Dyson facing polemic penalty at Mid-Ohio

Dyson Racing left Mid-Ohio tied for second in the P2 team championship after last weekend's American Le Mans race. The team finished sixth and seventh after two hours and forty five minutes of animated racing on the thirteen-turn, 2.25-mile course. The #16 Porsche RS Spyder of Butch Leitzinger and Andy Wallace finished ahead of their sister #20 Thetford/Norcold entry driven by Chris Dyson and Guy Smith. This is a track where the driver has input and is not a slave to the setup," observed Leitzinger. "You can hustle the car around here. I had a great battle with (Luis) Diaz and (Sascha) Maassen during the first stint. I was able to get by Diaz in the Acura for fourth and I tried the same maneuver on Maassen in the Penske Porsche for third and did not quite make it and after that he was on guard." (See our photo page from event)

Andy Wallace got in the #16 machine on lap 50 of the 134 lap race. "We were able to stay with the Penskes, but when you went around a slower car on the outside, you got pick-up on your tires. You would do a do-or-die pass on someone and you think that is great and then the car is bad for a lap as you work off the pick-up. Then you catch another car and go through it all over again."

For the second race in a row, a penalty influenced the outcome for the #20 car. After a strong team effort, Guy Smith had to come in for a stop-and-go penalty ten laps from the end, the reasons for which were rather dubious." Bryan, Guy and a back marker were three-wide going up to the Keyhole," Chris Dyson said afterwards. "The back marker moved over on the Acura and hit him hard enough to break his right rear suspension. Guy was on the inside and had nowhere to go! Herta even made a point of coming over after the race and saying that he thought the penalty was undeserved. There was no logic in giving Guy a penalty for ‘avoidable contact,' when the incident was clearly caused by the back marker."

"The lap times showed we had the pace of the winners today," Dyson continued. "We came in early on lap 38 to minimize the time lost in traffic and to get out of sequence with the others. It was a strategy that was vindicated because Guy was marching up the order and we were on a better tire selection for the second and third stints. I think if things had gone better, we could have been on the podium. We will go to Elkhart Lake in three weeks time hoping for a more levelheaded view from the stewards' tower." Dyson Racing PR