Dyson Racing Team Bentley Scores First North American Win
Leitzinger Takes Third Place at Miller Motorsports Park
TOOELE, UT – On the occasion of his 40th birthday, Bentley Boy Guy Smith handed a present to Bentley – its first-ever race win in North America. Additionally, he also helped prove the Bentley Continental GT3 as a winner by delvering the fastest lap in morning practice, pole position in the afternoon and a race win in the evening. Smith also set the fastest race lap of the day which gives him pole position for tomorrow’s season-ending Pirelli World Challenge at Miller Motorsports Park. In a day of firsts, it was also his inaugural win in the Pirelli World Challenge in just his third race – and third pole position – in the series. Continue reading Dyson Racing Team Bentley Scores First North American Win →

DYSON RACING TEAM BENTLEY SHARPENED FOR SEASON FINALE

Poughkeepsie, NY / Herndon, VA – After two solid performances last month at Sonoma Raceway, Dyson Racing Team Bentley is ready to sprint into Rounds 15 and 16 of the Pirelli World Challenge. The season finale double-header races take place at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah on Friday, September 12 and Saturday, September 13.
Sonoma Recap Continue reading Dyson Racing–DYSON RACING TEAM BENTLEY SHARPENED FOR SEASON FINALE →

Johnny Mowlem to Partner with Dyson Racing Junior Development Driver Matt McMurry at Paul Ricard
POUGHKEEPSIE, NY — Racing veteran Johnny Mowlem will join 16-year-old Dyson Racing Junior Development Program driver Matt McMurry at the penultimate round of the European Le Mans Series at Circuit Paul Ricard in the south of France September 13-14th. Mowlem joins the youngest driver to ever run the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the #41 Greaves Motorsport LM P2 Zytek-Nissan.
Continue reading Dyson Racing–Johnny Mowlem to Partner with Dyson Racing Junior Development Driver Matt McMurry at Paul Ricard →

Sonoma Weekend Ends with Mixed Results for Dyson Racing Team Bentley
Guy Smith Sets Track Record As
Butch Leitzinger Wins Move of the Race Award

SONOMA, Calif. – Dyson Racing Team Bentley drivers Guy Smith and Butch Leitzinger started the 14th round of the Pirelli World Challenge with high hopes. But, after Smith’s start from pole position was delayed and Leitzinger was inadvertently caught up in an incident between two other competitors, a podium finish wasn’t in the cards for the team today. On a positive note, Smith took fastest-lap honors for the second consecutive race (this time with a new track record) while Leitzinger set the second-fastest lap and won the Move of the Race award with his daring pass of Mike Skeen and Johnny O’Connell on his way to a 5th-place finish.
Continue reading Dyson Racing–Sonoma Weekend Ends with Mixed Results for Dyson Racing Team Bentley →

Dyson Racing Team Bentley Scores Best Results to Date
Guy Smith Sets Fastest Lap Time and Achieves Pole Position for Race #2 at Sonoma

SONOMA, Calif. – Dyson Racing Team Bentley scored a third-place finish in the 13th round of the Pirelli World Challenge. The successful finish followed the team’s best qualifying effort of the year, with Bentley Boys Butch Leitzinger and Guy Smith setting the second- and third-fastest times of the qualifying session. Leitzinger finished third, just three-tenths of a second behind runner-up Ryan Dalziel.
Continue reading Dyson Racing–Dyson Racing Team Bentley Scores Best Results to Date →

DYSON RACING TEAM BENTLEY TO RACE SECOND CONTINENTAL GT3 IN PIRELLI WORLD CHALLENGE
Car number 88 will enter the line-up at Sonoma Raceway
Bentley Boy Guy Smith to pilot second Bentley; joins Butch Leitzinger
Poughkeepsie, NY / Herndon, VA – Dyson Racing Team Bentley announces a second Continental GT3 will enter the Pirelli World Challenge beginning with this weekend’s Round 13 and 14 races. Bentley Boy Guy Smith will pilot the number 88 car in a double header race weekend at Sonoma Raceway on Saturday, August 23 and Sunday, August 24.
Continue reading Dyson Racing–DYSON RACING TEAM BENTLEY TO RACE SECOND CONTINENTAL GT3 IN PIRELLI WORLD CHALLENGE →

