LONG BEACH, CA  April 20, 2013 – On the perseverance continuum, race team owners must rate right off the scale.  Dyson Racing has more than thirty years of racing accomplishments to its credit.  By the nature of the sport, there will be races when the car will not finish the race.  Unfortunately that was the case today at the American Le Mans Series race on the streets of Long Beach. The #16 Thetford/RACER Lola Mazda car was retired thirty minutes into the race after making contact with the wall in the turn 11 hairpin going onto the front straight.  

“At this point, it is hard to pinpoint exactly what happened. We will look at the data, go over the car and evaluate what exactly took place,” said Chris Dyson. “We had just gone green after the first yellow of the race.  I was in second place and running well when the car did not turn in and just pushed into the wall at the hairpin.”

Dyson Racing has been competitive in the eight races here since the ALMS joined the IndyCar weekend, taking home six class or overall podiums on the streets of Long Beach.  Guy Smith qualified the #16 Dyson entry in second place yesterday and was looking forward to a classic Long Beach street fight.  “We are in a good position with this car this year.  We are in the fight,”  noted Smith.  “Last year was the first time we ran the larger front tires and it was a learning experience.  This year we have a car that works the tires and once you have tire temperatures, then you are concentrating on fine tuning the car and improving the balance. Your focus is on going quicker as opposed to figuring out the basics of how to drive the car.”

“We were in a position to do very well this weekend,” Dyson said.  “It is unfortunate but we will regroup and come back strongly at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The team will be testing before the next race.  We tested at Willow Springs before coming here and had a very good test on a track that is a pantheon of adrenaline and commitment. It was one of those tests that help define confidence for the remainder of the season. The season has just begun.  There are eight races left in our ten-race season and there are a lot more races to be won.”

2013 marks Dyson Racing’s thirtieth year in professional racing.  Rob Dyson started racing in the SCCA in 1974 and moved up to the professional ranks in 1983 in IMSA’s GTO class. He started racing a Porsche 962 in IMSA’s GTP class in 1985 and has been a main stay of top-line prototype racing ever since.