Salt Lake

SALT LAKE CITY, UT May, 18, 2007 – On a day that Dyson Racing won the first round of the Klein Tools Pit Crew Challenge, the team qualified fourth and seventh for tomorrow’s Utah Grand Prix. It was their best qualifying effort to date this year. The first nine cars on the grid broke last year’s qualifying records.

Guy Smith qualified the #20 car fourth. “We tested here before the race and we found a number of things that made the car easier to drive and faster,” said Smith. “It is a matter of building up information. In past races we have not had the information to draw upon. I am pleased we are competitive and we are closing the gap to Penske.” Teammate Chris Dyson concurred, “The test made a big difference for us, since we have had so little time to run the cars before the first four races of the year. On street circuits where practice time was so limited, you could not afford to take any chances. Testing away from the track gives you the opportunity to tune the car, take some risks and be creative. Especially coming to a track like Miller Motorsports Park where there are so many different varieties of corners, you can build a cook book pretty quickly.”

At 4.5 miles, Miller Motorsports Park is the longest track in the US. It has 23 corners, each one individually named by track designer, Alan Wilson. Alan explained some of the names: turn three was named Work Out because of its physical challenge; Scream since that is what happens when you get it wrong; Right Hook followed by Knock Out because the two tend to go together; Witchcraft, Demon and Devil, three consecutive turns named for their complexity by Desire Wilson, Alan’s wife and ex F1 driver; First Attitude, Second Attitude and Bad Attitude because they emulate the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca; Mabey Y’ll Makit, named after the constructor of the track; and Wind-Up and Release, so called because track founder Larry H. Miller was a hall of fame softball pitcher.

The Utah Grand Prix starts tomorrow at 5:05 PM MT. CBS will air the race at 1 PM ET on Sunday, May 20. This race also marks the inaugural live airing of ALMS races on XM Satellite Radio’s Sports Nation channel. ALMS Radio and IMSA’s Live Timing and Scoring will be available at americanlemans.com.