Wisconsin’s Road America is at the heart of James French’s racing career.
It all started at age 5 when the native of nearby Sheboygan began racing go-karts at the picturesque road course.
Let’s just say the driving part was only half of the fun the now 28-year-old experienced.
“I don’t remember this, but I was told when I was driving, I would look at the line to see how close I could get to it,” French said. “I liked the thrill of getting close.”
He eventually learned that method isn’t the best practice on a race track, especially if one wants to be fast.
It was beneficial for French that he had a strong racing bloodline.
His father, Brian French, won the 1999 SCCA National Championship Runoffs in the Formula Atlantic category and added the C-Sports Racing title in 2009.
“He’s still got it. He’s still very coordinated, very quick; he’s very talented,” James French said of his dad. “At the same time, he’s extremely humble and under spoken, understated, which is something I’ve always strived for — let the results speak for themselves.”
French claims his dad’s humility is what is most inspiring to him.
He recalls a time about five years ago when Brian French was talking about retiring from racing. But the younger French doesn’t see his dad slipping in performance and he continues to perform on the track.
“I think he exceeds his expectations,” James French said. “It’s pretty amazing to see.”
The proof of that came in James French’s sixth try at an SCCA National Championship when he finally broke through and won the Prototype 1 race during last year’s Runoffs at his home track, joining his dad as an SCCA national champion.
To complete the almost proverbial perfect circle, Brian French crossed the line third in the P1 race. It couldn’t have been scripted better — James French winning a national championship on his home track of Road America with his dad right beside him on the podium.
“We’ve been chasing this one a long time,” French said. “To finally get one behind us feels good, especially at our home track is a great feeling.”
Without his father, many wouldn’t know of James French the race car driver.
“He’s been a great mentor; a great coach,” French noted.
Having outgrown go-karts, French was 13 when he climbed into a Formula BMW car and participated in a test day at GingerMan Raceway in South Haven, Mich.
The next year, he enrolled in the Skip Barber Racing School at Road America. Then, when James was 16, his dad bought the car he drove to victory at the Runoffs.
These days, when not racing sports cars, James and Brian French are avid vintage car racers, participating in several vintage races — many at Road America.
They own a pair of mid-1990s Formula One cars — a 1997 Jordan and a 1997 Benetton. The Jordans were driven by Ralf Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella and the Benettons were piloted by Jean Alesi, Gerhard Berger and Alexander Wurz.
In 1997, Berger won the German Grand Prix and Alesi posted three podiums to help the team finish third in the Constructors’ Championship behind Williams-Renault and Ferrari, respectively.
For the hardcore throwback F-1 fans, the high-pitched screeching of those cars is quite savoring when it echoes off the trees that surround the massive Road America facility. It makes fans feel like they’re at one of Europe’s greatest road courses, such as Spa or Monza.
“They are fun to drive out here,” French said.
They should be as there is about a 500-horsepower difference between his P1 car and the F-1 cars, which makes wheeling them down Road America’s three-quarter-mile frontstretch a blast.
“It’s the most possible fun you can have on the track,” French said.
Not only that, it’s another fun way to do something with his dad.
“I just feel very, very fortunate … very appreciative of the fact that he, first of all, has all these cars and the desire and ambition to go out and run them and he’s willing … and trusts me in one of them,” James French noted. “I feel very thankful.
“I don’t know how to describe it. There’s nothing like drafting your dad at 200 mph with titanium sparks flying in your face. It’s pretty surreal.”
Being in the cockpit of a race car wasn’t always James French’s ambition. Out of high school, he went to school to study motorsports engineering. While he did that — about a two- to three-year span — he didn’t do much racing. But then he realized something.
“I’ve been driving since I was 5 years old and I’ve been studying engineering for three years,” French said. “So I kind of accepted I have the chance to pursue driving and I should definitely take it. I have the rest of my life to pursue engineering.”
And studying wasn’t a waste of time as the things he learned during that period, French believesd, allowed him to enhance his driving by better understanding how a race car operates.
“I don’t regret it at all,” French said, adding, “I was very fortunate to get that education.”
He has parlayed that into some proud achievements on the race track and many of those were at Road America.
French made four starts with the American Le Mans Series, including two at Road America, and he ran a pair of Indy Lights races at the track in 2016.
In 2017, he won a Prototype Challenge class race with the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Road America, pairing with future Indy car driver Patricio O’Ward. During that season, he and O’Ward won seven races en route to the class championship.
In 2018, he made his only NASCAR Xfinity Series start at Road America.
These experiences have produced unique memories, as well as built friendships with some of the best drivers in racing.
“It goes both ways,” French said. “From the career aspect, it’s good to know that I can push to that level or close to that level. At the same time, I know these guys personally. I can turn on the TV, watch an Indy car race and go, ‘Hey. That’s my buddy Pato.’ It’s been really cool to make those connections in the racing community that I never imagined making.”
Still shy of 30 years old, what is the grand goal?
“The 24 Hours of Le Mans,” French said.