Qualifying was a surprise for all involved as Scott Dixon took pole position with de Ferran Motorsports’ Acura. The petrol powered car dominated the works diesel of both Audi and Peugeot, although the split to second place Tom Kristensen was barely a tenth of a second. The entire top five was only split by 0.28, with Klien picking up third for Peugeot. Franck’s car was fifth, although it was Bourdais behind the wheel. FKM got in the car later, though, for night practice, and things started to look up as he posted the fastest time. Again, the times were super close with Allan McNish 0.07 seconds behind. It was a wet track after a rain shower left standing water on some parts of the circuit.

It turns out testing can be a topsy-turvy experience. On the second day, Peugeot jumped ahead, although it wasn’t Franck’s car topping the times. All times were at least a second slower than Monday, but Nicolas Minassian led the way just three tenths ahead of Allan McNish. Unfortunately, it Bourdais had an off and didn’t manage to set a time. Uh oh. Le Seb didn’t get very far at all, in fact, as on the first lap of the day, he spun it and hit the wall. The damage was enough to cause a red flag, and left Bourdais pretty annoyed at himself. Now I’m annoyed at him too. He says that it shouldn’t affect the car too much though.

In slightly worrying news, Peugeot Sport have admitted that their participation in the Sebring 12 Hours is simply a test for Le Mans 24 Hours later in the year. It’s not unusual for teams to use the race as a practice run for Le Mans, but to be so open about it isn’t a good sign, really. It may be that they are simply playing down the prospect of a win, as team boss Olivier Quesnel says: “Our objective is to prepare for Le Mans. We won’t be out to start from pole or set the fastest race lap at all costs by taking unconsidered risks. We need to progress on the technical, human and strategic fronts. That said, we won’t refuse victory if it comes our way.”

My little Franck-obsessed corner of the web turns one year old this month. We started on the 5th February, in an attempt to follow the Frenchman as he navigated his way through Champ Car. Of course, that didn’t happen, but I was not deterred. We’ve followed Franck through A1GP, ALMS and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and hopefully, there is plenty more to look forward to in 2009 and beyond.

Peugeot Sport announced their lineup yesterday for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, confirming that Montagny would join them for the second year in a row. He’ll also turn up for a couple of prepatory events, the 12 Hours of Sebring, and 1000 Kilometres of Spa. I’ve never heard of either of these events but am now very excited about them. FKM’s team mates for Spa and Sebring have been announced as follows:

A few days ago, a new update appeared on the news section of Franck’s official site, and I have just got round to translating it and having a read. There’s not much in the way of news, Franck’s in training for the new season, and will apparently be getting in the Peugeot soon. The bit that interested me, though, was this: You may have noticed that the stories were more rare in recent months and news that some had even had to be withdrawn … Too bad, I grant you, but it was a specific request of partners FKM upset that some information too confidential and disclosed on the web. We know how fast information travels on the web and we have had to revise our editorial content.

I’m not entirely sure why, presumably just as an exercise in corporate relations, but Peugeot Sport took their Le Mans team to the Michelin factory in France. They had a look round they tyre manufacturing plant, but also learnt some of the basics of production and had a go at making a tyre themselves. Wurz, Gene, Sarrazin, Minassian and Lamy were all very impressed with what they saw, but here’s what Franck had to say on the subject:

I was just checking out the official Franck site for any news and updates on our favourite Frenchman and the latest article is about his test with AGR. However, at the end of the post, there is a snippet of information. Since then, Franck returned to Europe on our good old continent. On the agenda this week, a Training Camp in good and due form! Franck joined his coach and osteopath for a week of intensive training mega!

After a relatively good showing with AGR’s American Le Mans team, Montagny was given a road course test with the IndyCar team a couple of weeks ago. Franck already had a go in the Indy car back in September, testing at the Kentucky Speedway, but this time he got to have a go at Sebring - which should be a more preferable circuit style to him. He tested with Tony Kanaan, one of AGR’s current drivers, and Franck said the pair had fun and shared a friendly rivalry. He felt the day went well, although both he and the car needed some time to adapt to each other:

It’s been a while, but I return with good tidings. Franck won his first ALMS race this weekend, taking the top stop of the podium with team mate James Rossiter. The win came after some good strategic calls from the team, some good decision making in the pit stops, and some good driving from Mr FKM. The team waited until the minimum amount of time a driver has to be in the car (45 minutes) before calling Rossiter in and switching him up with Montagny, but because this was under yellow flags, they didn’t lose too much time.

Well, I can only apologise for not updating more often. There are no excuses, except I don’t really understand the Le Mans series very well, and therefore don’t find myself going looking for news every day. It looks like Montagny is showing well in the series, but having some small bouts of bad luck. At the moment he’s partnered with James Rossiter, I believe, and they raced this weekend at Road America. Doing pretty well, I gather, but knocked out with only ten minutes to go due to contact with another car.

