BOWMANVILLE, ONTARIO September 3, 2006 – Guy Smith and Chris Dyson enjoyed their best finish of 2006 with second place in today’s Mosport Grand Prix. Twenty seconds down with thirty-three laps remaining, the #20 Lola / AER finished less than three seconds in arrears, with Smith breaking the track’s lap record ten minutes from the checkered flag. Joining Smith and Dyson on the podium was the third place pole-winning #16 machine of James Weaver and Butch Leitzinger. They led fifty-two laps including the first twenty-six.
“We compromised on set-up between wet and dry settings for the race, but all things considered the car was very good today,” Dyson said. “We were only ten seconds down to the leader when Guy got in the car after the first hour. Considering I had spent a good part of my stint racing with one of the Porsches, I was pleased by how close we were to the leader. In clean air the car was particularly good. I did my stint on the soft tires and we hadn’t run them here yet. The car was reasonable but I knew we needed to switch compounds to get the most out of it. We went to the mediums for Guy and that was the ticket. He drove a phenomenal stint and we had the fastest car on the track. The Audi beat us on fuel consumption today. I’m very proud of our effort.”
Leitzinger held the lead for the first third of the race. Each time he was passed by the Audi, he passed them back on the same lap. “The car ran very well,” remarked Leitzinger. “We were a little slow in the beginning while the tires got up to pressure but than we were able to control the race and I had a good battle with the Audi. I was looking forward to James getting in the car because he has been flying all weekend, but unfortunately we had a stuck wheel gun and that was just enough to hurt us.”
Dyson Racing has won the past two Mosport American Le Mans races, but a three peat was not to be. “We will be racing the ten hour Petit Le Mans in four weeks,” said Dyson. “We have found reliability with our new cars and are working hard on the speed as shown by podium finishes in the past four consecutive races. We are hitting our stride with our new AER-powered Lolas.”
Pos | Car# | Class | Drivers | Differential | Car Make | |
1. | 2 | P1 | Capello/McNish | Audi R10 | ||
2. | 20 | P1 | C.Dyson/Smith | 2.794 | Lola B06/10/AER | |
3. | 16 | P1 | Weaver/Leitzinger/R.Dyson | 37.130 | Lola B06/10/AER | |
4. | 1 | P1 | Biela/Pirro | 1 lap | Audi R10 | |
5. | 7 | P2 | Luhr/Dumas | 2 laps | Porsche RS Spyder | |
6. | 6 | P2 | Maassen/Bernhard | 8.887 | Porsche RS Spyder | |
7. | 009 | GT1 | Sarrazin/Lamy | 9 laps | Aston Martin DBR9 | |
8. | 4 | GT1 | Gavin/Beretta | 10 laps | Corvette C6-R | |
9. | 007 | GT1 | Enge/Kox | 30.487 | Aston Martin DBR9 | |
10. | 3 | GT1 | Fellows/OConnell | 11 laps | Corvette C6-R |