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1981-88
Impresses early in French karting; takes 2nd in FFord at Le Mans Bugatti |
There are plenty of 'what might have been' stories on this site, but the case of Frenchman Franck Lagorce, from L'Hay-Les-Roses near Paris, certainly fits into that category. He marked himself out as a racer to follow when, at the tender age of 13, he became the French Junior champion in karts. After winning several trophies in 1982, and continuing in karts through 1983 and 1984, he was 10th in the 1985 World Junior Championship, and in 1986 he was 2nd in the European 125cc championship.
A fairly lowly 7th in the French 125cc karting championship in 1987 suggested he might have been on the wane, but that was far from the case. For that year he also raced in Formula Ford, but more importantly he took 2nd in the Volant Elkron Scholarship Award at Montlhery. This led to a full tilt at the French Formula Ford championship in 1988 in which he came 5th in a Graff Racing Van Diemen 88 and Reynard 88 with a best placing of 2nd at the Le Mans Bugatti track. |
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1989-92
Wins French F3 title, but versatility is proven in Porsche Carrera Cup |
A more consistent season in 1989 saw Lagorce rise to 4th in the standings for both Graff Racing and the ASM team. Feeling confident, Franck moved up to French Formula Renault for 1990. Driving an Orion 90, he came 2nd overall with one win and 6 podium finishes. This earned him a plum drive with the Promatecme team in French F3 in 1991, and in a Dallara F391 Opel he impressed in his first year, scoring 81 points and 2 wins at Dijon and Magny-Cours to place 4th overall.
The following year he marked off this step on the ladder towards F1 by becoming French F3 champion. Promatecme supplied him with a new Dallara F392 Opel and Franck took full advantage, reeling off wins at Ledenon, Dijon and Magny-Cours and scoring 100 points in the process. Five starts in the Porsche Carrera Cup in 1992 also showed his versatility in cars other than open-wheelers. |
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1993-94
Studies under Panis, before strong tilt at F3000 crown the next year |
But like most aspiring racing drivers, F1 was where Lagorce wanted to end up, and as a result he jumped into F3000 in 1993. He joined the DAMS team as team-mate to eventual champion Olivier Panis, and after a little bit of a slow start in his Reynard 93D Cosworth (in the first 7 races, 4th at round two at Silverstone had been his best), he then racked up victories in the last two rounds at Magny-Cours (including fastest race lap) and Nogaro, vaulting into equal 4th with 21 points.
That made him one of the favourites for the 1994 title. Despite switching to the Apomatox team to drive a Reynard 94D Cosworth, he confirmed his favouritism by scoring a trifecta of pole, fastest lap and race win in the season opener at Silverstone. 5th from 2nd on the grid at Pau, 5th again from a lowly 16th at Barcelona, and 2nd from pole at Enna kept the points coming in, and a win plus fastest lap at Hockenheim kept this title hopes very much on track. |
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1994
Dices with Boullion for title, but comes off second best in the end |
But in the face of the challenge from DAMS driver Jean-Christophe Boullion, Lagorce suddenly faltered. He was on pole at Spa but only finished 13th, and he started 6th at Estoril but slipped to 8th, out of the points, by the finish. Come the season finale at Magny-Cours, a track he normally excelled at, Lagorce and Boullion had it all to play for. Franck took pole, but Boullion passed him in the race, and Lagorce was relegated to 2nd in the race and the championship, with 34 points.
Autosport described his season thus: "Quick, consistent, always a factor, but he threw away his chances of the title with mistakes in three races in a row ... Very determined, single-minded and self-confident, almost to the point of arrogance. Untidy spectacular driving style, but very effective." 1994 had also seen Lagorce make his Le Mans 24hrs debut, when he shared a Courage Competition C32 LM Porsche with Henri Pescarolo and Alain Ferté, but the car retired after 142 laps. |
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1994 Ligier TWR and Flav take over leads to musical chairs with their drivers |
After his steady progression up the ranks, Lagorce was now a prime candidate for an F1 seat. Accordingly he was snapped up in September 1994 as a test driver by the Ligier F1 team. However, by this stage Ligier had been bought by Benetton supremos Tom Walkinshaw and Flavio Briatore, and as the latter had done previously, and as he still does today, it was not long before he began playing musical chairs with his drivers.
