In addition to Pat Smith being with Rob for 28 years, James Weaver drove for Rob 20 years and Butch Leitzinger is at fourteen years and counting. Loyalty is the product of how you are treated. Rob treats his fellow team members with respect and they respond in kind. Rather than raid other teams for mechanics and fabricators, Rob hires people already living near the Poughkeepsie shop. In a sport known for high turn-over, Dyson Racing has a tradition of longevity. Six members have been with the team for more than a dozen years: John Pultz, mechanic/fabricator - 29 years; Lou Murasso, mechanic - 24 years; Matt Charland, composites – 22 years; and Michael White, team manager – 14 years. For the team members it is more than a race team. They appreciate the home they have found and the focus on excellence and self development.

"If you look at the team, it very much reflects Rob's personality, his character and values," says long time driver James Weaver. "Rob is very unusual in that in a lot of other teams, they are constantly telling you how to do your job. Rob tells you what he wants you to do and gives you what you need to do it and lets you get on with your job. He helps you with your job. I have never seen him put anyone down, in fact, quite the reverse, if you are down, he will always pick you up. He is quite unusual in that respect.

"Rob is the definitive gentleman, sportsman and racing enthusiast, but he also runs a thoroughly professional team, without ever loosing site of, or touch with those qualities. I can't think of anyone else who has achieved this. It is so easy to become compromised by ambition, fame, ego, financial pressures and all the other baggage that goes with any ultra expensive & competitive pursuit. Rob is still the same man today as he was when I first met him in 1986."

Rob reminisces that "the first road race I went to was Bridgehampton in the early '60's. I watched the Ferraris with Phil Hill and Stirling Moss and I said, 'that is really fabulous.' And road racing has always been special to me because I could do it myself. The idea of a sportsman driver is not alien to sports car racing whereas in NASCAR or Champ Car, it is very rare that you have an owner-driver."

"The history of sports car racing is so steeped with such great names running such great cars on such great venues," Dyson continued. "Le Mans, the Targa Florio, the Mille Miglia, Sebring, Daytona - the classic sports car races. It is years and years of history, with great great drivers - from Juan Fangio to Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart and Tazio Nuvolari, to the great guys of the '60's and '70's: Derek Bell, Danny Ongias, Jo Siffert and Brian Redman. Then you come to the modern age and you have my great drivers, plus Jan Lammers, JJ Lehto, Tom Kristnesen, Alan McNish and many others."

"It is a staggering array of great names and exotic locations, steeped in history, and even when I was a kid, I always wanted to be a part of that and I am proud that I have been," Rob concludes.

When he was asked once what his favorite time in racing was, Rob replied, "I think each period had its own special attributes and memories. I remember when it used to be me and Pat Smith and one other guy, Duane Smith. The three of us would go to the races, leave at 4:00 or 5:00 in the afternoon and drive all night to get to Nelson Ledges or we would drive all night to get to Summit Point. We would sleep in the truck if we had to because we were too late for a hotel.

"When I look back on that, it was kind of the innocence of it all, the lack of complexity, even though at the time we thought is was complex. So I guess every time is just a little bit different. At all times though, there has always been that spark of emotion because we wanted to absolutely compete and win."

That is what it comes back to: competition and camaraderie - racing's ultimate distillation.