“No other car company can match Mazda’s breadth of motorsports involvement,” stated Team Principal Rob Dyson. “They are an ascendant car company and while other car companies are cutting back their on-track programs, Mazda is strengthening theirs, which highlights the depth of their commitment and dedication. Throughout all of our discussions, it has impressed us how closely their passion for the sport matches ours.”

Robert T. Davis, Senior Vice-President Quality, Research and Development, said, “We are excited that the Dyson team is coming onboard. It was clear in the preparations they are making leading up to the announcement that they have a family mindset that will fit in well with the Mazda family of racers and teams. We’re expecting big successes together.”

“We have enjoyed great success in the past with the Lola-AER combination. We know how to get race-winning speed from this package and our valued partner, Michelin, will be adding their competitive expertise. When you combine this experience with the enthused support of our new partners BP and Mazda, Dyson Racing has a very promising future,” said Vice President and Sporting Director Chris Dyson. “This is a long term commitment and we look forward to utilizing Mazda’s breadth of involvement in racing to build programs of driver training and team development. Our new facility is about to come on line shortly and will lend itself well to developing additional platforms in partnership with Mazda. It will be a good new year for Dyson Racing.”

The team will begin testing before the end of the year and will be announcing the driver line-up in the near future. 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.

“There is no more competitive and interesting series in racing today than the American Le Mans Series,” noted Team Principal Rob Dyson. “Competing at the highest levels of sportscar racing with Porsche and their historical pedigree has been an invigorating experience for our whole organization. We have enjoyed working with Porsche and their people here in the States and over in Germany. Their help in putting together a new car in less than five days after our crash at Lime Rock this year will always stand in our minds as a singular display of their dedication.” Harmut Kristen, Director of Porsche Motorsport, said, “Dyson Racing possibly took on one of the toughest challenges in sports car racing when they made the decision to enter two RS Spyders in the ALMS for 2007. But from the start in Sebring they were right there with us until the last race in Laguna Seca this year. It has been a rich and rewarding experience for all of us to cooperate on that level of racing with a team that has such a great history. I know the Dyson team will also have a great future.”

The 2007 season was a homecoming for Porsche and Dyson Racing. The team ran Porsche 962s in the IMSA GTP series from 1985 through 1991, winning a dozen races with nineteen podium finishes and four consecutive Porsche Cups. They won the first race they ran with the Porsche 962 at Lime Rock in May of 1985.

“In honor of our twenty-fifth anniversary in professional racing this year, we painted one of our RS Spyders at Lime Rock in the same colors as our winning car from 1985,” said Chris Dyson. “It is fitting that we celebrated our silver anniversary year running with Porsche as they were instrumental in establishing our ascendancy to the top levels of sportscar racing. We thank them for all of their support over the years and look back fondly on the friends we have made and the memories we share.”

The team started the eight-month, eleven-race series with a second and third at the Twelve Hours of Sebring. The team finished the year third in the P2 team championship and Franchitti and Leitzinger were fifth in the drivers’ points followed by Dyson and Smith in sixth. Porsche won both the engine and chassis manufacturer championships, the later by one point. Dyson Racing’s points made both those championships possible.

The # 20 Porsche RS Spyder of Franchitti and Leitzinger finished in the points in every race of the season and the #16 Thetford/Norcold entry missed the points in only one race, at Lime Rock in May. The Lime Rock race marked the 25th anniversary of Dyson racing in professional motorsports. Of the thirty-seven cars that raced at the Connecticut track 25 years ago, only Dyson Racing is still competing today. They have garnered 17 championships, 61 wins, 56 poles and 156 podiums during their run at the top of sportscar racing.

This year also marks the tenth anniversary of the American Le Mans Series. “The competition, the depth of the field, and the quality of the driving is as good as we have ever seen at any time in sportscar racing,” commented Rob Dyson.

“The 2008 season was a notable year,” added Chris Dyson. “For us, it was a mixed season with some great highs and some lows. The arc of this season may not have been what we hoped for, but we gave it our best shot every weekend. The team conducted itself with a high degree of diligence and integrity all year. We certainly ran a good campaign and when you have a group that is always putting forth this level of effort, it reinforces your motivation as a driver. If we had to sum up the season in one word, it would be very simple: pride.”

“We came here from Atlanta with a good set up right off the truck,” explained Peter Weston, Chief Engineer. “The drivers were happy with it and we have polished it the past two days. Here at Laguna, tires are always the key. The track is dusty and has very low grip. Plus it is unusual in that it starts at 2:45 and goes to 6:45 in the evening and there is a big temperature difference in the last hour. So you have to keep that in mind that the pressures go down as the temperature goes down and you have to keep the tires current with the constantly changing conditions. Michelin has brought their “street soft tire’ here. We first ran them at St. Petersburg and than Long Beach and Detroit and they work very well here since this track’s low grip mimics a lot of street tracks.”