In the Benetton corner, apart from Michael Schumacher he had JJ Lehto and Jos Verstappen on his books. In the Ligier corner he had Lagorce, Panis and Eric Bernard. At the third last race of the year at Jerez, Briatore made his move and got rid of Bernard, giving the Frenchman to Lotus in a straight swap with Johnny Herbert. Then, prior to the penultimate race of the year in Japan, he farmed Lehto out to Sauber, and moved Herbert to Benetton to partner Schumacher. |
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1994
Qualifies well at Suzuka, but who was watching? |
That left a race seat open at Ligier for the final two races of the year, and Lagorce was given the nod, perhaps a touch prematurely. His rapid rise from F3000 to F1 meant that he never had much of a chance to familiarise himself with the Ligier JS39B Renault before being thrust into a race weekend. Also, with a breathtaking championship battle between Schumacher and Damon Hill dominating the headlines, no matter how well Franck went he was hardly going to be noticed.
In the event that proved to be grossly unfair to him, because he actually acquitted himself rather well. At Suzuka, a challenging technical track, he qualified a fine 20th, just half a second off the impressive Panis in 19th, and a touch over 3.3 seconds away from Schumacher on pole. More to the point, he was ahead of experienced drivers such as Michele Alboreto and Erik Comas. |
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1994
Finishes his second GP, around the streets of Adelaide, ending up two laps down |
Fate then dealt him a cruel hand when conditions became appallingly wet on race day. Lagorce spent the first few laps tip-toeing around and was given a brief respite when the safety car came out. But when racing resumed, Franck was inevitably caught out. He spun coming out of the chicane without hitting anything, only to be ploughed into by Pierluigi Martini's Minardi, the veteran Italian claiming that he couldn't see anything in the spray and mist.
On the streets of Adelaide Lagorce was again 20th on the grid, although this time over a second away from Panis, but just under three seconds behind pole-sitter Nigel Mansell. Hoping to get some proper race experience under his belt, and with a reliable Ligier underneath him, Franck drove steadily throughout the nearly two-hour event. He ended up being 2 laps down on Mansell at the end, coming home 11th out of 12 classified, although he was the last man on the track. |
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1995-96
Relegated to testing roles at Ligier, and then for cellar dwellers Forti |
Unfortunately it was not quite enough to secure a seat for 1995. As Briatore and Walkinshaw continued playing around with their drivers, they kept Schumacher and Herbert at Benetton, lent Verstappen to Simtek, kept Panis at Ligier and brought in Martin Brundle, unwanted by McLaren, alongside him. But Ligier had also won Mugen Honda engines for 1995, and they demanded that Aguri Suzuki share the second Ligier with Brundle.
So Lagorce was left in the cold, and relegated to a test role only. Come 1996, with Pedro Diniz moving in beside Panis at Ligier, Lagorce was made redundant altogether, and his only F1 option turned out to be a test and reserve driver role at the struggling Forti team, supporting Andrea Montermini and Luca Badoer. As it turned out, the Italian team went down the financial gurgler by mid-season, and Lagorce's F1 hopes were completely dashed altogether. |
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1995-96
Picks up Renault Spider Elf title, while setting up his slot-car venture |
But throughout these two years in '95 and '96 he kept competing elsewhere. In 1995 he raced in the Porsche Supercup race at Pau, and at Le Mans he drove a Courage Chevrolet with Pescarolo and Bernard, but electrical problems sidelined them after only 26 laps. In 1996 he took to competing in the Renault Spider Elf Trophy, and became champion in that category with victories at Barcelona, Magny Cours (twice), Hockenheim and Nogaro.
