Sebring

“Sebring is like two separate races: what set up you run during the day vs. the night time racing. Racing at night presents its own challenges. The air temperature drops first relative to the track temperature. This helps the engine, as the air gets cooler and denser, resulting in potentially the fastest laps of the race, with hot tires and cool air. At this point too, the rear wing works better than the front diffuser, as the ambient air temp affects the rear wing efficiency more than the front diffuser. This might bring a period of understeer to the balance. Gradually, the track cools down and the front diffuser wakes up again, rebalancing the car. However, with both the rear wing and the front diffuser working better than they did in the heat of the day, the overall downforce has gone up, which impacts the ride height. You have to take this into account when signing off on the setup before the race, as you do not want to have to change it during the race.

“And you have to get the headlights right. You will have paid extra attention to the setting of the headlights in night practice. The nighttime nose is normally one with clean headlight lenses and perhaps an extra headlight. Some teams keep their extra headlights in a separate nose, out of harm`s way, over the pit wall, until it gets dark. A daytime nose can have just two lights, making the cost of any damage to the nose, a little cheaper. A different aero setting can be put on the night time nose, but normally the balance is set by the rear wing (which does not change necessarily), so changing just the front will imbalance the car.”

Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

“The resurfacing of the track and the work they have done over the years for the MotoGP has improved the track. At Laguna, tires are always the key. The track is dusty and has very low grip. There have been sessions in years past where the first session is almost like a wet session with rooster tales of dust coming up off the back of the cars like water! Low grip mimics a lot of street courses and so soft tires are often better. Plus the race is unusual in that it starts in the afternoon and goes into the evening and there is a big temperature difference. The temperature will go down 20 degrees in the last hour. So you have to keep in mind that the tire pressures go down as the temperature goes down and you have to keep the tires current with the constantly changing conditions. Some teams will double stint the tires at Laguna and that can be a mistake because in the last hour, tires have thinner rubber on them from being worn down and the rubber gets cold and then the track temperature goes down and then the tire pressure go down so you get less temperature in them and it all negatively feeds on itself.

“Laguna is a higher downforce track and you adjust the ride height accordingly so you are not bottoming out any where. But with the surface being smooth, you can run it lower than you normally would for a high downforce set up.”

Miller Motorsport Park

“The Salt Lake track presents its own challenges. The circuit is unique: it is very smooth but abrasive. The sand at Miller can be a problem, especially if it’s windy and there is a sand storm, which there invariably is. The tires are normally very smooth at Miller, as they have been polished by the sand. It is like driving on a very fine sand paper. Grip can be at a premium, but it is also very smooth, like a European track, so you can take liberties with stiffer springs and lowering the ride height. Aero is compromised because of the altitude, with the barometric pressure being normally 850 millibars, giving you only have about 70% of the downforce you have at sea level. So you need a fair amount of stiffness just for the sheer lateral load and stability of the car. You need to go for mechanical support to keep the car upright to make the most of your aero because every last pound of aero is vital around Miller. Which means you end up with a curious compromise. Normally when you have a low aero circuit, you do not need to run as stiff – but Miller is one of those funny circuits that is the exception to that rule.

“And the thinner air also means your cooling does not work as well, so it is harder to keep engines and brakes cool, also exacerbated by the regular high ambient temperature.”

Mosport

“Mosport is fast: it is the highest average speed track that we come to. There is really only one braking zone, and that is turn five at the bottom of the hill. You can breathe on the brakes at turn three and if the car is good, you can go from the exit of ten on the pit straight and not lift off again until you get to turn three. You can go through turns one and two in sixth, so the vertical loads on the car are immense: the wheel loads at Mosport are the highest we see all season. Through turn two and turn four we see one g vertical load into the car as well as all the aerodynamic and lateral forces. So the tire loads are huge. With the set up, it becomes a balance between how stiff you can run the car to support those vertical, aero and lateral loads, and how soft you can run the car for turns 5a, 5b, and nine and ten because these are the slow corners. For an ultimate lap time, you want to run more downforce than you would do for running in traffic. It is always a yo-yo between how much drag you run for the race and how much downforce you run for a qualifying lap. Generally downforce will save a tire because the car won’t slide as much but whether you have high downforce or low downforce, the key word is balance: you want to keep the car balanced through the all the high speed corners so the driver has confidence. You can have all the downforce in the world, but if the car isn’t balanced, if it has understeer or oversteer, the driver will not be able to make use of it. So it is all about tire management, keeping the car balanced and keeping it off the ground with the softest springs you can. There are similarities with an oval – with an oval you have banking and you have a lot of vertical g loading going through the car due to the banking. It is not dissimilar to trying to engineer a car at Daytona where you are trying to keep the car off the ground on the banking and yet have as much grip as you can in the infield sections.

