Portland Atlantic

PORTLAND, OR, JUNE 18, 2005 — On a challenging twelve turn track where qualifying position is often the main determinant of finishing position, Chris Dyson in the #16 Thetford/Norcold Swift finished eighth in this afternoon`s 35 lap Toyota Atlantic race, ahead of the Long Beach race winner. Dyson qualified eighth yesterday in a session effectively cut in half by rain. “We made some changes after the warm-up this morning in anticipation of the race being run in full sunshine,” said Dyson. “We thought the track would come in our favor with it getting hotter, but the changes upset the balance of the car a little bit and I could not drive the car as aggressively as I wanted. At the end, we were catching up with the cars in front of us and if we had the benefit of a couple more laps, I think we would have finished better. For tomorrow we will make some changes that will make the car quicker over the entire race distance.”

Earlier this morning, the qualifying session for tomorrow`s second race of the weekend put Dyson in the seventh starting position. It was an eventful session with six cars making contact with the tire barriers and three red flags. Noted Dyson, “The track was actually not too bad. The grip level all day yesterday was pretty low and this was the first session that was completely dry. The shame of it was that we had so many red flags. The session was really disjointed and the qualifying reflects the pit location more than anything else. With these tires` sensitivity to temperature, that one extra lap can make a big difference.”

This is Chris Dyson`s fourth race at Portland International Speedway, including last year`s American Le Mans race where he led fifty four laps in the Thetford/Norcold AER Lola EX 257 and came in third in P1 with co-driver Andy Wallace.

Today`s and Sunday`s races will be shown on SPEED TV June 25 3:00 PM ET