Road America

ELKHART LAKE, WI August 10, 2007 – Road America is aptly named. The only significant race track in the US that has “America” in its name, the track is a natural for the prototype sports cars of the American Le Mans Series. Now in its fifty-first year of hosting professional sports car racing, the two Thetford/Norcold Dyson Racing Porsche RS Spyders were fifth and seventh today in LMP2 qualifying for tomorrow’s four-hour Generac 500.

The Poughkeepsie NY based team first raced professionally here in 1983 when Rob Dyson was third in class in IMSA GTO for that year’s 500 mile race. Dyson Racing has finished on the podium in three of the past four races here, including a third last year and second in 2005. Butch Leitzinger won the pole in 2004 and in 2003, Chris Dyson and Andy Wallace finished first in LMP2 and second overall.

Dyson drivers have been lap leaders in the past four races here, and Guy Smith broke the lap record in last year’s race. “This is a driver’s track,” noted Andy Wallace. “It has a variety of challenges for both the drivers and the engineers. You need an efficient aero package because of the long straights, but with the P2 cars not having any horsepower, the trick here is to drop the drag off without loosing too much downforce. The Porsche is more efficient than the Acura. At this track, when they take off downforce, it probably costs them more than it cost us. With a low downforce set up, the mechanical package is that much more important because you do not have the aero to drag you out of a problem, and that is where the RS Spyder excels.”

“From a team standpoint it was not our strongest qualifying that we have had at Elkhart Lake the past few years,” said Chris Dyson. “But based on the practice times we have seen on old tires and our consistency over longer runs, we have what really matters for a race distance. We are all quite confident that the race will tell the story this weekend.”

Tomorrow’s race is scheduled for 4 p.m. CT. It will be broadcast on NBC from 2:30-4:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 12. ALMS Radio will have live coverage at americanlemans.com, which also will feature IMSA Live Timing & Scoring.