“Mosport is also an old track with concrete patches. The layout of the track has not changed; it hasn’t been blighted by chicanes. The layout is as it was in the 1960’s. The tarmac is very old and with the extreme corner loads, the tarmac has become worn over the years, so turns two, three, four, eight and ten, all have big concrete packages and the line through turn ten is one big concrete patch. This presents its own challenge as does the fact that the tarmac around those patches is lower than the patch itself. So you think you are doing well with your ride height management and than a concrete patch that is 3/8″ higher than the tarmac comes up and smacks the bottom of the car, and right where you don’t need it – at maximum load. The other problem is the level of grip on the concrete is vastly different than the tarmac and you have the tire traversing on and off the concrete in the middle of a corner. So you try running a slightly harder tire that is not so sensitive going from tarmac to concrete.”

Peter Weston’s career includes working at Lotus, March, Lola and Pacific Racing. At Lotus, he was the race engineer for F1 drivers Johnny Herbert and testing engineer for Alex Zanardi. During his time at Lola, he got to know Rob Dyson and Rob invited him to join Dyson Racing in 2002. Since than he has been responsible for engineering the cars for current drivers Chris Dyson and Guy Smith along with long-time Dyson drivers James Weaver, Andy Wallace, and Butch Leitzinger.

How many trophies do you have?

“Actually, a lot of the trophies I never took home with me. Most of the ones that I won with Dyson Racing are in the shop in Poughkeepsie But I do have a small collection. We live in a three-story townhouse, and part of the fire regulations is that the doors all have to shut automatically on a chain so what I do is position the trophies in front of the doors so most of the doors actually have 24 Hours of Le Mans trophies holding them open!”

Your best race?

“The obvious thing that springs to mind is when we won this race, or when we did that, but quite often the races you actually drove the best in were not necessary the ones that you won.”

Difference between best fight and best race?

“There is a difference – best race would be where everything you did in the car just worked out perfectly – you dived for the gap on the inside and when you got there, it was still there whereas sometimes it closes up and it all gets smelly.

“One of the best fights I ever saw, I was not actually in the car at the time, was James Weaver vs. Mauro Baldi at Mosport in 1995. They were at it hammer and tong and we finally got the nod on the result and it was a great race.”

What was James Weaver like as a co-driver and person?

“As a teammate, he was very generous. He was always looking out for the people he was driving with. He made me realize quite rightly that in a sports car, you can never win a race on your own; by definition you have co-drivers, so everybody has to be happy in the car. He was always somebody who was technically very good on setting the car up, and at the same time made sure that all of us were happy with the car, so as a teammate, he was pretty close to perfect.

“As a person, we are very good friends. He is never switches off from racing. He always has the racing angle forefront in his mind. Whenever you go out for dinner with him, he has this very interesting sense of humor which always makes the evening quite lively.”

How would you describe his sense of humor?

“It is dry and witty, probably a little bit twisted in some ways – for example, Fermin Velez, (a good guy and good racer), when he was driving the Ferrari, he was a rival of ours – so we would playfully take the wind out of him whenever we had an opportunity. One of the things we use to do with Fermin when we were passing each other in the paddock, we would put our hand up in the air as if to be carrying a drink tray – a take off on the perceived stereotypical Spanish waiter.”

What makes for a good sports car driver?