It started out well for Franck, as he finished the first practice session on top, although only by a tenth of a second. He then went on to hold a provisional pole during the qualifying sessions, but ultimately finished seventh. Afterwards, however, two Audi drivers were given penalties and pushed back to ninth on the grid - which helped our boy somewhat! Overall, Montagny finished 6th, and three laps down, which isn’t too bad on your first race.

Having performed so well in the Le Mans 24 Hour race, Montagny has been snapped up for the American Le Mans series for the remainder of the season. Now, I’m a bit late with news, and the race this weekend at Lime Rock sees Montagny teaming up with Marco Andretti but it looks like he will have various team mates throughout the season. The new lineup is somewhat unexpected, as AGR had only just got settled with a team of Christian Fittipaldi and Bryan Herta. But the boss wanted a big change, and thankfully Franck got the benefit of that.

Oops. Turns out that when I said this year was his best result, I was wrong. And my only excuse is that clearly I cannot read. To make amends for my error, here is the full run-down of Franck’s achievements at Le Mans. Year Team Result 1998 Courage 5th 1999 DAMS DNF 2000 DAMS 9th 2001 Oreca DNF 2002 Oreca 6th 2005 Oreca 4th 2006 Pescarolo 2nd 2008 Peugeot 3rd For the last few years, there’s been a nice trend of the results going up, for Franck, but it appears this year was not to be. Never mind. There’s always next year.

Franck did an amazing job. He started second, and at one point was driving so fast he could catch the leaders at four seconds a lap. He overtook the front runners to lead the race at one point, and then made the big mistake of handing the car over to Klien. A couple of laps in, Klien through the car in the gravel. Still, we have to be impressed that our guys managed to recover enough to finish third. Franck started and finished the race, and it was nice to see him on the podium.

Peugeot continued their fine form from the first round of qualifying, and took the first three spots on the grid. Franck’s car is second, behind Stephane Sarrazin, and ahead of Marc Gene. The finishing times were over three seconds quicker than Audi. The full qualifying results can be viewed here. Unfortunately, Montagny’s team mate Ricardo Zonta was having a go in the car when he was involved in an incident. The Peugeot was hit by another car and smashed into the barriers. Zonta is unharmed, but this has put them on the back foot slightly, with only a short amount of time to rebuild the car.

First qualifying for Le Mans 24 Hours took place last night (thanks to Andrea in the comments for the heads up). Our Peugeot boys were on top form, taking the top three spots, with main rival Audi taking the next three: Pos Class Drivers Team Car Time Gap 1 LMP1 Lamy, Sarrazin, Wurz Team Peugeot Total Peugeot 908 3:18.513 – 2 LMP1 Montagny, Zonta, Klien Peugeot Sport Total Peugeot 908 3:18.682 +0.169 3 LMP1 Gene, Minassian, Villeneuve Team Peugeot Total Peugeot 908 3:20.451 +1.938 Stephane Sarrazin set a serious benchmark, posting the fastest time that anybody has been around the Le Mans track since 1989!

Peugeot turned up for the test day this past weekend, with the Sporting Director Michel Barge, summing up the day for the team: “We have prepared extremely thoroughly for this monumental competition. We have raced at Sebring and in the three rounds of the 2008 Le Mans Series, including Spa where we fielded two complete driver line-ups, not to mention an extremely busy programme of testing since the flag came down on the 2007 Le Mans 24 Hours.

As I mentioned briefly in the previous post about Franck’s successful outing at Long Beach, it looks like FKM had a confirmed Champ Car drive for 2009. Before the race, he said: It was disappointing to have a deal three weeks before the season, and then nothing. But we’ve kept very close with Forsythe and we have a very good relationship. Maybe there will be a chance to do IndyCar with them next year, I hope so.

I can only apologise for not posting this news immediately, it is definitely worth a blog post or two! In his one and only Champ Car race, Franck managed to finish 2nd with an inspired drive. But let’s start at the beginning. It appears that Franck had a confirmed Champ Car drive, which is why he lined up on the grid in Long Beach this past weekend. This was his debut for the Forsythe team, but as the series no longer exists, and the team are not going to participate anymore, it was also his last Champ Car appearance.

I’ve been away this week, and missed out on all the action of last weekend, which is typical because Franck was… both good and bad. We had a moment to celebrate when he hit the top of the time sheets in the final Free Practice session, just ahead of favourites Switzerland. Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps 1 Franck Montagny France 1:35.470 – 23 2 Neel Jani Switzerland 1:35.556 +0.086 19 3 Edoardo Piscopo Italy 1:35.703 +0.233 21 4 Jonny Reid New Zealand 1:35.834 +0.364 23 5 Robbie Kerr Great Britain 1:36.040 +0.570 23 It didn’t last long, however, because in the actual races Team France suffered disappointing results. The Sprint Race saw Franck make up six places on the opening lap - but the disastrous qualifying placing meant this only left him in 12th. The Feature Race at least saw Team France picking up some points, with Montagny finishing in 8th.

