St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG, FL April 4, 2009 – Dyson Racing set the two fastest class laps at today’s American Le Mans race here in St. Petersburg along Florida’s Gulf Coast. That speed was backed up by second and third-place LMP2 trophies at the conclusion of an hour and fifty-five minutes of racing on the 1.8 mile, sixteen turn, temporary street course here that embraces a Monte Carlo like flavor.

Chris Dyson and Guy Smith finished a class second and third overall in their BP sponsored Mazda Lola Coupe and Butch Leitzinger and Marino Franchitti were third in class and fourth overall, duplicating the line-up of their qualifying efforts. Franchitti set the fastest P2 lap of the race.

The second outing for Dyson Racing’s new cars was not without drama. “If you get an inch off line, the (rubber) pick up was terrible,” Franchitti said during his stint and Leitzinger said after the race that “the line was an inch narrow.” The drivers had to be particularly careful at the first turn with the debris thrown up by cars cutting the inside of the corner. Leitzinger suffered a suspected tire puncture on lap 64 of the 93 lap race and came in for a four tire change, dropping him down a position.

Dyson noted that “we are delighted with our progress this weekend. What is even more exciting for the future is how we have extracted good speed out of the car in a short period of time and there is still more to come.”

Mazda is the brand choice of road racers across North America. On any given weekend, there are more Mazdas on the road-race-tracks of America than any other brand. You will see MX-5 Miata, RX-8, MAZDA3, MAZDA6, RX-7 and other vintage Mazda models because every Mazda has the Soul of a Sports Car.