“Like Atlanta, you race into the dark here,” noted Chris Dyson. “This-day-into night backdrop is a fitting way to end a season and we have had some great races here the last few years. We started the season with a double podium in the 12 Hours of Sebring and it would be great to book-end the season in a similar fashion.”

Tomorrow’s Monterey Sports Car Challenge is scheduled to start at 2:45 PM PT. NBC Sports will broadcast the race from 2 to 4 PM ET on Sunday, October 19. XM Satellite Radio’s Channel 144 will carry the race from 4 to 8 PM ET on Sunday and ALMS Radio will have live coverage on americanlemans.com, which will also feature live timing and scoring.

Summing up the race, Marino Franchitti, driver of the #20 along with Andy Lally and Butch Leitzinger, said that the “car was really great, there was not a mark on it at the end, the pit stops were fantastic and we had good strategy. To successfully finish a race like this with the car in one piece is a good accomplishment.” “The chassis was good all week,” confirmed Chris Dyson, driver of the #16 Thetford/Norcold entry with Guy Smith. “We had the measure of almost everybody and with a little more top-end speed, we would have had the complete package. The Michelin tires were absolutely fantastic all week and the durability throughout the double stints was exceptional.”

Rob Dyson gave full credit to the crew. “I am very proud of our guys for persevering,” he said. “The team really pulled together this week and the atmosphere within the team was the best it has been all year. We are looking forward to ending this year on a strong note at Laguna Seca.” Five manufactures led during the course of the race. There were twenty-nine lead changes among the hundred and one driver field, which included four Indy 500 winners and five former champions from IndyCar or CART. It was a landmark race for the American Le Mans Series and Dyson Racing congratulates the ALMS for such a notable event and the successful inauguration of their Green Challenge.

After eight months of racing, the ALMS season finishes with a westward swing for the final race of the season at Laguna Seca in Monterey, CA on October 18th.

Guy Smith drove the #16 Dyson entry to the eighth starting position. Last year, Smith and Chris Dyson finished third overall and second in class in the penultimate race of the ALMS series. In the five times Dyson has run the Petit Le Mans, he has finished off the class podium only once. In his first Petit Le Mans with Dyson Racing, Marino Franchitti qualified the #20 Thetford/Norcold car ninth, less than three tenths of a second behind Smith. Sharing driving duties with Franchitti will be Andy Lally and Butch Leitzinger. This is the second year Lally has joined Dyson for the Petit. He also helped the team finish second at this year’s 12 Hours of Sebring. Leitzinger drove in the inaugural 1998 Petit and has driven in all ten since then, eight of them with Dyson Racing.

“One of the good things about this race is that it is toward the end of the year and drivers feel more freedom to go for it,” stated Leitzinger. “Sebring is the year’s first race and you think more in terms of points for the season, so you check yourself up a little bit, but here, you have the chance to drive flat out for ten hours.” “The cars have become so strong over the years that even a 24 hour race is a sprint race,” said Lally. “This is a really quick track with great competition this year. It is a prestigious race to compete in and always fun to be part of.”

“The history of the Porsche marquee is built on endurance excellence,” noted Dyson. “Our cars are well-suited for Road Atlanta and we look forward tomorrow to adding to Porsche’s history of long-distance success.” The 1,000-mile/10-hour race is scheduled for 11:15 a.m. tomorrow. SPEED will televise the race live with online streaming video available from 1 to 6:30 p.m. ET at americanlemans.com. XM Satellite Radio will air live race coverage throughout the day on XM Channel 166. Live coverage from ALMS Radio will be available at americanlemans.com, which also will feature IMSA’s live timing and scoring.

Franchitti started the #20 car eighth in class and stayed in the leading group for the first hour and a half before pitting on lap fifty-seven and handing the car over to Leitzinger. A stop-and-go penalty for a loose wheel nut in the pit lane during the stop dropped the car a position and an unscheduled pit stop under green on lap seventy-one to replace a deflating right rear tire kept them from moving up the order. Leitzinger maintained a competitive pace but was not able to repeat his second in class finish from last year.

One of the more noteworthy chapters unfolded the last half hour of the race as Dyson held off spirited assaults and drove the last half of his stint mirroring the hard fought battle at the front head of the field. “We did very well here last year and started this weekend where we left off with a very solid qualifying effort,” said Dyson. “Both our cars kept good respective pace, but we didn’t have enough raw speed today. During the stints, we found the track had changed dramatically since Saturday. This balance shift was more than we had anticipated, and it kept us from contending, ultimately.”

