Long Beach

LONG BEACH, CA, APR. 10, 2005 — Chris Dyson finished fourth in today`s Long Beach Toyota Atlantic Race. The truism of “to finish first, first you have to finish” could have been invented for this concrete lined race way here by the ocean. Chris commented, “My first goal of the day was to get through turn one intact and go from there.” The Atlantic cars slow from 165 mph to 55 mph as they enter the first turn. And turn one produced its usual coming together of drivers trying to win the race on the first turn of the first lap. “I had a good start and I was on the inside when the banzai stuff happened next to me with guys taking each other out,” Chris said.

Chris took over third place with his good start. He relinquished third on lap five and settled into the body of the race at a competitive pace. “I was hoping for a top three, but we had a bit of a problem with the gearbox after the second restart,” (on lap 18 of 32), related Chris. “It felt like it was starting to pack up. I was running right up with the top three guys. But after the second restart, it jammed in fourth gear and after that, I had to very careful with the gearbox, with an eye on making it to the finish. For our second Atlantic weekend and first Long Beach effort, the crew did a really great job. We had a good weekend and we have a lot to look forward to in this program.”

“We exceeded our expectations this weekend,” commented Michael White, team manager of the Dyson Racing Toyota Atlantic effort. “The Atlantic program is a good development experience for our guys who normally work on our American Le Mans team,” said Michael. “You have to really sweat the details with these cars: you have to be precise with your adjustments, scaling, and corner weights. What we learn benefits both of our programs.” The Thetford/Norcold Dyson Racing Toyota Atlantic team will next run at the double header Atlantic race weekend at Portland, Oregon on June 18 and 19.