Ben Devlin got in the car after the repairs, put his head down, and made up five places, finishing fourteenth overall. The team has run BP’s new biofuel blend with biobutanol the last two races of the season and were not able to run for points since the fuel is not widely available.

The #20 car carried BP’s ARCO brand livery for this 109th race of the American Le Mans Series. The blue and white car of Marino Franchitti and Butch Leitzinger was not able to duplicate its Petit Le Mans win of two weeks ago. While running second in LMP2, Leitzinger’s race ended with mechanical issues on lap 31.

“We would have liked to have ended the season differently for our partners, BP, ARCO, and Mazda, but the #16 car was extremely fast,” commented Dyson. “We came from the last row of the grid and were running second overall by the end of the first stop. Guy maintained that pace and was all over Gil his entire stint. Unfortunately a back marker was not ‘cooperative’ and our time in the pits put us down. Ben Devlin got out there and did a superb job in his stint matching or bettering the leaders his entire run. We are disappointed for Butch and Marino. But very encouraged about the work we have done the past couple of races on the biobutanol which we think it is very promising for next year.”

In their first year with the Mazda Lola package, Dyson Racing finished the eleventh ALMS season second in the P2 Team Championship. Marino Franchitti and Butch Leitzinger were second in the P2 Drivers Championship and with not running for points the past two races, Chris Dyson and Guy Smith were fourth in the P2 Drivers Championship. “We congratulate the Lowe’s Fernandez team on winning the P2 championship and wish Gil de Ferran the best in his retirement as a driver,” said Dyson. “There is no better way to end a career than winning your last race. It has been an honor competing against him.”

Thoughts on the Season
Rob Dyson: “I am very pleased. There were a number of things that were new this year: a new chassis and engine package plus running a coupe – it has been a long time since we have done that. Sebring was a difficult event for us, what with assembling two new cars, getting parts and learning how to make these cars go fast. But the efforts from Lola, AER and Mazda, coupled with the work of our team, produced a car that was faster, more reliable, and more competitive each race. The combined efforts never wavered, the team did a terrific job, and next year looks even better.”

Chris Dyson: “All season long it has been a nicely progressive march forward. We made a large swing in performance compared to the Acura and the Porsche RS Spyder, which was the acknowledged bench mark in P2. Everyone played a part in this, Mazda, Lola, AER, and Michelin. All the drivers did a superb job, and the team has never executed better. We are are back up front again and have been all year, which was our objective and Mazda’s objective. We won races including a very important win at Petit Le Mans. I cannot say enough about the job Lola and the AER guys have done and we would not be here without the support of BP and Mazda. We have a lot of good building blocks for the future.”

Guy Smith: “I think the season has been a good success. We now have a car and engine that is capable of winning races. You look back to Sebring and it seems like an eternity ago. You compare the first couple of races with the last half of the season and it is amazing what we have done to dial in our car. We are getting a lot out of the car and the engine has performed well. With some more hard work, we will be strong for the championship in 2010.”

Marino Franchitti: “I think the whole BP Mazda Dyson team is delighted at how the season has gone. The program came together late but since setting fastest lap at St. Petersburg and leading the most laps at Long Beach, the program has really gelled. At Salt Lake we came close to our first victory and than got it at the next race at Lime Rock and since than we been in contention at each race. To have three poles, three fastest laps and two victories, we could not be happier.”

Ben Devlin: “The season has been quite good. We knew that starting the year with a new car and new engine program was going to be starting on our back foot. Sebring was a learning experience, but with every race we have gone forward. It has been nice to see the car’s potential being developed and coming forward so that at every race we run quicker. It has been good fun and everybody has made me feel welcome on the team.”

Butch Leitzinger: “Going into this year with a new program and a new package, I knew that there was a lot of potential, but I thought it would take longer for it to come together. It was only third race in the season where Guy lead a good bit of the race and from that point on, we never looked back. We were always battling at the sharp end. The wins, fast laps and pole positions really showed how good this team is and how quickly they came to grips with a totally new car.”

