Portland

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July 29, 2005 — Portland International Raceway is built on the old site of Vanport, a city of 50,000 that during World War II, built 743 ships including setting a record of 71 hours to build a Liberty Ship. Andy Wallace in the #20 Thetford/Norcold car continued that history of achievement today as he set a track record in qualifying with a pole speed that was over two seconds faster than his pole here last year. In addition to two poles in a row at Portland for Wallace and the Dyson Racing team, this is the first time he has earned back to back poles in his career. “I am absolutely ecstatic,” effused Wallace. “It is such a lovely feeling to drive a car as good as this one for a team as good as this team.”

It is a Dyson Racing front row. Butch Leitzinger in the #16 car starts second, only a tenth of a second back. Dyson Racing has been on top of the time charts all weekend. “We were quick this weekend from the start and that is due to the race engineer, Peter Weston, getting his sums right, noted Leitzinger. The drivers will get together after each race and have a talk about what the car did well and did not do well. We will give Peter some suggestions and then Peter is the brain that sorts out the wheat from the chafe and distills a good recipe from that we throw at him.”

Commented Wallace, “The car was quick as it rolled off the truck and we did not mess it up all weekend! All the hard work is worth it when you are on the front of the grid like this: this is what we are here for. It is lovely when it works out like this.” When a radio reporter asked what were the keys to emerging on the top of the stats, Wallace replied, “Get in the car, strap yourself in, and pedal like a madman for 1 minute 2.7 seconds and it works every time!” A simple recipe that takes years of team talent to distill.

This weekend, the race is on Saturday and can be seen tomorrow on SPEED Channel from 8:00 PM to 11:00 PM EDT. There is also live radio available at www.americanlemans.com.

And you can keep track of the Dyson team on their newly refreshed www.dysonracing.com.

Pos Car# Class Drivers Speed Car Make
1. 20 P1 C.Dyson/A.Wallace 1:02.712 Lola EX257/AER
2. 16 P1 J.Weaver/B.Leitzinger 1:02.836 Lola EX257/AER
3. 1 P1 J. Lehto/M.Werner 1:03.262 Audi R8/Audi
4. 2 P1 E.Pirro/F.Biela 1:03.579 Audi R8
5. 37 P2 C.Field/G.Fisken 1:05.744 Lola B05/40/AER
6. 10 P2 Macaluso/McMurry/Bucknum 1:05.865 Courage C6-R/AER
7. 12 P1 M.Lewis/B.Willman 1:06.827 Riely & Scott Mk III
8. 4 GT1 O.Gavin/O.Baretta 1:08.193 Corvette C6-R
9. 3 GT1 R. Fellows/J.OConnell 1:08.371 Corvette C6-R
10. 63 GT1 T. Borscheller/J.Mowlem 1:08.661 Saleen S7R
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