Thanks to Andrea in the comments, we now know that Franck has been snapped up by A1 Team France to take part in a couple of A1 GP races. There are more details here (link retired), but FKM will be driving in Shanghai on the 11th-13th April, and at Brands Hatch on 2nd-4th May. I was tempted to visit A1 GP when I saw some footage from it at Autosport International this year, so now I have no excuse not to go!

It looks to me like Franck is going to debut and finish up his Champ Car career in one and the same race. According to this story (link retired), Franck is one of 13 drivers confirmed to appear at the Grand Prix of Long Beach. I was not aware of this, and I’m finding it hard to find out any more information. If anyone else knows more, let me know!

Toyota driver Timo Glock suffered a big accident at the season opener in Australia last weekend, and whilst he walked away mostly uninjured, there were a few days of doubt whether he would be able to race in Malaysia. It’s now been announced that he will. And all I can say is phew. If Toyota had to fall back on their reserve driver, the second race after Montagny is no longer that reserve driver, I would never, ever forgive Toyota.

As pointed out by Steven Roy in the comments, Forsythe Racing have announced they won’t be competing in whatever championship the Champ Car/IRL merger turns out to be. I don’t know about Franck, but I was kinda pinning my hopes on him getting that drive. Now we have simply the Le Mans thing to look out for. However, the good news is that in looking at that news story, I found a new picture of the pink-helmeted Franck.

Peugeot are running three cars at this year’s Le Mans race, meaning a hoarde of drivers signing up to sit behind the wheel. Christian Klien and Alex Wurz are other Formula 1 drivers getting involved, but of course the most important is Franck Montagny. The Peugeot 908 is a diesel powered car with the maximum size engine allowed. Last year, two of them ran, one of which qualified ahead of nearest rivals Audi, but finished behind them. The other retired from the race.

Well, that may be an exaggeration, but the former Formula 1 driver has been saying some nice things about our favourite Frenchman. It also looks like there’s no shortage of talented drivers staying in and coming into Champ Car. The Sebring test demonstrated something I’ve known for a long time – that Franck Montagny is every bit as quick as his test times suggest. He deserves a competitive ride this year.

The news doing the rounds at the moment is that IRL and Champ Car are getting back together. I can’t pretend to understand this fully, because I’m a newbie, but I get the idea. The two used to be part of the same series but split apart a while back. Going their separate ways obviously hasn’t done them any favours, I imagine the division of fans, audience, and sponsors, isn’t exactly what they wanted. Maybe they thought people would stay tuned to both, but I’m guessing that most people have a favourite.

Is it just me or does the official Champ Car website leave a lot to be desired? Half of it is out of date - the driver bios only go up to 2005. Which is now three years ago. At least the event schedule and the news is up to date. But there should be more video and pictures available. Although, compared to the official F1 site, it’s a dream.

On the first day of testing for Forsythe Pettit/Racing, Mr Montagny topped the timesheets. I’m told this is not his first time in a Champ Car, but that’s still pretty impressive. The top five of Day 1: Pos Driver Team Time Speed 1 Franck Montagny Forsythe Pettit/Racing 50.788 seconds 118.304 mph 2 Oriol Servia PKV Racing 50.856 seconds 118.145 mph 3 Justin Wilson Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing 50.927 seconds 117.981 mph 4 Franck Perera Conquest Racing 50.986 seconds 117.844 mph 5 Alex Figge Pacific Coast Motorsports 51.097 seconds 117.588 mph On day two:

Hello everyone, welcome to the I <3 Franck blog. The mean old man over at Sidepodcast won’t let me talk about Champ Car (even though they have sidepods too!), so I’ve created this blog to worship at the feet of my new favourite CC driver: Franck Montagny. I say my new favourite CC driver as if I had one before, but quite honestly, I know absolutely nothing about Champ Car. I watched a programme about it once, where Katherine Legge was trying to get a race seat, but I think it was an old show from about 2005 or something like that.

We went to Autosport International this weekend. Needless to say, I was ready to leave on Saturday morning quite a long time before Mr C had even contemplated packing his bag. The headless chicken phase kicked in and he rushed around looking for shoes and toothpaste and the usual rubbish. He sat in front of the computer and struggled to print off the directions we needed to get from the NEC to the hotel. He cursed and kicked the machine and eventually got it to print out. I mentioned checking the traffic, but it went over his head and we were soon on our way.

Brundle speaks about himself with humour and in a very self-deprecating way, attributing most of his successes to luck and his failures to driver mistakes. The journey through the book takes you from his very first lap as a Formula 1 driver, and you can feel the nerves, and then the growing confidence. It’s written well, clear and informative, without being patronising. The layout of the book also means that you there are clear breaks in the narrative, it’s easy to pick up and put down, and you don’t have to read it straight through, although I did.

The Grand Prix today was so good, mostly because we were rooting for anyone but Michael, therefore we had a good chance of being happy. Ralph was my driver of the day because he fell right behind but then caught up and overtook his brother (something Mr C has always said he won’t do). And of course, it was pretty fantastic to see Michael get lapped!!!