Franck Lagorce (born 1 September 1968 in L’Haÿ-les-Roses) is a racing driver from France.
He participated in 2 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 6 November 1994. He scored no championship points. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born in L’Hay-Les-Roses, near Paris in 1968, after starting racing Frank Lagorce became the French Junior Karting champion. After winning several trophies in 1982 he continued in karts over the next few years (finishing tenth in 1985’s World Junior Championship) and in 1986 was second in the European 125cc championship.
Then came Formula Ford and he was second in the Volant Elkron Scholarship Award at Montlhery, which led to a full season in the French FFord championship in 1988. He finished fifth in a Graff Racing Van Diemen 88 and Reynard 88, with his best best result being second at the Le Mans Bugatti track. After finishing fourth the following season, in 1990 he moved up to French Formula Renault, taking a win and six podiums with an Orion to finish second in the series.
Then came French Formula 3 with Promatecme and he took two victories (at Dijon and Magny-Cours) to finish fourth overall with their Dallara F391 Opel. In 1992 he won the championship, with victories at Ledenon, Dijon and Magny-Cours plus during the year he also in the Porsche Carrera Cup.
In 1993 there was a DAMS team Reynard 93D Cosworth in Formula 3000 and he had wins in the season’s final two races at Magny-Cours and Nogaro. Frank continued in F3000 for the next season though was now with the Apomatox team and he took pole, fastest lap and victory at the season’s opening race at Silverstone. There were fourth places at Pau and Barcelona, a second at Enna, then a win and fastest lap at Hockenheim. The final race, at Magny-Cours, saw him still in contention for the title but despite starting on pole, he finished second and his rival JC Boullion took the Championship by two points. The year saw his debut at Le Mans, co-driving a Courage Competition C32 LM Porsche with Henri Pescarolo and Alain Ferté, though they retired from the race. Later in 1994 he signed as a test driver with the Ligier F1 team and when Johnny Herbert moved to Benetton, he was given a drive for the final two races of the year, at Japan and Australia. Suzuka’s race suffered from torrential rain and Franck spun coming out of the chicane, without hitting anything, but was himself hit by Pierluigi Martini’s Minardi, who was unable to see anything in the spray and mist. At the season ending Australian GP he drove steadily and finished eleventh but there was no race seat for 1995. He remained with the team as a test driver though later switched to become Forti’s test driver but the team eventually folded. During this time he also raced in a Porsche Supercup race at Pau, plus shared a Courage Chevrolet with Henri Pescarolo and Eric Bernard at Le Mans.
In 1996 he raced in the Renault Spider Elf Trophy and won the championship with victories at Barcelona, Magny Cours (twice), Hockenheim and Nogaro plus competed in the Andros Trophy in a Seat Cordoba. Returning to Le Mans, he was seventh with the La Filiére Courage C36, driving with H.Pescarolo and E.Collard.
There was a full season in 1997’s FIA GT Championship with a DAMS team Panoz GTR (with E.Bernard) though it would be a disappointing period and he also set up the FLF1 Competition Centre for slot cars, which was the largest commercial slot car track in Europe.
1998 saw him at Suzuka and Austria in a Panoz GTR-1, taking 5th and 7th, plus he raced Nissan’s R390 GT1 with John Nielsen and Michael Krumm to fifth place at Le Mans. In touring cars, he and Vanina Ickx finished third with a Renault Megane at Spa’s round of the Belgian Procar championship plus he co-drove a Renault Megane in the Spa 24 Hours with Pierre-Yves Corthals and Kurt Mollekens to take third place.
In the following year he won the Spa 4 Hours with P.Yves Corthals in a Renault Megane plus raced a Honda in the Andros Trophy while in GTs he drove a Riley & Scott at Donington, the Nurburgring and Magny-Cours. He was scheduled to drive at Le Mans with the AMG Mercedes-Benz team alongside Bernd Schneider and Pedro Lamy but although Mark Webber’s car had flipped twice, the team started the race though after Peter Dumbreck also flipped, they withdrew. He was then involved with the DAMS Cadillac Northstar LMP team but 2000 proved a frustrating year though as part of a European team with Clivio Riccione and Felix Porteiro, he won the Sunday race in the Masters Karting Bercy event.
The following season saw him back in a Panoz, with his best results being fourth and sixth at Portland and Mid-Ohio (with Klaus Graf). There was a one-off race in the French GT championship, at Pau with C.Caly in a Porsche GT3-RS plus at the Bercy Karting event he won the final as part of a relay team with Davide Fore and Vitantonio Liuzzi. He switched to the French Super Touring car Series in 2002 plus raced a Courage C60 with JC Boullion to fourth and third place finishes at Estoril and Dijon. The following season saw more races with the Courage, taking a win and two second place podiums for Pescarolo Sport at Nogaro, Spa and the 1000Km Le Mans, with Soheil Ayari, Stephane Sarrazin and Sebastien Bourdain.
In recent years he worked as a commentator on French television and was a regular competitor in the Andros Trophy season. He was the 2006 Andros Challenge Canada winner. In the 2015/16 season he took four wins and was second in the Elite Pro results, driving a Dacia for the Sport Garage team while 2016/2017 saw him finish fifth, driving for Mazda France.
