BOWMANVILLE, ONT, July 20, 2013 – Tony Burgess and Chris McMurry kicked off their four race stint with Dyson Racing with a second row qualifying effort for tomorrow’s Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix.  Tony Burgess qualified the #16 Mazda Lola second fastest in P1 with an average speed of 127.235 MPH  around the 10 turn, 2.5 mile Canadian Tire Motorsport Park track. One of racing’s more challenging tracks, Canada’s oldest track has long been a drivers’ favorite.

No stranger to Mosport, the Toronto native has raced here twelve times including a 24 hour race for motorcycles early in his career. Tony raced with Dyson Racing three times last year, with the first here at the Canadian Tire track.  He has over one hundred sports car races to his credit and has raced in more than ten countries with seventeen 24 hour sports car races to his credit including this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

“Given where Chris and I are at in our cycle of development with the car, we got a good amount out of it in qualifying,” Tony said.  “This is my first time driving a car with the wide front tires and you can feel the difference.  You pay a price in terms of feel from initial turn in to the apex, but overall, you are not worried about the front end giving up, and under braking it is much better.”

Chris McMurry returns to Dyson Racing after placing third in ALMS points at last year’s season-ending Petit Le Mans with the Dyson squad. He has raced sixty-five times in the ALMS since his first Petit Le Mans in 2001, with twenty-seven podiums to his credit. Chris will be pairing with Tony this year here and Road America, Circuit of the Americas and Petit Le Mans.  He tested at Road Atlanta a couple weeks ago, and said “I was surprised how quickly it comes back.  I think a large part of it is this car is a very confidence inspiring car, so it is easy to come back to it. Your brain is not playing games with you about whether you can do it or not.  The car is so good you can hop right in and you can get right back to your driving.  It actually motivates you to attack and pushes you to go faster.”

On a non-racing note, there was a Dyson first here today in 39 years of racing.  There was a marriage proposal in the race car at lunch time.  Ian Browning made arrangements with the team to have his girlfriend Sarah Bunting sit in the car, followed by Ian proposing to her and slipping the ring on her finger while she was in the car.  She was totally surprised, and yes, she said yes. They have known each other since second grade.  The word is she did not originally like him, but that eventually changed over the years.  Dyson Racing wishes them all the happiness in their future life together.