DYSON RACING TEAM BENTLEY FINISH STRONG AT MID-OHIO
LEXINGTON, OH – Today Butch Leitzinger and Dyson Racing Team Bentley showed the pace of their Bentley Continental GT3 in Round 12 of the Pirelli World Challenge at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Leitzinger worked his way from 14th to eighth place at the finish of the 50-minute race.
A stumble a the standing-start of the race dropped the Bentley from its eighth-place starting position, but Leitzinger raced his way into the top ten by the sixth lap. An outside pass around the tight Keyhole on a lap 28 green flag restart moved him into eighth place and gave Leitzinger his third top-ten finish since joining the series at Road America three race weekends ago.
Continue reading Dyson Racing–DYSON RACING TEAM BENTLEY FINISH STRONG AT MID-OHIO →

Rain Shortens Bentley Effort at Mid-Ohio
LEXINGTON, OH – When it rains part way through a sprint race it tends to shake things up. A mid-afternoon storm worked against Butch Leitzinger and Dyson Racing Team Bentley in Round 11 of the Pirelli World Challenge at Mid-Ohio today. Leitzinger, who had moved his #08 Bentley Continental GT3 up from his eighth starting spot to sixth when the skies opened, emerged from the pits for rain tires in 12th position under yellow flag conditions, but the highest-placed car on rain tires. But that’s where he finished when the race was red-flagged a few minutes later. Continue reading Dyson Racing–Rain Shortens Bentley Effort at Mid-Ohio →

It may be school vacation time for most of Matt McMurry’s high-school classmates back in Phoenix, but for the 16-year-old Dyson Racing Junior Development Program driver summer school continues, most recently this past weekend with the running of the European Le Mans Series 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring. McMurry, who last month became the youngest driver ever to start the 24 Hours of Le Mans, racked up more valuable seat time as he and his teammates, Tom Kimber-Smith and Mark Patterson took their Greaves Motorsports Caterham Zytek Z11SN – Nissan LMP2 entry to a sixth-place overall finish.
“This was a really hard-fought race for us and for just all the teams,” McMurry said, following a final-hour battle to the checker between two-time Le Mans winner Kimber-Smith and ex-F1 driver Christian Klien in the Newblood by Morand Racing Morgan Judd, with Kimber-Smith coming up less than two seconds shy.
Continue reading Dyson Racing–McMurry’s Summer School Class in Close Combat →

TORONTO, ONT – It was a competitive race for Butch Leitzinger in the #08 Bentley Continental GT3 today in the Pirelli World Challenge double header in the streets of Toronto. At the end of the thirty-seven minute race, Leitzinger had moved from thirteen to ninth and set a time three tenths off the fastest race lap. It was a weekend of positive progression as the team dialed in the car and found increased speed in each session.
Continue reading Dyson Racing–New and Improved →

TORONTO, ONT – Butch Letizinger finished 19th in the first race of the Pirelli World Challenge doubleheader on the streets of Toronto early this afternoon in the Bentley Continental GT3. His race came to a premature end on lap 19 of 30 after coming together with another competitor two thirds of the way through the fifty minute race. The car was not badly damaged, and Dyson Racing Team Bentley will be ready for the drop of the green flag for tomorrow’s race.
Continue reading Dyson Racing–Street Fight in Toronto →

Dyson Racing Team Bentley Gets Ready for Toronto

HERNDON, VA – After a strong finish in their Pirelli World Challenge debut, Dyson Racing Team Bentley is poised for their next race. The team will once again take on the competition in a pair of sprint races, this time on the street circuit around downtown Toronto, Canada beginning Saturday 19th July.

Continue reading Dyson Racing–Dyson Racing Team Bentley Gets Ready for Toronto →

Mark Patterson Joins ELMS in Support of Dyson Racing Junior Development Program and Matt McMurry
POUGHKEEPSIE, NY – Veteran sportscar racer Mark Patterson has joined the driving crew alongside Dyson Racing Junior Development Program driver Matt McMurry and three-time Le Mans 24 hour winner Tom Kimber-Smith in the Caterham-branded Greaves Motorsport Zytek-Nissan LM P2 entry for the upcoming European Le Mans Series Red Bull Ring race, on July 19-20.  The announcement was made by Chris Dyson, Dyson Racing’s vice president and sporting director.

