Franck Fréon (born 16 March 1962, in Paris) is a French race car driver.

Fréon began his career in the French Renault 5 Turbo Championship in 1986 and 1987 then competed in French Formula Three from 1988 to 1989. In 1990 he competed in International Formula 3000 and failed to qualify for four of his first five race attempts, but was credited with fifth place in his first successful start although he did not finish the race. He subsequently left his team and joined another for the final two races of the year where he qualified but failed to point. His fifth place was good enough for 19th in the championship.

Fréon moved to the United States and participated in Indy Lights from 1991 to 1993 capturing four wins and finishing runner up in both the 1992 and 1993 standings, behind Robbie Buhl and Bryan Herta respectively. However, he had trouble finding a good team in CART, making four starts (and one DNF) for three different teams in the 1994 season with a best finish of 12th in his CART debut at the Long Beach Grand Prix. 1995 wasn't much better as Fréon finished 15th in the Long Beach season opener, then failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 in a three year old Lola chassis and returned five months later only to fail to make the show at Laguna Seca Raceway.

Fréon then ventured into endurance car racing, driving marginally competitive LMP vehicles in the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 1995 to 1999. He then signed onto the Chevrolet factory team to drive the Chevrolet Corvette C5-R. He teamed with Ron Fellows and Johnny O'Connell to win the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2001. He continued with the team until 2004.

Nearing his retirement, Fréon leveraged his knowledge, experience and passion for cars to establish his business Pumpkin Fine Cars & Exotics in 1998.

  • Franck Fréon with teammates Andy Pilgrim and Kelly Collins in Le Mans 2000
  • Franck Fréon at Indianapolis Speedway in 1995

Career Results

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

YearEntrant1234567891011DCPoints
1990Galaxy RacingDON DNQSIL DNQPAU 5JER DNQMNZ DNQPERHOCBRHBIR19th2
ApomatoxBUG 14NOG 16
Sources:

Indy Lights

YearTeam123456789101112RankPointsRef
1991Fréon Racing ServicesLBH 4PHX 7MIL 3DET 2POR 2CLE 6MEA 6TOR 4DEN 6MDO 3NAZ 9LS 84th121
1992Landford RacingPHX 11LBH 1DET 5POR 1MIL 4LOU 2TOR 12CLE 1VAN 4MDO 6NAZ 2LS 32nd159
1993John Martin RacingPHX 9LBH 2DET 18POR 4MIL 1NHA 3TOR 2CLE 7VAN 5MDO 6NAZ 3LS 172nd122

CART

YearTeam1234567891011121314151617RankPointsRef
1994Project IndySRFPHXLBH 12INDYMILDETPOR 15CLETORMISMDONHM32nd1
EuromotorsportVAN DNQROA 29NZR
Indy Regency RacingLS 18
1995Project IndyMIASRFPHXLBH 15NZR36th0
Indy Regency RacingINDY DNQMILDETPORROATORCLEMISMDONHMVAN
Payton/Coyne RacingLS DNQ

24 Hours of Le Mans

YearTeamCo-DriversCarClassLapsPos.Class Pos.
1994Japan Team ArtnatureJapan Yojiro Terada France Pierre de ThoisyMazda RX-7 GTOIMSA GTS25015th2nd
1995United States D.T.R. Japan Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.Japan Yojiro Terada United States Jim DowningKudzu DG-3-MazdaWSC2827th3rd
1996Japan Mazdaspeed Co. Ltd.Japan Yojiro Terada United States Jim DowningKudzu DLM-MazdaLMP225125th1st
1997United States Team T.D.R. Japan MazdaspeedJapan Yojiro Terada United States Jim DowningKudzu DLM-4-MazdaLMP26317th6th
1998France Courage CompétitionJapan Yojiro Terada France Olivier ThéveninCourage C41-PorscheLMP130016th4th
1999Japan Autoexe MotorsportJapan Yojiro Terada United Kingdom Robin DonovanAutoexe LMP99-FordLMP74DNFDNF
2000United States Corvette RacingUnited States Andy Pilgrim United States Kelly CollinsChevrolet Corvette C5-RGTS32710th3rd
2001United States Corvette RacingUnited States Andy Pilgrim United States Kelly CollinsChevrolet Corvette C5-RGTS27114th2nd
2002United States Corvette RacingUnited Kingdom Andy Pilgrim United States Kelly CollinsChevrolet Corvette C5-RGTS33113th2nd
2003United States Corvette RacingCanada Ron Fellows United States Johnny O'ConnellChevrolet Corvette C5-RGTS32612th3rd
Sources:

External links

  • career summary at DriverDB.com
  • driver statistics at Racing-Reference