Dario Franchitti had to win the race to take the IndyCar Championship and the Scotsman duly obliged.

As a lesson in how to go about securing a title in style, Jenson Button should sit up and take notice of his fellow Briton, virtually unknown in his homeland but one of the biggest motor racing stars in the United States.

Franchitti went to the Homestead Speedway in Miami on Saturday night in a three-way fight for the IndyCar Championship and stormed to his fifth victory of the season to ensure the title.

It is a remarkable achievement for the driver from Bathgate in West Lothian. In July last year, he was on motor racing’s scrapheap after the Nascar team for whom he had signed went out of business because they could not find any sponsors. But his return to IndyCar has been a triumph: he becomes the only Briton to achieve a second Championship victory.

“I am just so delighted,” he said. “This is a fantastic achievement and something I always dreamt about since I came to America.”

While Franchitti was enjoying the plaudits in the US, his victory went almost undetected in the United Kingdom. Franchitti was brought up alongside David Coulthard and Allan McNish as one of an extraordinarily talented generation of young Scottish drivers. Coulthard went on to Formula One and McNish is one of the best drivers to sit in a sports car but Franchitti was forced to ply his trade in the US after being rejected by Formula One.

He seemed for a while to be the nearly man of IndyCar but achieved a remarkable double in 2007, winning both the title and the fabled Indy 500 race — with its $1.6 million (£1 million) prize. Married to Ashley Judd, one of Hollywood’s A-list actresses, Franchitti has built a fortune estimated at almost £40 million, has a ranch in Nashville, Tennessee and owns helicopters and a fleet of exotic cars.

But he remains a humble and down-to-earth driver who, while enjoying success and fame in the US, has suffered a lifelong disappointment that he was not given a chance in Formula One.

Britain must wait to see whether Button can make it a double triumph at the Brazilian Grand Prix next weekend: he would make certain of the Formula One world championship by following Franchitti’s stirring example and winning in style.

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