driver lineups for the remainder of the season, with the No. 66 car of Olivier Pla and Stefan Muecke having been a pairing since the Six Hours of Nürburgring in July.

Ford had elected to retain Tincknell post-Le Mans in the No. 67 car, while not continuing with Billy Johnson, who had joined Pla and Muecke in the No. 66 Ford in the first three rounds.

Franchitti, Priaulx and Tincknell are fresh off a fourth-place GTE-Pro class finish in the Six Hours of Circuit of The Americas.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John