“The primary purpose of running Matt in the ELMS was to give him exposure to the highest echelon of sportscar competition and to prepare him to fulfill his goal of becoming the youngest driver to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans,” Dyson said. “Matt’s performance at Le Mans was impressive and he achieved not only his goal of becoming the youngest starter in the race but also the youngest finisher. His performance overall this season has exceeded our expectations. Matt’s learned most of what he can from Tom and me; now his gains will come from more time in the car and working with a variety of teammates.”

Dyson noted that the recent expansion of Dyson Racing’s horizons through the creation of the Junior Development Program and the initiation of our partnership with Bentley Motors and the establishment of Dyson Racing Team Bentley has made it increasingly important that the organization marshal its resources as efficiently as possible.

“I now need to turn more of my focus to our partnership with Bentley and our joint program in the Pirelli World Challenge,” Dyson said. “We had a great start last month at Elkhart Lake, where Butch (Leitzinger) finished sixth and fourth in the two races. We started the PWC season at its midpoint and have four race meetings remaining to develop the car further and determine our plans for the 2015 season.

“I’m grateful to Mark for stepping in for Austria. Tom continues to work with us but he has some conflicts that preclude his participation in the ELMS beyond that race.  So we’re evaluating other drivers who would wish to join Matt in the final two races on the ELMS schedule. We are working hard to build on what we started this year with the junior program, and interest in these available seats is indeed strong.”

Dyson noted that with a pair of fourth-place finishes, the team currently stands second in the ELMS point standings. “We are grateful to our long-time partners and friends at Greaves Motorsport, who have fielded a strong car for us all season long. My expectation is that the team will continue to enjoy high finishes in the remaining races, and that Matt will continue with his impressive progress.”

Moving On Up

ELKHART LAKE, WI — Dyson Racing Team Bentley improved on yesterday’s sixth place finish with a fourth place today in the second race of the Pirelli World Challenge doubleheader at Road America. As he did yesterday, Butch Leitzinger in the Bentley Continental GT3 set the second fastest lap of the race underlining a strong debut weekend for the team.

The first day of summer dawned misty and damp with heavy fog lingering at the 9:10 am race start on the four mile, 14-turn natural road course. Forty-three cars took the green flag with Leitzinger starting from the outside of the front row. He lost three positions at the start and was making up ground when the yellow came out on the fifth lap. The race resumed twenty minutes later on lap 12 for twelve minutes of green running to the checkered flag.

“We lost some positions on the first lap, but once the car came in after a couple laps and all the temperatures were good on the tires, the car was just fantastic,” said Leitzinger. “I was trying so hard to get a podium for Bentley today but just could not do it. It was a shame it was not a longer race or we had more green laps, because the car was getting better with every lap. But that is part of sprint racing.

“It was a very good weekend. The car ran every session with no problems and we kept on making it better and more competitive every time we went out. I was very impressed with the car and with the team effort between us and Bentley. I had a blast and cannot wait for the next race and further develop the potential of this Bentley.”

Team principal Rob Dyson shared the same positive view of the weekend’s effort. “It was a good start. I would give it a solid grade. Sprint racing is a new discipline for us and we are coming into a new ‘neighborhood.’ The series and competitors are friendly, giving and helpful. They have terrific and fast cars here in Pirelli World Challenge. Bentley has done an excellent job in the engineering and development of the Continental GT3, and as it continues to be raced on both sides of the Atlantic, it will continue to get better. I am very pleased with the result and how the team has made our new partnership with Bentley work seamlessly from the start.”

Successful Inauguration Day

ELKHART LAKE, WI – It was a successful debut for Dyson Racing Team Bentley and the new Bentley Continental GT3 in today’s Pirelli World Challenge race here at iconic Road America. Butch Leitzinger finished sixth in the twin-turbo V-8 powered entry, fourteen seconds off of first place. He set the second fastest race lap which means he will start on the outside of the front row for tomorrow’s second race of the weekend.

