LAKEVILLE, CT July 6, 2012 – Dyson Racing won pole at Lime Rock Park, their home track, for the second year in a row. Guy Smith turned in the winning time in the #16 ModSpace entry he shares with Chris Dyson on his last lap in the fifteen minute session. Last year, Chris got the pole and he and Guy won the race, leading 165 laps of the 187 lap race with Guy setting fastest race lap. This is the second pole of the year for the AER prepared engine and adds to their Lime Rock poles of 2004 and 2006 set with Dyson’s James Weaver.
The # 20 car of Michael Marsal and Eric Lux rejoins the Dyson squad this weekend for their second race with the team. Eric Lux qualified the car third in LMP 1. Last year, Eric won both the LMPC pole and race here at the historic New England track. “The team gave me a great car,” said Eric. “Michael got up to pace really quickly and he did a great job in practice. I did some initial laps in qualifying and came in make a change. The car was understeering and we were able to take care of maybe 60 per cent of it. We will continue with that change overnight and the car will be even better tomorrow.”
Michael Marsal brings his own Lime Rock winning tradition to the mix having won his debut race here driving a Turner Motorsport BMW M3 two years ago. He has been busy during the ALMS two month break and tomorrow’s race will be his fourth race in five weeks. He and Eric will be doing six races this season in the #20 Dyson entry.
“Klaus Graf and I always seem to put on an entertaining show,” commented Guy after winning the pole. “It was nip and tuck during qualifying. (.006 separated the two at one point). It has been an uphill battle for us this year. Rob said to us after Mazda Raceway, ‘look guys we have to knuckle down and go out there and get it done.’ He gave us the opportunity to test and test and we went to the seven post rig and did everything possible. This is a credit to the guys and the work they have done in this very hot weather. Last year this race was a turning point and here’s hoping it is déjà vu.”
Team Manager Michael White explained how the team has been developing their new car: “We did three track tests and a rig test. For the rig test, they secure the chassis down to a table and then actuate each of the corners with various string gauges and sensors. That tells you if have deflection in the chassis and whether the front is as stiff as the back or the back is stiffer than the front. We got a lot of data from that test.
“We than applied what we learned from the rig test at a two day test at VIR and came back with more positive direction. We did another two day Dunlop tire test at Mid-Ohio and that kept the ball moving forward. And a couple weeks ago we did a two-day test at Monticello where we found more performance and felt that we turned a corner. The past two months gave us the opportunity to find solutions to various concerns the drivers had from the beginning of the year.”
Tomorrow’s race is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET. ESPN2`s broadcast featuring live coverage begins at 4 p.m. ET. Full coverage starts at 2:45 p.m. ET on ESPN3.
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