Bentley Team Dyson Racing Looks To Close Out 2015 Pirelli World Challenge Season With Strong Performance At Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

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Poughkeepsie, NY (8 September 2015) An 11-weekend, 20-race season that began in Texas for Bentley Team Dyson Racing in March draws to a close this weekend in Monterey, Calif. with the running of the final 50-minute sprint race of the 2015 Pirelli World Challenge series. Drivers Chris Dyson and Guy Smith are looking to cap the season at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in their Bentley Continental GT3 race cars with a winning performance at the classic road racing circuit.

“It would be great to add a win in Monterey to the win Chris scored at Road America earlier this year,” said team founder and CEO Rob Dyson, who noted that while the team’s performance this season didn’t match the championship-winning successes of many prior years racing sports-prototype cars, he still counts it as successful. “Not only did we win a race, but over the course of the season we were able to develop the Continental GT3 into a consistently competitive racecar. It’s the nature of the Pirelli World Challenge, with different configurations of cars competing on tracks that vary widely, that no car will be best at every track. But on raw pace, we have been strong more often than not.”

Dyson pointed out that at tracks that feature long, sweeping, high-speed corners, the Continental GT3 has been especially competitive. “We’d like to have won two or three more races, and frankly we should have,” Dyson said. “We had some bad luck with crash damage early in the season that put our testing program a bit behind, but working with our Bentley partners in England, we made a lot of progress over the course of the season.”

“The car is now much better at standing starts, which is of critical importance with the format of the races here in North America,” said Smith, a long-time Dyson Racing and Bentley driver. Smith has raced this season for Bentley Team M-SPORT in the Blancpain Endurance Series.  Last year at Miller Motorsports Park, aboard a Dyson Bentley, Smith scored the brand’s first North American race win in the course of the team’s abridged debut Pirelli World Challenge campaign.

This season’s Road America winner Chris Dyson shared his optimism for a strong result this weekend. “We know the Bentley is stronger than our performances at the past two race weekends (Miller Motorsports Park and Sonoma Raceway) might suggest,” he said. “Given the progress we’ve made with the car over the course of the season, and our successful past history in Monterey, Guy and I could surprise people this weekend. I don’t believe for a moment that a race win on Sunday is out of reach.”

In the third race of the season, on the tight street circuit at Long Beach, Calif. Dyson used a combination of heady racecraft and aggressive restarts during the course of the caution-flag-studded event to come from deep in the field and score a second-place finish. “After that I knew there was no track where with a little bit of good fortune rather than bad, we wouldn’t have a shot at a podium finish with the Continental GT3. And that’s all Guy and I will need this weekend.”

Race Schedule (All Times are Pacific Time Zone)

Thursday, 10 September

Session Start Time Finish Time Duration
Practice 1 4:30 pm 5:00 pm :30

Friday 11th September

Session Start Time Finish Time Duration
Practice 2 12:00 pm 12:30 pm :30

 

Saturday 12th September

Session Start Time Finish Time Duration
Qualifying 11:25 am 12:10 pm :45

 

Sunday 13th September

Session Start Time Finish Time Duration
Warm-Up 8:00 am 8:20 am :20
Race 1:30 pm 2:25 pm :50

 

Bentley Team Dyson Racing’s performance can be followed via live stream at www.world-challengetv.com.

TV Broadcast Information: On CBS Sports Network Sunday, September 20, 3:30 PM: GT/GTA, GT Cup presented by MOMO. All times listed are Eastern Time, U.S. Times and dates subject to change.

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