“Chris did a terrific job today, as did the Bentley team,” said Rob Dyson, the team’s founder and CEO, and Chris’s father, who has enjoyed multiple wins at Road America since first racing here in 1983. “I couldn’t be more proud of Chris.  He had a dream run.”

Dyson started Saturday’s race from the second position on the grid. Following a good start, for the first quarter of the 50-minute sprint Dyson hounded the leading Lamborghini of Tomas Enge, passing for the lead when Enge bobbled at Road America’s flat-out kink in the middle of the backstretch. Enge later pitted to replace a cut tire while Dyson slowly extended his lead over the second-place Nissan GT-R GT3 of James Davison. A full-course yellow at the two-thirds mark in the race allowed Davison to close up on the Bentley’s bumper, but when the green came out with ten minutes remaining, Dyson pulled away comfortably.

“I knew this would be a good track for the Continental GT3,” Dyson said, following Saturday’s race. “The Bentley guys gave me an unbelievable car today, and we made the most of it. It’s not very often that you have a car that’s so good on a specific day on a particular track and I was savoring every lap. I love Road America and it’s a great feeling to win here. I grew up coming here watching my dad (Rob) race.”

The first highlight of the weekend was Friday’s qualifying session, where the Bentley’s swept the front row, Butch Leitzinger setting a lap record for the classic 4.0-mile Kettle Moraine circuit on his way to the pole (2:03.912 / 117.606 mph), while Dyson posted the second-fastest time of the session.

“The conditions were perfect, I was able to get heat into the tires and I was fortunate to get a clear lap with no traffic,” said Leitzinger, who was behind the wheel of a brand new car after his previous mount was badly damaged in a practice crash at Detroit last month. “The new car was fantastic right off the trailer. The Continental GT3 has great high-speed downforce and that’s critical at this track.”

That very promising Friday morning first turned into disappointment, followed by great efforts in the race and fifth and sixth-place finishes. Dyson’s problem began when his car experienced a steering problem part way through the morning qualifying session, fortunately after he’d set a time good enough for second on the starting grid. With less than three hours before the cars were due to line up for the race, and once Dyson had completed his qualifying run, the crew rolled the #16 car back to the paddock and tore into the front end to find the problem – which turned out to be a faulty steering pump.  This was corrected in short order but the team had left pit lane during the session, which is prohibited by the series rules.  The penalty was for all Dyson’s qualifying times being disallowed, relegating him to last on the 26-car grid.

Leitzinger’s car bogged on the standing start and he dropped several spots before the car reached the first corner. For most of the rest of the race Leitzinger was trapped behind the surprisingly wide Ferrari driven by Olivier Beretta. Meanwhile Dyson was scything through the field, averaging about two passes per lap on his way to sixth, directly behind his teammate.

Saturday’s race didn’t begin well for Leitzinger, whose car stalled on standing start due to sensor issues. The long-time Dyson driver fought back to an excellent fourth-place finish. And Sunday was a disappointment all around. In another chaotic standing start for the series, Leitzinger’s car was one of three that hesitated or stalled on the grid. Fortunately his Bentley was not one of the four cars damaged too badly to continue and following another charge through the field, Leitzinger finished a respectable sixth.

Dyson started Sunday’s race on the pole by virtue of setting the fastest lap during Saturday’s victorious drive. He was running third mid-way through the first green-flag lap when he was shunted off the track and into a gravel trap. After climbing back through the field, Dyson was rear-ended again, resulting in a 17th-place finish.

The last upbeat note was that Leitzinger set the fastest lap of Sunday’s race, while Dyson posted the second-fastest.

“It was great that we were able to get our first win of the season,” Rob Dyson said. “We’ve got some work to do before the Mid-Ohio races late next month, particularly on the launch-control system, which is essential for standing starts.”

A delayed, edited broadcast of all three races in Road America’s Pirelli World Challenge GT Cup weekend will be shown on CBS Sports Network Sunday, July 5, 2 PM (ET). Times and dates subject to change.

– ENDS –

Leitzinger, who last year drove the team’s single Bentley Continental GT3 entry to sixth and fourth-place finishes at Road America, is optimistic about the team’s chances on its return to the classic 4.0-mile circuit in Wisconsin’s hilly Kettle Moraine. “Our Bentleys are well suited to Road America,” he said, noting that during last year’s meet he set the second-fastest race lap. “The Continental GT3 has very good low-end torque and produces excellent high-speed downforce. Road America’s turns are medium to high-speed while the straightaways tend to be long – and two of them are uphill.”