At Le Mans he came 7th in his La Filiére Courage C36 Porsche with Pescarolo and Emmanuel Collard, and he competed in the Andros Trophy event in a Seat Cordoba. But in 1996 he also went in a completely different direction, setting up his own little business venture, the FLF1 Competition Centre for slot cars east of Paris. He built the largest commercial track in Europe, wanting to open up slot-car racing to the general public. |
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1997
Altruistic slot-car magnate takes to sportscars full-time, joining DAMS |
He explained his motivation for this endeavour in this way: "The clients can be 70 years old, and women win races here too. This is not a macho activity or one where women do not have their place. There are lots of children, but I won't hide the fact that the average age is 30 ... I've met people here who have said, 'I had nothing to do, and I'm a little too fat to play tennis, so this is great for me.' Today they have several cars, and they come almost every day. They come for the spirit of competition." This may have been a tacit admission that his hopes of F1 stardom were over. So too was his decision in 1997 to race works sports cars full time, joining the DAMS team to drive a Panoz GTR Ford with Bernard in the FIA GT championship. All manner of mechanical problems, especially engine and propshaft, led to 7 retirements in 10 starts, including at Le Mans, where Bernard, Boullion and Lagorce fell out with an oil pump problem after 149 laps. Lagorce's best that year was only 7th at Mugello. |
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1998
Some of this and some of that as Franck tries FIA GT, Le Mans and Belgian Procars |
1998 then turned out to be a year when Franck drove whatever was on offer. In FIA GTs he made two starts in a Panoz GTR-1, taking 5th at Suzuka with Christophe Tinseau and Johnny O'Connell and 7th at the A1-Ring with Tinseau for joint-24th in the championship with 2 points. He was also a development driver for Nissan's Le Mans effort, and in the La Sarthe classic he came 5th in a Nissan R390 GT1 with John Nielsen and Michael Krumm.
He also took up the odd bit of touring car racing, competing in the Spa round of the Belgian Procar championship and taking 3rd place in a Renault Megane shared with Vanina Ickx, the daughter of ex-F1 star Jacky Ickx. He also drove in the Spa 24hr classic in another Renault Megane, again claiming 3rd but this time with Pierre-Yves Corthals and Kurt Mollekens. |
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1999
Gets withdrawn at Le Mans after Webber and Dumbreck have their cars flip |
In 1999 he again made a start in Belgian Procars, winning the Spa 4hrs with Corthals in a Renault Megane. In the Sports Racing World Cup and drove a Riley & Scott Europe R&S Mk III, retiring at Donington with Gary Formato and Philippe Gache, and also dropping out at the Nurburgring and Magny-Cours when he shared the prototype with Gache alone. He also raced again in the Andros Trophy, coming 19th in a Honda.
But in 1999 he was also involved in the sports car drama of the year. He joined the works AMG Mercedes-Benz team for their assault on Le Mans, and he was teamed up with Bernd Schneider and Pedro Lamy. After being 6th fastest in pre-qualifying, to their horror they then watched Mark Webber flip twice in one of the sister cars, but they started the race anyway. Yet when Peter Dumbreck also flipped 5 hours into the race, there was no option but to withdraw Lagorce's car after 76 laps. |
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2000-01
No luck in ALMS, joins Panoz hoping to become the next prototype superstar |
For 2000 he joined the DAMS Cadillac Northstar LMP operation, but it proved to be a dismal year. In the Daytona 24hrs, a round of the Grand-Am series, he came 13th with Andy Wallace and Butch Leitzinger to score 43 points for 37th overall. But with the same two drivers, two starts in the American Le Mans Series netted only a crash at Sebring and 8th at Road Atlanta, and the combination only managed to come 21st at Le Mans.
Throughout 2001 he made one start in the French GT championship, finishing 9th at Pau in a Team Kalliste Porsche 911 GT3-RS shared with Caty Caly, but in sports prototype racing joined the works Panoz Motorsports team. In the European Le Mans Series, driving a Panoz LMP07, he came 13th at Jarama with Klaus Graf, enough for 17 points and 18th in the LMP900 class of the ELMS. At Le Mans, in the same type of car, he retired having shared the machine with Jan Magnussen and David Brabham. |
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2001
A fine 4th at Sears Point for the jet-skiing, golfing, cycling Frenchman |
In the American Le Mans Series he made six further starts partnering Graf in a Panoz LMP-1 Roadster S, but after an early retirement at Sears Point he came 4th at Portland and 6th at Mid-Ohio, after which he suffered more retirements at Mosport, Laguna Seca (oil line failure) and Road Atlanta (engine problem). With 75 points in the LMP900 class, Lagorce was 15th in that category.
On a personal note, Lagorce currently lives in Ballainvilliers in France, and he is married to Béatrice with a daughter Léa. He is 1.73 metres tall and weighs 60 kg. His favourite food is pasta, and his favourite drink is water. He enjoys karting and going to the cinema, and he also likes many other sports, such as tennis, golf, cycling and jet-skiing. He says that he likes all singers and all types of music. His aim is "to be successful in Formula One", although this now seems sadly more fantasy than possibility. |
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