Success in car racing comes down to one thing.
“Just be patient,” said Franklin Futrelle, a 35 year-old Evans resident who won the Atlanta Speed Tour, part of the Trans-Am Series circuit, in late March.
Futrelle has won about a quarter of all the races he’s entered, according to the website DriverDatabase. He’s been racing since 2004, but he’s been driving much longer than that.
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Futrelle began racing at 9 years old when he was driving go-karts on dirt tracks in Wrens, Ga. When he was 14, his dad, Jeff Futrelle, took him to the Formula One race in Indianapolis, Ind. Back then, the race was called the United States Grand Prix.
“I was about 14 when I realized this is what I wanted to do for a living,” he said. “Not just as hobby.”
All through his college career at Augusta State University, now Augusta University, Futrelle raced.
“After I graduated college, I went on to be a driving instructor and a coach,” said Futrelle. “From there, I morphed into an agent, where I was helping broker deals for race teams and signing of people.”
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Futrelle also served as an instructor at Skip Barber Racing School.
Futrelle got married in 2008 and has had two boys since. Around that time, his father was ready to retire from the family business, MECO. Started by Futrelle’s grandfather, it builds and services gas stations.
“I put racing on hold and bought his business,” said Futrelle. “I kind of thought my racing was done, that it was just going to be more of a hobby.”
Once his sons were older, Futrelle started dabbling in racing again. In the past few years, he has had more opportunities and won a few big races like the Trans Am 2 at Road Atlanta and a week before that, the Trans Am ProAm in Charlotte.
The Trans Am series began in 1966 at Sebring International Raceway in Florida. Trans Am series races in are 100 miles long and do not require a pit stop for fueling, tires or driver changes, according to the Trans Am website at www.gotransasm.com.
“It’s Ford versus Chevy versus Dodge essentially. It’s kind of like NASCAR but on road courses,” Futrelle said. “We don’t just go in a circle. We turn left and right.”
Futrelle races an M1 tube chassis car build-out. It’s not a regular car turned into a race car; it’s built from scratch, but according to strict rules so every car is similar.
“They are trying to put the driver back into it, instead of who has the most expensive car,” said Futrelle.
The series has gotten big over the past few years because NASCAR, which mostly races on oval tracks, are adding road courses to its schedules.
“The big NASCAR teams are sending their young development drivers down to our series to practice. That’s kind of the cool part. You have veterans like me against newer drivers,” said Futrelle. “The race I won in Atlanta, I beat a 17 year-old named Sam Meyer who is about to be racing NASCAR for Chevrolet. You get a mix of young talent you will see in the future versus veterans like me.”
Futrelle works full-time with MECO but does train others over the internet using the program iRacing. There is a tough balance between MECO, family and racing.
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“The cool part is I really did not start racing again until about a year ago, once the boys got old enough. We do an RV, so the family is always at the track,” said Futrelle about balancing life. “Family is big. I’d rather be at home with the boys than racing if need be.”
Futrelle plans to continue racing until the doctor tells him to stop.
Haley Knight is a contributor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at haley.knight@TheAugustaPress.com.
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