The race was a march forward for Leitzinger. He made up 13 positions in the 50 minute race. While the race was run under dry conditions, this morning’s wet qualifying session was cancelled and the grid was based on points. With this being the first race for the team in PWC, no prior championship points put Leitzinger in the 19th starting position.

Leitzinger summed up his race: “It was great. The car performed well and I had fun racing with people. It is great to be able to dice with people and go wheel to wheel and everyone was very fair. No one was giving anything and that is how you want to race people. The track changed quite a bit between the rain and the NASCAR rubber that was put down, and it looked like everyone was struggling for grip. We learned a lot and Bentley has produced a great race car and Dyson has done a great job of bringing it to the race track. We are going to have fun with this car the rest of the year.”

Chris Dyson, Vice President and Sporting Director of Dyson Racing, commented that “It was a good inaugural race for our Anglo-American partnership. The car has run trouble- free this weekend and Butch, as usual, worked the traffic well in the race. We have been made to feel very welcome by everyone in Pirelli World Challenge, and it is great to have the team back at a race track, doing what they do best.”

“It is probably the most sorted new car that I have driven,” added Leitzinger talking about the Continental GT3. “The Bentley people and the M-Sport people had done a great job of putting together a good package. Plus we had Guy Smith who helped with the development on the car, so everyone deserves a lot of credit for producing a good baseline car. We have not had to chase the usual new car teething problems and from the very beginning the Bentley has felt solid.

“I am very impressed with the feel and capabilities of the car. Normally a GT car is all mechanical with very little aero, but this car has good aerodynamics. Their wind tunnel work shows as you can feel the downforce on the car.”

Peter Weston, the race engineer for Dyson Racing, also found a lot to like about the new car. “The chassis is stiff and racy which opens up a lot of doors to the engineer as far as how he can set the car up. Butch found the same thing from the drivers’ seat that he can bring a lot to the table as a driver and use his full repertoire of race craft. Normally with GT cars, there is only one way to drive them, but with the new Bentley, the driver can drive it how he wants to go quickly. The car is actually quite nimble and is a flexible platform from both engineering and driver’s viewpoint.”

Moving On Up
ELKHART LAKE, WI — Dyson Racing Team Bentley improved on yesterday’s sixth place finish with a fourth place today in the second race of the Pirelli World Challenge doubleheader at Road America.  As he did yesterday, Butch Leitzinger in the Bentley Continental GT3 set the second fastest lap of the race, underlining a strong debut weekend for the team.
The first day of summer dawned misty and damp, with heavy fog lingering at the 9:10 am race start on the four mile, 14-turn natural road course. Forty-three cars took the green flag with Leitzinger starting from the outside of the front row.  He lost three places at the start and was making up ground when the yellow came out on the fifth lap. The race resumed twenty minutes later on lap 12 for twelve minutes of green running to the checkered flag.
“We lost some positions on the first lap, but once the car came in after a couple laps and all the temperatures were good on the tires, the car was just fantastic,” said Leitzinger.  “I was trying so hard to get a podium for Bentley today but just could not do it.  It was a shame it was not a longer race or we had more green laps, because the car was getting better with every lap.  But that is part of sprint racing.
“It was a very good weekend.  The car ran every session with no problems and we kept on making it better and more competitive every time we went out. I was very impressed with the car and with the team effort between us and Bentley.  I had a blast and cannot wait for the next race and further develop the potential of this Bentley.”
Team principal Rob Dyson shared the same positive view of the weekend’s effort. “It was a good start. I would give it a solid grade.  Sprint racing is a new discipline for us and we are coming into a new ‘neighborhood.’ The series and competitors are friendly, giving and helpful.  They have terrific and fast cars here in Pirelli World Challenge.  Bentley has done an excellent job in the engineering and development of the Continental GT3, and as it continues to be raced on both sides of the Atlantic, it will continue to get better. I am very pleased with the result and how the team has made our new partnership with Bentley work seamlessly from the start.”