Michael White, Team Manager: “The team has responded to every situation. It was a progression race by race, which encouraged everyone. I think one of the proudest moments for the team was Mosport, even though we fell short twelve minutes from the end while leading the race, I still left that race feeling really good about what we had done as a team: no problems during the practice sessions, excellent pit stops, and our race strategy was right on.”

Leitzinger set his fastest time on his last qualifying lap. He said that “each lap was quicker than the rest. I think if we had a little more track time we could have pulled out some more. But we have a solid car for the race, and unlike other cars we have driven, this car is not as affected by temperature changes. Some cars’ handling goes in a completely different direction when the temperature drops, but not the Mazda Lola. That is always a help to a driver’s confidence!”

Ben Devlin is pairing with Chris Dyson and Guy Smith in the #16 BP entry this weekend. After a successful run at the Petit Le Mans, the car will be running BP’s biofuel blend of gasoline, ethanol and biobutanol. Since the fuel is not widely available, the car will not be running for points and did not participate in the qualifying session. The #16 car has been consistently quick this weekend, including setting fastest overall time in this morning’s practice session.

Chris Dyson, the ALMS leader in consecutive starts, said “it is fitting to close out our first season with Mazda here at their home track. We welcome our new partner for this race, ARCO and all of our friends from BP and Mazda. We have won here before and have had some great races at this track. Back-to-back wins at two of the longer races of the year would be a fitting season’s end tribute to all of our partners.”

ARCO, a key component of today’s BP, is a leading retail gasoline brand and the largest-volume supplier on the west coast. Founded in 1866 as the Atlantic Petroleum Storage Company, ARCO is known for straight up quality and value. Their high volume and low cost business philosophy produces a 5 – 10 cents per gallon savings at the pump while meeting or exceeding all EPA and ASTM standards for quality.

“In our ongoing partnership with BP/Castrol and their family of brands, we are very pleased to have the #20 car in ARCO colors for the season finale at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca,” commented John Doonan, Manager, Motorsports Team Development. “For all of us at Mazda, our partners are the key to our success and to be able to showcase ARCO to the fans is very special. We also hope that we can bring ARCO along on the momentum we have going as of late and in preparation for 2010. With three pole positions in a row and the Petit Le Mans victory, we hope we can take them to the front and the top step of the podium to close out the season.”

As at the Petit Le Mans, the team will be running BP’s new biofuel blend of gasoline, ethanol and biobutanol in the #16 car entry. The car will not be running for points as the fuel is currently experimental and not widely available. At the Petit Le Mans, the #16 BP Lola finished seventh overall, ahead of the LMP2 class-winning #20 entry in a successful public debut for BP’s biobutanol fuel. Joining Dyson and Smith in the car for the Monterey Sports Car Championships will be Ben Devlin, who shared in the sister car’s success at Road Atlanta.

“Ben has done an excellent job for us all year,” noted Chris Dyson. “He has been very helpful in testing and his race pace at Sebring and Atlanta was strong. The four hour race length at Mazda Raceway allows for three drivers to each put in some quality time behind the wheel, so we thought this would be a great opportunity for Ben to contribute. He and Guy Smith are the same size, so the driver changes between the two of them should be quite seamless. I am looking forward to this weekend and giving Mazda a strong showing at their home track.”

ARCO, a key component of today’s BP, is a leading retail gasoline brand and the largest-volume supplier on the west coast. Founded in 1866 as the Atlantic Petroleum Storage Company, ARCO is known for straight up quality and value. Their high volume and low cost business philosophy produces a 5 – 10 cents per gallon savings at the pump while meeting or exceeding all EPA and ASTM standards for quality.

“There were so many different conditions in the first two hours of the race and the car was fantastic in all of them. There was a point in the race where we passed Audis and Peugeots,” commented Franchitti. “This is a great win for the team,” said Leitzinger. “I have been to all twelve Petit Le Mans, and the year on year increase in the significance of this race has been great to see. Sebring, the Indy 500, and Le Mans – you walk in the gate and you can feel the buzz – and this race has attained that status in a short period of time.” “These were some of the hardest conditions I have run in my sportscar career,” stated Devlin. “Marino and Butch did a great job and hats off to Chris and Guy for the great drive they put in.”