“I think what differentiates a sports car driver as opposed to an open wheel, formula car driver, is that you cannot win a race on your own, so you are always going to do better if you can get everyone in the car up to speed. You have to do exactly what James did – adjust the car so everyone can drive it and everyone is happy with it. You can get a situation, and this happens fairly often at Le Mans and Daytona, where you get someone who is just out for themselves and wants to be able to say by the end of the race ‘I was fastest out of all the drivers,’ and walk around the paddock as king of the hill. But guess what, you did not win because you were very selfish and did not make sure everyone else was happy in the car. James would absolutely not do that and I think that is a good quality to have in a sports car driver. You have to drive extremely quickly. You have to be very good at dealing with traffic, and less so these days, you have to have mechanical sympathy. For example, gearboxes only break now if they decide to break on their own, whereas before the gearbox was a very weak part of the car.”

How different is racing from when you first started?

“Probably the biggest difference is just that – having to look after the car. When I first started sports car racing in the late 80’s – you had to be very careful with everything you did, especially the longer races. You would still drive extremely fast, but you had to make sure you did not break the equipment, Now, the way the rules are morphing, sports cars are working with less and less horsepower all the time. Engineers get some of the speed back, but the net result is a loss of horsepower and the engines tend to be very peaky engines now. So they are very very busy, and you are forever changing gears in a modern sports car. I remember in the old days, you had a lot of torque and a lot of power and you were in each gear a lot longer. So things are very much busier now from a gear point of view. Two other areas that have changed massively are braking and tires. The brakes on a modern car are absolutely staggering whereas before they were pretty close to the edge all the time. And tire technology – every year it is normal for a tire manufacturer to find one to two seconds a lap.”

With this march of technology, are newer cars easier to drive?

“I would say a modern car is more difficult to drive. That may not seem intuitive. You do not have to press the brake pedal as hard because you have carbon brakes. You do not have to change gears because it is done for you with a paddle shift. You have power steering which you never had before. But the reason I think the cars are more difficult to drive now is with this extra performance that comes from the tires, you never get something for nothing. One of the downsides of the extra performance from the tire is that nowadays, the tire has a very small point at which it gets its maximum performance and on either side of that curve, just either side, you have a huge drop off in performance. So it is much more difficult to drive the car at its limit whereas before, the tire had a much wider performance band to work in. Another reason it is more difficult is because of the quicker gearboxes and better brakes. Everything happens at the very last moment going into a corner, so you may be arriving a little bit slower because you have less horsepower, but you corner in much quicker. There is just a split second between running at the end of the straight and being in the corner. Whereas before, you arrived a little bit quicker but you did not have that performance so there was always a bit of a lag from when you first put the brake on. There was time to think, time to look out for an overtaking possibility, but now everything just happens in a blink of an eye. It is a mad rush of adrenaline now.”

How would you rate yourself as a driver?

“I look at myself as a driver that looks after the car. I am very pleased that I got involved in sports car racing. I wanted to go to Formula One in my earlier career and after winning the British F3 championship, I had my sights set on that. I am very glad I went into sports cars because I think my career has been a lot longer than if I had gone the F1 route. I have been very lucky to drive for some very good teams in some good cars with great co-drivers. I still very much enjoy what I am doing.”

Has the march of technology changed the equation of car vs. driver?

“I don’t know if that equation has changed that much over the years to be honest. I never won a race in a really bad car. It is not possible. How much is down to the driver – I would say it is around ten percent. Now ten percent does not sound like a lot, but without that, nothing is going to happen. I think it is fair to say the racing is a lot more competitive now and the cars are closer together in terms of lap time, so even though it is ten percent, it is still a vitally important part of the jig saw puzzle.”

When did you know you wanted to be a professional driver?

“I would say around ten years old. My father had been taking me to watch local races – I lived in Oxford when I was younger, and it was about thirty miles from Silverstone and we went there quite a few times and I got very interested in racing watching the Formula One races and the club races. I thought, ‘I need to be doing this – this is great.’”

Is there a different mind set for a shorter race vs. a 24-hour race and how do you prepare for a 24-hour race?

