POUGHKEEPSIE, NY Dec. 18 – Porsche and endurance sports car racing; Dyson Racing and Porsche: synonymous phrases. Dyson Racing and Porsche are back together: the Thetford/Norcold team will be running two LMP2 RS Spyders in the American Le Mans Series in 2007. The team ran Porsche 962s in IMSA GTP from 1985 through 1991, winning a dozen races with nineteen podium finishes and four consecutive Porsche Cups. They won the first race they ran with the Porsche at Lime Rock in May of 1985. In the two decades since, they have not relinquished their title as America’s premier sports car team.
“The 962 was an exquisite looking race car,” noted Rob Dyson. “And like the old air plane adage, if it looks right, it will fly right. It was a great car to drive and that is what Porsche does best, building ultimate customer race cars with their renowned engineering and support behind them. To combine that Porsche perfection with our successful tradition brings a whole new level of enthusiasm to our team for the upcoming season. This is a reuniting of old family members, building on our partnership of mutual respect and a shared winning history.”
Hartmut Kristen, head of Porsche Motorsport worldwide, was pleased that a team of Dyson’s caliber has decided to embrace the RS Spyder program. “When we announced our ALMS participation, it was our target to have the RS Spyder being raced by customer teams in 2007,” said Krisen. “We will continue our development work together with the Penske Motorsports team. The results of this work will be made available to our customer teams. The RS Spyders for Penske and Dyson are exactly the same 2007 models, and the engines we are providing to the teams are identical as well.”
“We will be competing next year with a proven package that has race data and advancement behind it,” Chris Dyson said. “Porsche won the ALMS championship last year and that is a strong selling point. Our team will be racing at the most competitive level in ALMS, where new teams, drivers and manufactures are going to be focusing their considerable resources. We will be able to showcase who we are as a team and concentrate on winning races and championships.”
Dyson Racing has sixteen team and driver championships and sixty-one wins since that first GTP win at Lime Rock twenty one years ago. Anchoring this new package and era for Dyson Racing will be the familiar #20 blue and white Thetford/Norcold entry driven by Chris Dyson and Guy Smith and #16 with Butch Leitzinger and Andy Wallace. The team will be testing their first car at the January 21 – 24 ALMS Winter Test at Sebring and racing both at the first race of the season, the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring March 17.