The #16 car of Chris Dyson and Guy Smith was not running for points since they were using the new BP fuel blend of gasoline, ethanol and biobutanol. They finished seventh overall, nine laps ahead of their sister car. Chris Dyson commented on the new advanced biofuel. “We are really encouraged by the cars performance on the biobutonal this weekend. The engine has run flawlessly all weekend. Not only does it have the same, if not better pace than the standard fuel, we are also breaking new ground and it is extremely exciting for us and our partners.”

“It is an honor for the team to have won this race,” said Rob Dyson. “I have raced a lot of cars that were good and a lot of cars that were bad, but never raced any cars that were unclassified! So this is a one – one finish for Dyson Racing: we were first in the biobutanol class and first in P2!”

“The balance was right there, right away when we started practice this week,” said Franchitti. “The guys have done their homework and the engineering group did a great job with the simulations. We were pretty confident that we had a car capable of competing for the pole. This is a fast track and when you put together a good lap here, it just makes you smile. My hats off to Road Atlanta for the yeoman’s job they did getting this track ready for the race after last week’s rains.”

The #16 BP car of Chris Dyson and Guy Smith will be leading the race to cleaner fuels at tomorrow’s ten-hour classic endurance race. They will be running an advanced biofuel developed by BP combining gasoline, ethanol and biobutanol. Being an experimental exercise limited to Dyson Racing, the #16 car will not run for points during the race and will start from the back of the grid.

“The ALMS has always been about relevance and innovation,” noted Dyson. “Mazda and BP have a commitment to using motorsports to test and prove clean technologies. It is fascinating to be on the cutting edge of technology that will end up on the highway one day. We are proud to be part of this partnership because we are using motor racing to make a difference in the world.”

Added John Doonan, Manager Motorsports Team Development for Mazda, “We are grateful to the ALMS, the ACO, and IMSA to allow us to do essentially a public test of biobutanol. It is exciting to be at the forefront of the next generation of alternative and bio fuels. With biobutanol, you have a cleaner burning, more powerful, better fuel mileage product that we will race here and at Mazda Raceway, and evaluate as one of the possible fuels for the series in 2010.”

Unfortunately the #20 car did not see the checkered flag, expiring thirteen laps from the end while leading LMP2. Leitzinger was in the car for the last two stints, passing the Lowes’ Fernandez entry on lap 60 and holding the class lead for the next hour and twelve minutes. “Butch was doing a great job,” said Rob Dyson. “One of the telemetry values was drifting a little bit when something let go in the back end.” The car had completed enough laps and was classified second in class.

The #16 car of Chris Dyson and Guy Smith came in while leading the P2 class on lap 39 for fuel only with race-starter Dyson staying in the car. Four laps later, its race was over after crashing in turn one. “We damaged a left front dive plane a couple laps before and this was really upsetting the balance of the car in the fast right-handers,” explained Dyson. “I went into turn one and the front end washed out, than loaded up with grip. The car stepped out and I tried to correct it, but the speed was too high and I ended up backing into the wall. It was a hard hit and I want to thank Lola for building a strong car and Stand 21 for making an equally strong helmet”.

“Without a doubt, we have had better results here,” Rob Dyson said afterwards. “But for the first time this season, an LMP2 car led an ALMS race on speed and pace and we are glad that we were able to give Mazda that distinction. The car definitely has the pace. All of our guys have a very strong desire to win and we will continue to build on our momentum and take it to them again at the Petit Le Mans.”

“This track here is my number one in the world,” noted Franchitti. “I just love this place. A qualifying run here is something I really enjoy. It is very intense and very satisfying when you get it right. We have been developing this car all season and now the goal is to win more races. This is a great track and there are a lot of Scottish people here. What with the weather and the bag pipes on the grid tomorrow, I feel right at home!”

“This is very satisfying,” said Rob Dyson. “We were still assembling the cars at Sebring. The team has been working hard at each race putting all the pieces together and now we come to the track and the cars are quick off the truck. Today is dedicated to the guys and all of our partners. They have made this car into a winner and a consistent front runner.”