The American Le Mans Series goes from the largest island park in America to its headline ten-hour Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta on October 4. The penultimate round of the series produced the second closest finish of last year’s season with less than a second separating first and second after 1000 miles of racing.

Like clockwork, both times the ALMS cars went on track today, it started raining, never giving the team a chance to evaluate a dry set-up. “This is where this team excels,” stated Smith. “When things are stacked against us, we come out fighting. Stefan Dwornik and Peter Weston came up with a great set-up for qualifying and the car was very good with great balance. My best time was on lap six and I thought ‘there is definitely more time in the car.’ I came in and adjusted the tire pressures, but hit traffic at the end of the run.”

The day’s drama ran the gamut for Dyson Racing. Butch Leitzinger was driving the #20 Thetford/Norcold in the last session before qualifying when a deluge hit the back straight. Leitzinger slowed down, but lost the front end and nosed into the wall. In an hour, the Dyson crew replaced the front nose and crash box, put in a new floor, replaced the left up-right and suspension arms and repaired the suspension pick-up points. Leitzinger helped with the deadline repairs. “Normally I do not let people know that I know how to operate a wrench, but when I mess up, I pretty much have no choice!” he said later. The Dyson crew wheeled the car onto the pit lane just as the qualifying session went green. With a best guess at the optimum set-up, Marino Franchitti qualified the car eighth in class, the team’s effort paying off.

“The team did a great job getting the car ready in time for qualifying, and Guy cranked out a strong lap in the 16 car,” said Chris Dyson. “It was satisfying seeing Marino fastest in the morning session. That is one of the differences between this year and last: we now roll off the truck with a car in a good window, and that is a great way to start a weekend.” The Detroit Sports Car Challenge is scheduled for 2:35 p.m. ET tomorrow. SPEED will broadcast the race live, and XM will air it from 5 to 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 31. ALMS Radio will have live coverage of all on-track sessions at americanlemans.com, which also will feature IMSAs live timing and scoring.

It was a clean start and an uneventful forty-five minutes of the two hour and forty-five minute race. The team took advantage of the first full-course yellow on lap thirty-six to bring in Dyson for tires, fuel and a driver change over to Smith. Dyson’s #16 car had suffered from a high-speed oversteer balance in the first session, and at the first stop a new nose with different dive planes was fitted along with adding a rear tail gurney. Franchitti came in two laps later for fuel and tires. Both cars pitted under the next yellow an hour later with Smith in first, followed a lap later by Franchiitti, who handed over to Leitzinger along with fuel and a new battery. The cars rejoined seventh and eighth in class, and maintained those positions to the end.

“It is disappointing that we were not able to build on our podium finish at Road America two weeks ago,” said Dyson. “Taking care of our mechanical issues lengthened our stops and the cars’ handling slipped thorough the race. With the long duration and high speed corners at Mosport, you need a car in which you have complete confidence to attack, and we didn’t have that today, unfortunately. But we will go Detroit next week looking to rebound and close out this season on a strong note.”

The American Le Mans Series returns to the states for the Detroit Sports Car Challenge next Saturday, the ninth race of the eleven-race ALMS season. Qualifying will be shown in a one-hour streaming video on SPEEDtv.com, after a successful debut at Mosport and the race will be broadcast live on SPEED.

“Our cars have historically done well here,” noted Dyson. “Mosport is a fast, flowing circuit that demands absolute concentration. You have a lot of downforce on the car at all times and you have to be spot on everywhere to meet the challenges of this track.”

And the track was no less challenging during this afternoon’s qualifying session for Sunday’s Grand Prix of Mosport. A second separated the top nine cars with two hundreds of a second between the four cars lining up sixth to ninth on the grid. Marino Franchitti will start the #20 Porsche RS Spyder seventh in the LMP2 class and Chris Dyson placed the #16 Thetford/Norcold entry eighth.

The first ten cars were all under the qualifying records and the Dyson cars posted qualifying times two seconds quicker than their placement last year. “It is indicative of the talented competition in our series that another tenth would have moved either car up to fourth in class,” said Dyson. “If qualifying is an indicator, we expect tomorrow will produce another notable Mosport race.”

Mosport is one of racing’s more challenging tracks, and is one of only three to have hosted F1, Can-Am and Champ Car. The Ontario circuit hosted the F1 Canadian Grand Prix from 1967 to 1977. The pole for the 1977 F1 race was won by Michael Andretti in his Lotus 78 at 1:11. Time and technology never stand still as both Dyson Porsche RS Spyders cars beat that today by six seconds.

The Mobil 1 presents the Grand Prix of Mosport will start at 3:05 p.m. ET tomorrow and will be aired live on SPEED. XM Satellite Radio will broadcast the race on XM Channel 166. Live radio coverage also will be available from ALMS at americanlemans.com, which also will feature IMSA’s live timing and scoring.