| BRABHAM AIMS FOR 5TH STRAIGHT TRANS AM WIN AT LIME ROCK PARK; DYSON RETURNS TO COMPETITION IN SECOND CD RACING ENTRY |
| POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (May 19, 2026) – Hot on the heels of a sweep of the first four races on the Trans Am by Pirelli schedule, Matthew Brabham and his #16 GYM WEED Ford Mustang this weekend look for a fifth consecutive win as the series visits Connecticut’s historic Lime Rock Park, home track for Brabham’s CD Racing team. Team owner and three-time series champion Chris Dyson returns for his first race of the year in the #20 Ford Mustang, which will have a RACER-branded livery, also featuring GYM SODA, a new clear protein beverage from Alternative Biologics, maker of GYM WEED. “Every weekend so far the team has given me a car that’s fast straight off the trailer and clearly a potential race winner,” Brabham said. “Lime Rock is the team’s home track and I expect I’ll have a very fast car.” For Brabham, who so far this season has started every race from the pole, led every competitive lap, while setting the fastest race lap, Lime Rock Park will provide a fresh challenge. In his three previous Lime Rock Trans Am starts Brabham once won the pole, but his best race result has been a second-place finish on his Trans Am track debut in 2022. But Brabham cautioned that it will take more than a fast car to win this weekend at the short but very fast New England circuit. “First there’s Chris; we don’t have team orders and he’ll have car that’s fast enough to win. Then there’s Tomy (Drissi) and Paul (Menard), who won at Lime Rock last year after Chris got knocked out of the lead while lapping a slower car. So yeah, you always have to be careful with lapped traffic, particularly when there’s such a big speed differential between classes.” For Dyson, the return to competition carries a different rhythm. His last start came late in the 2025 season, and after stepping away from the opening rounds of 2026, this weekend marks a deliberate re-entry rather than a full-season campaign. Not chasing the championship, but never far from it, the Hall of Fame driver sits second on the all-time Trans Am wins list and remains a constant factor whenever he straps in. “I’m thrilled to get back in the #20 car again,” Dyson said. “About a six weeks ago, I saw an opening in my schedule where doing this looked possible, and I immediately resumed my training. It was pretty demanding going from where I was, but it had to be. It’s especially challenging after more than seven months away. I’m not putting a lot of pressure on myself; but we had a very good test last week at Lime Rock and another scheduled for today. I know I’ll have a strong car – I won a lot of races here with this Meissen chassis– and that’s a big plus.” Dyson Lime Rock Park History Lime Rock Park figures prominently in the Dyson family’s motorsport history. As an amateur racer Rob Dyson made his first Lime Rock SCCA club racing start in 1974. Nine years later he made his first professional racing appearance there in the in a Pontiac while in 1985 Dyson Racing scored its first professional win in the team’s debut in the International Motor Sports Association’s Camel GT Series. Chris attended the Skip Barber Racing School at Lime Rock Park in the summer of 1995 and the track figured prominently in his SCCA Club Racing career. In the 2011 Lime Rock Park round of the IMSA American Le Mans Series, Dyson won the pole and the race, which proved a key factor in securing the series championship for the team and for Mazda. Of the six times America’s longest-running road-racing series has visited the beautiful New England facility in the modern era, Dyson has won three times. And in two of the three times he didn’t win, Dyson finished second. (As Brabham noted, Dyson was leading last year’s Lime Rock race until he was taken out while lapping an inexperienced back marker.) Bacon’s Big Eldora USAC Sprint Win This past Saturday open-wheel star Brady Bacon wheeled the #20 CD Racing / Concord American Flagpole / RACER sprint car to a dominating win at Ohio’s half-mile dirt Eldora Speedway. Bacon started on the pole and led the 30-lap feature from green to checker, crossing the finish line more than three seconds ahead of his closest rival. It was the Oklahoman’s 62nd career USAC National Sprint Car feature victory, tying him for second place on the series’ career win list. Rob Dyson to Be Inducted to Motorsports Hall of Fame In late April, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA) announced Dyson Racing founder Rob Dyson as one of the ten members of its 2027 induction class. Other notables on the list include Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ron Capps, Gary Bettenhausen, and Lyn St. James. The class spans various disciplines—from drag racing to aviation—and will be honored in March 2027 at Daytona Beach, Florida. Click here for more on Chris Dyson Racing. Lime Rock Park Schedule Qualifying takes place Friday, May 22, 3:40 p.m. – 3:55 p.m. ET The 100-mile race takes the green flag Saturday, May 23, at 12:10 p.m. ET Broadcast Schedule All Trans Am races are live-streamed on the Trans Am YouTube channel. |