Franco Scapini (born April 7, 1962)[1] is a former Italian racing driver from Varese.
Scapini was passionate about cars and technology from an early age, because he attended his father's workshop, where racing cars were prepared and classic cars were restored. He began to frequent the racetracks with his father and also to have the first experiences with go-karts. After racing go-karts for 3 years, he began his professional career in 1981 in the Italian F.Fiat Abarth Championship, having suffered from a serious accident at Imola. Once recovered from the accident he joined the F2000 Championship immediately getting a fourth and a third place. After these results, the team gave him the opportunity to debut in F3 at Mugello European Formula Three Championship. Without any sponsor's support he participated in partial seasons there until 1983 but always with excellent results, being always among the fastest drivers with a very aggressive but profitable driving. Much appreciated by the team's engineers for his technical skills in the development of the chassis and engines, he moved to Italian Formula Three in 1984 and finished 4th in the series points with 3 wins for the Automotor team. In 1984 he was awarded the coveted Autosprint gold medal (famous international Motorsport newspaper) for sporting and competitive merits. Following is successes in 1984, he remained in the same team as well in 1985, spending a large part of the season testing and developing the electronic injection system on the VW Brabham-Judd factory engine and also a system of special air shock absorbers on the flat-bottomed Ralt RT30, devoid of coil springs, but another serious accident put an end to his season. Shortly supported by sponsors he participated in a partial season of Formula 3000 in 1986 with little success. In 1987, he came back to Italian F3 with Automotor, Coloni and Euroteam and also became a test driver for Minardi in F1. In 1988 he made one more Formula 3000 start as well as making his only American Racing Series appearance. In 1989 he returned to F3000 for 2 more starts and also drove the Mussato Lancia LC2-Ferrari in the World Sport Prototype Championship. In 1990 he signed on as the official test and reserve driver for the Life team in Formula One, however, as the team only had a single chassis, he reportedly only drove in few practice sessions.[2] The Life team and car was a colossal failure and failed to pre-qualify for the first 14 events of the 1990 Formula One season before the team shut down. In 1991 he has the American experience in the IndyCar Championship with the Euromotorsport Lola-Cosworth DFS. Later he decided to prepare a Ferrari F355 for the GT3 category and he did it independently with his own company, the Supertech Racing team. He deserves credit for having brought Ferrari cars back to compete in international GT championships and endurance races such as the 24 Hours of Daytona. And this has probably convinced Ferrari to reconsider the importance of GT racing for sporting customers. At the wheel of the Ferrari F355 GT3 he raced in the French, Spanish and Italian GT Championships, with some good results in the top three and 2 wins, before retiring to become a racing instructor and F1 Powerboat team manager for the D.A.C. Racing team winning 2 European Championships, 8 World Championships and 2 World speed records. He is currently involved in motorsport management and collaborates as a motorsport technical commentator with a major European pay per view network. He also manages a small executive flight company owned by him and he often personally flies planes of this company [3]
He made one CART IndyCar World Series start for Euromotorsport in 1991 at Surfers Paradise where he finished a surprising 11th, good enough for 2 points and 28th in series points. He later competed in two Grand-Am events in 1999 and 2000 driving a Ferrari F355. Both events were the Daytona 24 Hours race. His best finish was 12th in class (1999).
| Season | Series | Team Name | Races | Poles | Wins | Points | Final Placing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | European Formula Three | Ermolli | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| 1982 | European Formula Three | Mario Crugnola | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| Italian Formula Three | Mario Crugnola | 11 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 10th | |
| 1983 | European Formula Three | Cesare Gariboldi | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| Italian Formula Three | Cesare Gariboldi Team Merzario | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 10th | |
| 1984 | Italian Formula Three | Elf Alloni Automotor Racing | 10 | 2 | 2 | 34 | 4th |
| 1985 | Italian Formula Three | Automotor Racing | 12 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 11th |
| 1986 | International Formula 3000 | Italia 3000 Lola Motorsport | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| 1987 | Italian Formula Three | Automotor Coloni Racing Euroteam | 10 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 20th |
| 1988 | International Formula 3000 | Italia 3000 Lola Motorsport | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| Indy Lights | TEAMKAR International | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 28th | |
| 1989 | International Formula 3000 | Automotive BVM | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| 1990 | Formula One | Test driver | |||||
| 1991 | CART World Series | Euromotorsports | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 28th |
| 1997 | Ferrari Challenge - Italy | Motor | 8 | 0 | 0 | ? | 7th |
| 1998 | French GT Championship | S.B. Racing Supertech | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NC |
| 1999 | Spanish GT Championship | Supertech | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | NC |
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)
| Year | Entrant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | DC | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Corbari Italia Italia F3000 | SIL 17 | VAL Ret | PAU DNQ | SPA DNQ | IMO DNQ | MUG | NC | 0 | ||||||
| Lola Motorsport | PER Ret | ÖST 13 | BIR | BUG | JAR | ||||||||||
| 1988 | Cowman Racing | JER DNQ | VAL 15 | PAU DNQ | SIL DNQ | MNZ DNQ | PER DNQ | BRH | BIR DNQ | BUG | ZOL | DIJ | NC | 0 | |
| 1989 | Automotive / BVM | SIL | VAL | PAU | JER DNQ | PER Ret | BRH DNQ | BIR 10 | SPA DNQ | BUG DNQ | DIJ | NC | 0 |
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)
(key)
Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of the winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).
| Year | Pos | Class | No | Team | Drivers | Chassis | Tyre | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engine | ||||||||
| 1989 | DNQ | C1 | 26 | Mussato Action Car | Almo Coppelli Ernst Franzmaier | Lancia LC2 | - | |
| Ferrari 308C 3.0L Turbo V8 | ||||||||