ROLEX SPORTS CAR SERIES

Dyson Racing was one of the founding teams of the Rolex Sports Car Series, winning sixteen races and two drivers’ and two team championships from 2000 through 2002.

Dyson Racing ran its Riley & Scott III in the inaugural year of the Grand American Road Racing Association. James Weaver won the championship, his second with Dyson Racing, winning four of the nine races on the schedule, supplemented with two third places and two fourths. The team also claimed a class victory in the season-opening Rolex 24 Hours in 2000.

Weaver won his second Grand Am championship in a row in 2001, with Butch Leitzinger only twelve points back in second. Dyson Racing won or finished second in all but one of the eleven races.

Chris Dyson, who had made his team debut at the 2001 Watkins Glen 250, finished second in the 2002 drivers’ championship, missing the title by just two points. He won rookie-of-the-year honors while winning five of the season’s ten races, including the Watkins Glen Six Hours. Demonstrating consistency, Chris finished on the podium three more times. James Weaver was third in the championship, Rob Dyson fifth and Butch Leitzinger sixth. Twice Dyson Racing took 1-2 finishes, at Watkins Glen and Daytona.

Rob Dyson: “We ran the Riley & Scotts for eight years. We have not run any other race car as long as we did the Riley & Scotts. We had one chassis that had over 53,000 racing miles on it including the 24 Hours of Daytona win in 1997. The Riley was the most successful car we ran. We won a bunch of championships with it. It was a magnificent car to drive: beautifully balanced, very stout, very forgiving, and an easy car to drive fast.”

All told, from 1995 through 2002 Dyson Racing’s Riley & Scott Mk III cars claimed thirty-six victories, including two overall and two class wins in the Rolex 24.