Road America

ELKHART LAKE, WI August 9, 2008 – Four hours is a nice civilized length for an endurance race. It was just the right length for Dyson Racing as Butch Leitzinger took over third in the LMP2 class five minutes from the end of the American Le Mans race at Road America. “I have to thank my teammate, Marino Franchitti, who drove the first two stints and drove a great race to keep us up front,” Leitzinger said afterwards. Franchitti started the #20 Thetford/Norcold entry from the back of the grid after changing two tires after yesterday’s qualifying session and was second in class by the nineteenth lap. “The car was the best it has been all year,” commented Franchitti. “Having a two-car team is an advantage and at Dyson Racing, information flows well between the drivers and the engineers and I have to thank the 16 car for all of their help and input.”

The #16 Porsche RS Spyder of Chris Dyson and Guy Smith finished sixth in class after 102 laps on the famed four mile, fourteen-turn course here in Kettle Moraine country. “This just wasn’t a good race for the 16 car,” Chris Dyson acknowledged. “Our car had more oversteer than we would have liked, and we didn’t have the pace today,” he said. “But our sister car had a strong run and there are some lessons to take from this one. We need to study the data closely. Sometimes we take different directions with setups on the cars, and in those cases sometimes it just doesn’t work for one of us. But we are a team and we make these decisions together. The aim is always to learn more for the long term.”

It was a race that started out slowly, punctuated by three yellows in the first twenty laps, but built into an increasing level of competiveness the final three hours that culminated in a hard-fought sprint race the last twenty minutes. Less than sixteen seconds separated the top six at the end and there were a dozen lead changes with race-lap records set in three of the four classes. “The guys ran hard all weekend and did a great job,” noted Rob Dyson. “We had good pit stops with no problems and that is a key ingredient. Our team really worked hard and we look forward to going to Mosport with these competitive results under our belt.”

The Grand Prix of Mosport will be held in two weeks time on Sunday, August 24th. The series’ annual sojourn north of the border will mark the eighth race of the eleven-race ALMS series and will be broadcast live on SPEED TV.