CHRIS DYSON

In 2013, Chris finished the final season of the American Le Mans Series season in fourth place in the P1 Drivers Championship. He ran a partial ALMS schedule and also raced with Greaves Motorsport in the European FIA World Endurance Championship, running at Silverstone, Spa and at COTA in their LMP2 entry.

In 2012, Chris finished second in the ALMS P1 Drivers Championship, nine points out of first. He and co-driver Guy Smith took the overall victory at the four-hour Road America race and bookended the season with first place ALMS P1 points at the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 1,000-mile Petit Le Mans Powered by Mazda. Chris celebrated his 100th ALMS start at Baltimore and collected trophies at every race of the year.

In 2011, Chris won the ALMS Drivers P1 Championship. In total, the team took home five championships: the P1 Team Championship, the Manufacturer Championship for Mazda, the Michelin Green-X Challenge title, and the tire title for Dunlop.

During the 2011 season, Chris won the pole at the team's home track of Lime Rock and he and Guy went on to win the race. He and Guy took home firsts in ALMS points in the joint ALMS/ILMC 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans. They never finished lower than second in the remaining seven races and won the title by sixty-two points.

In 2010, he finished fourth in the ALMS LMP driver standings. A highlight of the year was the overall win at Mid-Ohio as he held off Simon Pagenaud to take the victory. The Mid-Ohio win also gave Mazda, Dunlop tires and the biofuel isobutanol their first overall ALMS wins. He was also elected to the Road Racing Drivers Club. Other 2010 inductees included Gil de Ferran, Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan and Jimmy Vasser.

He gave up the third spot in the 2009 championship when the #16 car successfully tested the new biofuel blend, Isobutanol, at the Petit Le Mans and the season-ending race at Mazda Raceway and was thus ineligible for points. The Petit Le Mans was a notable race for the #16 car, coming in seven laps ahead of the #20 class winning entry. Chris also competed in the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing sixth in class in the #25 RML AD Group LMP2 Mazda Lola coupe.

In 2008, Chris and his teammate, Guy Smith, drove their Porsche RS Spyder to sixth in the LMP2 driver’s championship, starting off the year with a class third in the 12 Hours of Sebring and finished the year with eight top six finishes.

In 2007, Chris and Guy were fourth in the LMP2 standings, four points behind Dyson drivers Butch Leitzinger and Andy Wallace and in 2006, he had three podiums and six top fives in ten races for sixth in the LMP1 championship.

Chris finished second in the ALMS LMP1 championship in 2005 with six seconds and a third in ten races, including a run of five of six podiums in the season’s last half. In 2004, he garnered six of nine podiums in LMP1, for fourth in the standings.

Chris also drove a Dome-Judd at the 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans with reigning FIA Sportscar champion Jan Lammers, finishing seventh, the highest placed American. The same year, he drove the Zytek 043 prototype sports car to 4th in the Le Mans Endurance Series race at Silverstone, England. In 2004, he made his Toyota Atlantic debut at Portland. Chris also won his first championship in 2003. In his first full year in the series, he won the 2003 ALMS LMP2 championship with four wins including the class win at The 12 Hours of Sebring. Chris won five races in the Rolex Grand-Am Series in 2002, missing the championship by two points.

“I have so many great childhood memories of racing,” Chris says. “When I was small, I used to wake up from naps to the sounds of Pat Smith and my dad checking the timing of my dad’s Datsun 200SX.” From there to being a championship driver and running the premier sports car team in North America – not a bad story – and one that continues to go from strength to strength.