ELKHART LAKE, WI – It was a successful debut for Dyson Racing Team Bentley and the new Bentley Continental GT3 in today’s Pirelli World Challenge race here at iconic Road America.  Butch Leitzinger finished sixth in the twin-turbo V-8 powered entry, fourteen seconds off of first place. He set the second fastest race lap which means he will start on the outside of the front row for tomorrow’s second race of the weekend.

The race was a forward march for Leitzinger. He made up 13 positions in the 50 minute race.  While the race was run under dry conditions, this morning’s wet qualifying session was cancelled and the grid was based on points.  With this being the first race for the team in PWC, no prior championship points put Leitzinger in the 19th starting position.

Leitzinger summed up his race: “It was great. The car performed well and I had fun racing with people.  It is great to be able to dice with people and go wheel to wheel and everyone was very fair.  No one was giving anything and that is how you want to race people. The track changed quite a bit between the rain and the NASCAR rubber that was put down, and it looked like everyone was struggling for grip.  We learned a lot and Bentley has produced a great race car and Dyson has done a great job of bringing it to the race track.  We are going to have fun with this car the rest of the year.”

Chris Dyson, Vice President and Sporting Director of Dyson Racing, commented that “It was a good inaugural race for our Anglo-American partnership. The car has run trouble- free this weekend and Butch, as usual, worked the traffic well in the race.  We have been made to feel very welcome by everyone in Pirelli World Challenge, and it is great to have the team back at a race track, doing what they do best.”

“It is probably the most sorted new car that I have driven,” added Leitzinger talking about the Continental GT3. “The Bentley people and the M-Sport people had done a great job of putting together a good package.  Plus we had Guy Smith who helped with the development on the car, so everyone deserves a lot of credit for producing a good baseline car.  We have not had to chase the usual new car teething problems and from the very beginning the Bentley has felt solid.

“I am very impressed with the feel and capabilities of the car. Normally a GT car is all mechanical with very little aero, but this car has good aerodynamics.  Their wind tunnel work shows as you can feel the downforce on the car.”

Peter Weston, the race engineer for Dyson Racing, also found a lot to like about the new car. “The chassis is stiff and racy which opens up a lot of doors to the engineer as far as how he can set the car up. Butch found the same thing from the drivers’ seat that he can bring a lot to the table as a driver and use his full repertoire of race craft. Normally with GT cars, there is only one way to drive them, but with the new Bentley, the driver can drive it how he wants to go quickly. The car is actually quite nimble and is a flexible platform from both engineering and driver’s viewpoint.”

Historic 24 Hours of Le Mans Finish for Dyson Racing Junior Development Driver Matt McMurry
POUGHKEEPSIE, NY – With the drop of the green flag on June 14th, 16-year-old Matt McMurry became the youngest starter in the long and storied history of the 24 Hours Le Mans, breaking the record for the French endurance classic set by Ricardo Rodriguez in 1959. And on the 15th, when the checkered flag finally waved, he entered the record books as the race’s youngest finisher, beating fellow American Gunnar Jeannette’s finish in 2000. The #42 Caterham Zytek-Nissan, which McMurry shared with Chris Dyson and Tom Kimber-Smith, finished tenth in the competitive LM P2 class on the Circuit de la Sarthe.  Fielded by Greaves Motorsports, the car traveled over 2,700 miles in the 82nd running of the toughest endurance race in motorsports.
 
“This is a massive accomplishment for Matt McMurry, the McMurry family and for the Dyson Racing Junior Development program,” said Dyson, Vice President and Sporting Director of Dyson Racing.  “Congratulations to Matt’s dad, Chris, on this Father’s Day achievement. To come over here and break two significant records is a notable success. I know Matt is going to be hungry to come back here.  This is such a wonderful international event and no matter how many times we race here, we always look forward to coming back.”
Matt was just ten when he first saw the race with his dad and 12 when he set his sights on becoming the youngest driver to race in thhe event. Speaking after the race, Matt observed that “everything about Le Mans was new, big and incredible. I’m so happy to have had the chance to experience everything about it, the whole week long. Our team did a great job, I learned a lot from Chris and Tom, and we got a good result — we ran all 24 hours and had a respectable finish. I arrived with an eye on becoming the youngest driver ever at Le Mans, and thanks to everyone I’m now also the youngest finisher.  It was a memorable day for Dyson Racing, Greaves Motorsport and me. Thanks to all the people over the years – and there were a lot of them – who made this possible for me.”
 