“The physical side of a 24-hour race is something you have to be aware of. But that is something you cannot switch on and off, so you have to prepare in advance for. Mentally, a two hour and forty-five minute race tends to be a bit of a frantic free for all – tooth and nail from the first corner. But in a 24 hour race is would be remarkably stupid to crash on the first corner, so you would take a slightly different view. Another difference in a 24 hour race is you are more interested in what a car can do over a whole tank of fuel, so you would not set the car up so peaky that for the first ten laps the car would be fine and than junk the rest of the run. You make sure that for every tank of fuel you have a good average speed. Whereas in a two-hour and forty-five minute race, depending on where you were, quite often you may get only a half hour before the first yellow, so you need a car that can spark up its performance very quickly and even if it goes slower toward the end of the stint, you may be saved by a safely car.”

What does it take to drive an evil car and can the fans watching appreciate that?

“Probably not. What tends to happen is it can be a car that is normally quite good but the set up is off, or it has had a collision and something is bent. A car that is handling badly is really difficult to drive. From the outside, you probably don’t see that – just that the car is not going as quickly as it should. You get everything you need to know where the car is through the steering wheel and through your hips, and also through the visual. When the car is really bad, it sends all the wrong messages to you and you absolutely have no idea where you are, so you keep on pushing and pushing and trying to drive the car and it is just a big box of surprises. You have to use all your skills just to stay on the road.”

“Smooth.”

Also patient?

“I am very patient outside of the car, but the minute you put your helmet on, there is a bit of red mist floating around immediately for any driver. I am relatively patient and probably have become more so over the years.”

How different is your personality inside the car vs. outside?

“To be a good driver, I think you either have to be someone who is impossible to live with or you have to have a switch. For me, the switch is when you put your helmet on. You have a job to do and you are a professional race car driver and you have to shut everything out everything that is not necessary to the task at hand.”

How do you drive on the street?

“I think I drive quite calmly – my wife on the other hand, thinks completely the opposite.”

Was it you or James that had a reputation for getting lost?

“We would get lost if I were reading the map, so it was always my fault. But James was so appalling at driving rental cars that I banned him outright from driving rental cars, so I use to drive and he use to map read.”

Appalling?

“Appalling in that I finally decided the only way his brain switches on to having any awareness of anything going on in the world around him is he has to get past 150 mph. Than the switch clicks on. Anytime he goes slower than that, he is a disaster. He is the only person I know who can almost write-off a Ford Mustang in a car park – I mean, how difficult is it to park a car?”

How was Butch Leitzinger as a co-driver?

“I really enjoyed driving with Butch all the time. One of Butch`s finest qualities is he is quite willing to let his co-driver do the set up work. You would see him in the truck with his newspaper and he is just reading and having a relaxed time. And when it is his turn to get in the car, he will jump in and within five laps he will do the same lap time that you have been slaving over all morning. He does not need any laps to get his speed up, he just does it instantly. It doesn’t help if you have two people in the car who want to do the set up work because you both are wanting to get in there and have a go. But he does not mind either way. He is a perfect teammate that way.”

He seems very laid back out of the car – his true personality?

“I think it is very much a matter of Jekyll and Hyde when he puts a helmet on. You do not mess with Butch inside of the car, he is definitely on it. Outside of the car, he is very calm, incredibly calm.”

During a twenty-four-hour race, how do you keep your focus driving double and triple stints?

“I usually use the fuel counter in the car to tell me how long I have to go in that stint. So I can get an idea of where I am. If you are doing a triple stint, you still have to start going for it as soon as you jump in the car, but it is very important to get into a rhythm where you are putting in the good lap times, but you are not taking too much mental energy out of yourself. You have to hit this rhythm, a little bit like a long distance runner I suppose. You have to do that very early on. After you have established that, you can than push it hard and see what happens to the lap times. Doing that you find the rear tires go off fifteen minutes from the end of your stint, so you remember that for the second stint and give the tires an easier time of it in the beginning laps the next time.”

Can you pick a level of concentration and speed ahead of time?

“I think every time you get in a car, the track changes so much, you never really know what sort of lap times you are going to do. I think it is quite artificial if someone says, ‘lets all do 1:40’’” or whatever – because who knows what the car is going to be comfortable doing. So I think you get in the car and go as fast as you can. But you will soon reach a point where both you and the car are feeling happy and comfortable.”

What makes for a good car?

“I suppose you could say that every drive wants the car to be slightly different. But what tends to happen now with modern tires is the front tires on a modern car are extremely robust, so what makes for a good car is one that really use the front tires. You want a car that gets the most out of the front tires.”