“The car has been very good from the outset,” commented Chris Dyson. “The Mazda MXR-R engine by AER has mated very well with the Lola chassis. The car is fundamentally very well designed and aerodynamically efficient. Being able to come to tracks where we have not yet run and be pretty much right in the ballpark gives you confidence not only as a team, but also as a driver. Looking forward, the car still has a good amount of head room in its development. The best thing I can say about this year is that we are always looking forward to the next race.”

The Grand Prix of Mosport is set for 3:05 p.m. E.T. tomorrow. The race will air live on SPEED. ALMS Radio and Living Timing & Scoring will be available at Racehub on americanlemans.com. Live coverage also can be heard on Sirius 126 (US) and XM 242. You can follow the Series on Twitter (almsnotes).

The last thirty minutes of the race was a shoot- out between the 20 car and Adrian Fernandez with Leitzinger keeping pressure on the Lowe’s car right till the end. Leitzinger said “Rob Dyson got on the radio and said ‘Butch, we have a race on our hands here.’ Strategy and good pit stops put us in a strong position at the end and we came close to bringing Mazda its second win of the year.”

The #16 car of Chris Dyson and Guy Smith was leading LMP2 when it came in for its first pit stop on lap 28 and was caught out coming in while the track went to a full course caution and the pits were closed. Low on fuel, the team had no choice but to pit, and the resulting penalty put the car down to ninth overall and fourth in class. Dyson’s move to the front came to an end forty-five minutes from the end of the race when he was hit in the rear by a car spinning coming out of turn fourteen, retiring the car.

“It would have been an ideal weekend if we could have added a victory to our winning the pole yesterday,” said Dyson. “But we showed our guests from BP and Mazda this weekend just how competitive their cars are. We go to Mosport in two weeks time, our home away from home and, and a track where Dyson Racing has enjoyed more success than any other in the ALMS calendar.”

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.

Guy Smith qualified the #16 BP Mazda Lola third in class. But the hour leading up his qualifying run was a story unto itself. With ten minutes to go in the final practice session before qualifying, the #16 car went off in turn seven. The car was brought back to the garage and the crew jumped on it, replacing the left rear suspension and fixing the damaged bodywork. With ten minutes left in qualifying, the crew wheeled the car out, and Smith set his fast time with four minutes remaining.

“I am absolutely delighted with our first pole of the year,” stated Chris Dyson. “For the guys to get the 16 car turned around as quickly as they did is a credit to how well prepared they are and how well organized the team is. My hat’s off to the team and our partners. Lola builds a strong car and AER is doing a fantastic job on the engines. What has been notable about this year is that our qualifying pace has translated well into race performance.”

“This is the culmination of a lot of hard work, testing and development,” noted Rob Dyson. “I am really impressed with what Marino and Guy did and the job the guys did. We have won qualifying and now we need to put a win on the board tomorrow.”

The Time Warner Cable Road Race Showcase is set for 2 p.m. CT tomorrow. The race will air live on SPEED. American Le Mans Radio and live timing & scoring will be available at Racehub on americanlemans.com. The series can also be followed on Twitter.

The 16 car was second in class at the start of the race when the two Dyson cars got the jump on the pole sitting LMP2 car. The 16 car team took advantage of a twenty minute yellow after the first lap of the race to top up the car with fuel twice to give it a fuel strategy advantage. This put starter Chris Dyson down in 24th position, but he carved his way through the field, setting fastest class lap to that point. He was second in class when he handed the car over to Guy Smith on lap 56. On lap 63, Guy Smith radioed in that “I was coming out of the Carrousel and the car lost boost.” The car was driven back to the garage but it was determined the necessary repairs could not be done in time.

“It is too bad. You never want to come away from a race weekend with these kinds of results when you have such fast cars,” said Dyson. “We were on pace to add a good result to our Lime Rock win. Both cars had the speed and it is unfortunate what happened to Marino. The slower cars need to race with sufficient awareness and respect for the battles going on at the front of the field. But resiliency produces results and we will regroup and move on to Road America next weekend.”

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.