Tom Kimber-Smith has won the LM P2 class twice at Le Mans. “It’s an achievement simply to finish such a challenging race,” he said. “There as so many things that can go wrong, so many opportunities to make that little mistake with the big consequence. We had a lot of goals going into the race but number one was to support Matt’s quest for the record and I’ll tell you, he did a great job. His first stint was in the rain, which wasn’t easy. But as a racing driver he’s mature beyond his years – he looked as if he had been driving on wet tracks for years. It’s incredible he’s only 16.
 
Kimber-Smith also noted that “Chris drove fantastically all week, never putting a wheel wrong and he did the stints you’d expect to see from a two-time ALMS champ. It whas a real pleasure to drive with these guys and I cannot wait until the next event.” And that next event won’t be long in coming. The trio will be back in Europe next month, driving the Greaves Motorsports Caterham entry in the third round of the European Le Mans Series at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, July 19-20.

Bentley Motors Returns to North American Motorsport with Dyson Racing Team Bentley
Dyson Racing Team Bentley debut race slated for June 20 at Road America
Butch Letzinger To Pilot Continental GT3 in North America Debut
POUGHKEEPSIE, NY/HERNDON, VA – After an absence of more than a decade, Bentley Motors is competing again on the racing circuits of North America again, beginning this weekend at the Road America race track in Elkhart Lake, WI. Dyson Racing Team Bentley is fielding a Bentley Continental GT3 in the Pirelli World Challenge with Butch Leitzinger, a championship-winning driver with long-time connections to both halves of the new Anglo-American motorsports partnership, at the helm. Bentley will be taking on the competition in a pair of no-holds-barred sprint races (June 20-21) at one of the continent’s classic road-racing venues.
“Motorsport is an integral part of Bentley’s DNA and we’re excited to return to the racetrack in North America,” said Christophe Georges, President and CEO, Bentley Motors, Inc.  “We’re thrilled to work with the successful Dyson Racing organization.  Like Bentley, they have an established and valued history in motorsports.  The team has been hard at work preparing for this first race and we are excited for our customers and fans to see and hear the exhilarating Continental GT3 on the track.”
This marks the return of Bentley Motors to North American racing for the first time since the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2003 when the company’s pair of Bentley Speed 8 racecars took first and second in the Le Mans GTP class.  This will also be the Dyson team’s first race in the 2014 season, having most recently competed with a Lola prototype sports car at the ten-hour Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in October 2013.  
In April, Bentley Motors announced a multi-year agreement with Dyson Racing to support the company’s motorsport activities in North America. Dyson Racing Team Bentley will compete with Bentley’s Continental GT3 in the second half of the Pirelli World Challenge in preparation for a full season of competition in 2015.  
“Racing a production-based car is a new challenge for our team,” noted Chris Dyson, Vice President and Sporting Director for the team. “And we’re proud to be taking up this task in conjunction with our new partners at Bentley Motors. We know we’ll be facing strong competition in the Pirelli World Challenge, but our first test with the Continental GT3 went very well and we’re confident we’re bringing an excellent race car to Elkhart Lake.”
Road America will also mark the return of Butch Leitzinger to the Dyson Racing roster.  He has shared 20 years of history with the team and first drove for Dyson Racing in the 1995 24 Hours of Daytona. Leitzinger has a strong record with Bentley, racing for the British team in the 2001 and 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans. 
“Working with both Bentley and Dyson together is a happy development for me,” said Leitzinger, whose lengthy professional racing career includes numerous victories in both prototype and production-based race cars. “Chris and Rob (Dyson, the team’s founder and president) had been speaking with me about an undefined project they had in mind and I was of course interested in renewing my relationship with them and the team. I also knew that Bentley was getting back into racing, this time with a racing version of the Continental. To my surprise these two projects turned out to be the same – and happily, I’ll be driving.”
Leitzinger noted that the well-established relationship he has with the Dyson technical staff will help get the effort up to full speed quickly despite joining the series near the mid-point of the season.
Driving assignments for the four race meets following Elkhart Lake will be shared among Leitzinger, Dyson and Guy Smith, who has been a “Bentley Boy” since he won the 2003 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Bentley Speed 8.  Smith also drove one of the Speed 8s at their last American appearance at Sebring in 2003.  In addition, Smith was a development driver for the Bentley Continental GT3 program and races a Continental GT3 in the European Blancpain Series. He drove the winning car at the series’ most recent round at Silverstone, giving Bentley their first-ever win at the famous track and Bentley’s first victory since Le Mans in 2003.
“Selecting the drivers for this Anglo-American program was the easy part,” Dyson said. “Both Butch, who’s American and Guy, a Brit, have strong and enduring ties to Bentley and to Dyson Racing. Most importantly, they are both experienced veterans who are fast and who know how to win. The Pirelli World Challenge races are all sprint events, so the racing is flat out from the start and a driver has to be able to get to the front quickly and still bring the car home in one piece. Both Guy and Butch can do that. They are a formable pair for sure.”

