McLaren are running the rule of 22-year-old Scot Paul Di Resta. The West Lothian youngster, cousin of Dario Franchitti, is testing today and tomorrow at Silverstone, and will be given a second bite of the cherry later this month. Di Resta will not be given a drive for next season given that Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen have confirmed they will stay on, but he could become Di Testa (ho, ho!).
Di Resta has been brought into McLaren’s Young Driver programme which exempts him from the usual limits on team testing. He is currently racing in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) series for Mercedes. He came fifth in 2007 in his debut season in the DTM despite not being given a 2007 spec car. He has previously raced in the Euroseries championship, where Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were also blooded.
Hollywood actress who makes a fast Scot very happy
Today’s Grid WAG is 40-year-old American beauty Ashley Judd, an actress who rarely takes a part in a film unless it involves gratuitous nudity. Her husband since 2001 has been Dario Franchitti, a racing driver who left sunny Scotland behind to pursue a career in the CART and IndyCar series. For his 2007 IndyCar series victory, he received the coveted BBC Scotland Sports Personality of the Year award, but probably only because he was up against the grumpiest man in the world, Andy Murray.
Dario Franchitti, a man who is rightly best-known as Mr Ashley Judd, is leaving Nascar after just one season, to return to IndyCar in 2009. The Scot, who won the Indy 500 last year, will replace fellow Brit Dan Wheldon and team up with Scott Dixon.
Dixon is delighted with the news (perhaps because Wheldon has a reputation in the IndyCar paddock as being a bit of a dick, whereas Dario is a bit of a dude). The Kiwi said: “We saw each other over the weekend and I thought there must be some rustlings going on. To have a driver like Dario on our team is going to be spectacular. We’re going to be a force next season.”
Scottish driver spins out at Talladega, breaks ankle
Dario Franchitti (we know him as Dario F) was extremely lucky to escape with just a busted ankle when his car lost its right rear tyre on the 10th lap of the Nationwide Series Nascar support race at Talladega on Saturday. The Scot’s Dodge bounced into the wall and spun down the track. Several cars avoided him, but when it seemed he might get away without a heavy impact, Larry Gunselman’s Chevy slammed into his driver side door.
Dario Franchitti, who defected from IndyCar to Nascar at the end of the 2007 season, is one of the best-known racing drivers in the States. The Scot won the IndyCar championship in 2007 but he’s still not quite as famous as his wife, Ashley Judd. The actress, who starred in Kiss the Girls and Double Jeopardy often attends her husband’s races, and was present to see him win the Indy 500 last year, when it pissed it down and her summer dress was soaked - a paparazzo’s dream. Check out more photos of Ashley below, plus a bonus video clip of her being interviewed after the 2007 Indy 500.
With friend Danica Patrick, one of her husband’s racing rivals (until this season: Patrick continues to race in IndyCar, whilst Franchitti now plies his trade in Nascar).
Oh my god, she knows about understeer and downforce and everything.
