Houston

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HOUSTON, TX April 21, 2007 – It was a keep-them-standing battle. Chris Dyson passed the #15 Fernandez Racing entry at the start of the Lone Star Grand Prix. For the next 50 minutes, the gap averaged half a second, with Dyson keeping Luis Diaz at bay, Diaz bobbing and weaving, Chris staying in front, using his speed through traffic to his advantage. “That was a good scrap,” said Dyson. “Diaz is a hard but fair fighter and it was an enjoyable battle for position.” The #20 Thetford/Norcold Porsche RS Spyder with Dyson and Guy Smith finished ahead of the Fernandez entry, claiming fifth in LMP 2 in the fourth race of the ALMS season.

“The car was good,” commented Smith, who drove the second stint of the 2 hour 45 minute race. “I felt that we had made a big improvement to the car in qualifying and in the race, the car continued to be very positive. We have found a direction this weekend we can pursue and we will go to Salt Lake and continue to follow that step forward.”

Andy Wallace and Butch Leitzinger in the #16 sister car came home sixth in class, finishing two seconds behind the #20 duo, with Leitzinger claiming sixth when he passed Adrian Fernandez fifteen minutes from the end. Like 2006, it was a clean race around the ten turn, 1.7 mile temporary street course in Reliant Park, with one yellow for a single-car incident, but none for car-to-car contact.

After four races in six weeks, the series takes a breather before racing at Salt Lake City on May 19. Summing up the season to date, Chris Dyson remarked, “We are making progress every weekend, which is good because it is a steep learning curve for us. The car responds differently than what we have had in the past and that has been a challenge. But our race pace has been reasonably strong and our strategy and pit work have been excellent. We have scored valuable points. We are still a contender for the P2 championship and Porsche is committed to making our effort a strong one. This weekend we learned some new directions for future chassis tuning. As the setup improves, we as drivers are getting more comfortable with the car. It is only going to get better.”

Pos Car# Class Drivers Diff Car Make
1. 7 P2 Dumas/Bernhard 0 Porsche RS Spyder
2. 26 P2 Herta/Franchitti 0.490 Acura ARX
3. 1 P1 Capello/McNish 1.341 Audi R10
4. 6 P2 Maassen/Briscoe 14.110 Porsche Rs Spyder
5. 9 P2 Brabham/Johansson/Dayton 1 lap Acura ARX
6. 20 P2 Dyson/Smith 2 laps Porsche RS Spyder
7. 16 P1 Leitzinger/Wallace 2 laps Porsche RS Spyder
8. 15 P2 Fernandez/Diaz 2 laps Lola B06
9. 8 P2 Bach/Devlin 6 laps Lola B07
10. 4 GT1 OConnell/Magnussen 8 laps Corvette C6
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