Dyson, Kimber-Smith and McMurry Ready for History Making Le Mans
POUGHKEEPSIE, NY – With the momentum of solid finishes at Silverstone and Imola to their credit, Tom Kimber-Smith, Matt McMurry and Chris Dyson are looking forward to a strong run at the 82nd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans June 14-15 in the #42 LM P2 Caterham Zytek-Nissan fielded by Greaves Motorsport.
All three drivers share the common goal of a class win, but each of them also brings his own agenda to the world’s most prestigious sportscar race.

Kimber-Smith is aiming for his third LM P2 victory in six starts, (and fourth class win, including victory in GT2 in 2006.)  “Le Mans is a special race which anyone in motorsport would love to attend and compete at,” Kimber-Smith said.  “I have been extremely fortunate to have won the race three times now. (2006: Panoz Esperante GT2; 2011: Zytek/Nissan LMP2; and 2012: HPD/HPD LM P2).  I still have the same, if not more desire to win this race. It’s such a special feeling to stand on the top step of that podium looking down at thousands of spectators. LM P2 this year is very competitive. Probably the most competitive it has ever been. The race will be flat out as always and the winner will be the team that makes the least mistakes.”

For McMurry, a 16 year-old high school student and the initial Dyson Racing Junior Development Driver, it’s about becoming the youngest starter in the 91-year history of this twice-around-the-clock classic, the youngest finisher and the youngest winner.
“I went to Le Mans in 2008 when I was ten when my father raced there,” recounted McMurry.  “When I was twelve, we had a school project where we were asked what we wanted to accomplish before we graduated.  I said that I wanted to race at Le Mans, and now four years later, the dream is about to become real. I have been getting good advice from my teammates, Chris and Tom on how to get into a rhythm and stay calm.  Greaves Motorsport has a very good record at Le Mans and I am glad I will be part of the team’s effort to have another successful race at Le Mans.”
When he climbs into the car for the first time following the green flag on June 14, McMurry will displace the legendary Mexican driver Ricardo Rodriquez, who was 17- years old when he started the 1959 edition of the race.

Dyson, a two-time IMSA American Le Mans Series driving champion, made his first start at Le Mans in 2004, coming home first in the contingent of American drivers. His focus on State-side competition has curtailed Dyson’s participation in European sportscar racing, at least until this season.
“It was a thrill racing at Le Mans for the first time, ten years ago,” Dyson said.  “I wish my schedule made it possible for me to race there every year, but our team’s primary focus has needed to be on our U.S. schedule.  But the fact that I don’t get to race at Le Mans every year – this will be my third start – makes the opportunity to do it this year all the sweeter.  Plus, it’s great to be doing this race with Tom, who is a good friend, and Matt, who I believe is destined for a truly great driving career.  That’s why we made him our first Dyson Junior team member.”

Dyson also paid tribute to the team that is fielding the car. “We’ve got a great entrant in Greaves Motorsport,” he noted.  “TKS won with them in 2011 and Greaves was on the podium last year as well.  They’re known for fielding cars that are solid, reliable and well prepared for the task of surviving 24 straight hours of racing. We’re not taking anything for granted, but our goal is to win LM P2 and I don’t think our optimism is misplaced.”