A year’s worth of development has meant good progress in addressing two technical challenges the team faced during its early races. The first was getting a handle on the car’s electronic launch control, which is essential in order to do well on the standing-starts that are a feature of the series. “These are sprint races, less than an hour in length,” noted Dyson, who finished third in the sole Detroit race last month. “If you give up four or five places before you even get to the first corner, you’ve put yourself at a disadvantage. The top half of the field in the Pirelli World Challenge – the teams, drivers and cars – are all first-rate and there are no easy passes. We’ve made good progress with the launch-control system, and that’s been a big help.”

The other area where the team has improved its performance is in the car’s ability to make full use of the Pirelli tire that all competitors are required to use. “Pirelli provides an excellent tire for the series,” said Peter Weston, the team’s long-time technical director. “But it’s a bit ‘one size fits all’ and while some cars must carefully manage their tire strategy in order to be competitive at the end of the race, our challenge is just the opposite. Our Bentleys are easy on tires. We’ve worked to get our tires up to proper operating temperatures more quickly. Also, and it’s pretty much out of our control, a race that goes start to finish with no full-course cautions is to our advantage.”

Rob Dyson, the team’s founder and CEO, pronounced himself pleased with Bentley Team Dyson Racing’s first 12 months in Pirelli World Challenge competition, but not satisfied. “Bentley’s given us an excellent car to work with, and we’ve made good progress with it. We did win one race last year, one of the two during the season’s final weekend at Miller Motorsports Park, where the track layout and the high altitude both worked to our advantage. We’ve been close to victory a couple of times in the first half of this season. But I tend to look forward rather than back, so our focus is on progress in terms of on-track performance, further developing the car, and building on our strong relationship with Bentley Motors and M-Sport, who have both proved to be excellent partners.”

Live streaming of all three GT-class races is available on WWW.WORLD-CHALLENGETV.COM. Friday 1:40 to 2:35 PM (CT); Saturday 1:35 to 2:35 PM (CT); and Sunday 2:25 to 3:25 PM (CT). Note: All times listed are Central Time Zone.

A delayed, edited broadcast of the Pirelli World Challenge GT Cup presented by MOMO will be shown on CBS Sports Network Sunday, July 5, 2 PM (ET). Times and dates subject to change.

“Johnny and I were both flat out the whole way,” Leitzinger said following the post-race celebrations. “Neither of us were holding anything back. In a straight fight I couldn’t get past him, but Johnny couldn’t pull away at all. I was hoping lapped traffic might give me a shot at passing him, but every time we came up to lap slower cars it was pretty much the same for both of us.”

Leitzinger paid tribute to the Dyson Racing crew that put in a major effort to restore his #20 Continental GT3 to like-new condition after Leitzinger was crashed by another driver into a concrete barrier at Long Beach. “The guys worked so hard to get my car ready for this weekend,” he said. “I’m so grateful. I know that the good results that Chris and I had this weekend helped justify all their work.”

Bentley Team Dyson Racing CEO Rob Dyson pronounced himself satisfied with the team’s performance over the weekend. “You always want to win, but if you don’t win, then you want to do as well as you can. Chris’s second-place finish at Long Beach last month and Butch and Chris’s good results here confirm that we’re making good progress at unlocking all the performance in the Bentley. More good results are on the way.”

“We have always done well when we had rolling starts,” Dyson said. “But we’ve had a persistent issue with standing starts, which is a feature of Pirelli World Challenge racing. We have worked really hard on it lately. The standing start for Sunday’s race went better for us and the team continues to make progress in that area.”

Dyson said he wished he could have been right in the mix with Leitzinger and O’Connell at the end of Sunday’s race. Earlier in the stint he had been running in very close company “But there was a traffic issue and I lost several seconds that I just couldn’t make up. We were all really flying – nothing held back. Our friends at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park got a big crowd today and the spectators saw an excellent race.”

After a weekend off the Pirelli World Challenge reconvenes 29-31 May on Belle Isle in the middle of the Detroit River, sharing the bill with the Verizon IndyCar Series at the Detroit Grand Prix.

This weekend’s races at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park will be featured on CBS Sports Network Sunday, May 24, at 5:00 PM.

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