How many cars have you driven?

“The last time I counted, over 107”

And your Dyson years – looking back, what kind of memories standout?

“You always knew when you got to work, that you were going to get into a car that was capable of winning the race. Dyson Racing always gave you the tools to do the job. That is the first thing that springs to mind and secondly, I always really enjoyed the atmosphere. It was absolutely wonderful.”

And what made the atmosphere so conducive to working well?

“I think it was very much a function of the fact that all the people in the team had worked together for quite a number of year. It was very nice when it was Chris, James, Butch and myself – there was always a good atmosphere between the drivers, no one was trying to fall on anyone else, we were all throwing information into the pot – giving more than taking.”

Best car you have driven?

“At the end of the 80’s, Group C World Sports Car Championship was a fuel consumption formula with unlimited size engines. The IMSA cars at the time were very similar cars but with slightly different restrictions but the performance was quite close. Those cars were wonderful. Nine hundred kilos with lots of horsepower. Than in 1991, the World Sports Car Championship went to 750 kilos – quite a bit lighter with Formula One engines and ultimately that is what killed the World Sports Car Championship because it got too expensive. But for that short time in ‘91 and ’92, you were driving cars that had ground effects, weighed only 750 kilos and had 700 horsepower Formula One engines in them. The cars had huge amounts of downforce, incredible amounts of downforce. And they were absolutely mega. At that time I was driving for Toyota, and they had their TS010 with a three and a half liter V-10, and just an unbelievable amount of downforce. While I was driving for Toyota, I was the reserve driver for the Leyton House Formula One team. I did some testing for them and I quite often thought to myself ‘wow, the Group C car that I am driving is actually a better car.’ OK, it is heavier than the Formula One car, and ultimately is probably slower, but I think it was actually a better car in terms of downforce. Sports cars were very close to Formula One cars in those days.”

You have been driving for thirty-one years. Do you get the same satisfaction now of getting in a car as you did back than?

“I suppose the romantic answer would be that nothing has changed. But the reason you went racing in the first place is because you were completely and totally crazy about racing and just had to race. If you do something long enough, that is bound to wear off slightly. I have to say though, when you jump into a modern racing car, the performance, particularly the brakes and the cornering is so incredibly staggering, you have to be dead not to get a really good feeling driving one. So the short answer is I still very much get a buzz from driving.

“When you asked me about the best car, yes it is the TS010. But what is very much the case is that every latest car that comes out is better than the one before. So although that car from the early 90’s was the car with the most downforce and the most performance, the rules have changed many times since than. If you jump into the latest Lola Coupe, and you off down the road – that is the state of the art for where prototype racing is right now, so that car has to be the best car you have ever driven. That is the great thing about racing, you never go backwards.

“I have driven the Silk Cut Jaguar I use to drive and won Le Mans in a couple of times. The first thing you notice is it has a lot of power and a lot of torque. Serious amounts of torque and the engine is not peaky – you can put it in a gear, almost does not matter which one, and open the throttle and it will take off. You can stay in that gear forever whereas in a modern car you are in a gear for a second at the most and than you need another one and another one. That is the first thing that hit me when I got back in the Jaguar: ‘wow – where did all that torque and all that immense pull come from.’ and than you realize, ‘oh dear, the car doesn’t really have much braking, does it, it does not have power steering, the chassis is not as stiff as it should be.’ and all those things come to mind.”

So are you going to do this for another thirty-one years?

“In another thirty-one years, I would probably be slower than the pace car. I remember driving at Sebring in the Jaguar, and it was absolutely throwing with rain. It was horrible, a couple inches of water all across the circuit. And I was leading the race for TWR and the pace car was out and there was so much water on the track, I was aquaplaning everywhere, all over the place. I got on the radio to Tony Dowe, the team manager and said ‘Tony, I cannot keep up with the pace car, it is so bad,’ and his reply to me was ‘Oh, I must get his phone number.’”

It’s been a long time since I’ve added a column to our Perspectives section. Since anyone who knows me can tell you it’s not in my nature to keep quiet for too long, let’s chalk up my absence on these pages to my being quite busy lately attending to the matters of our racing efforts.

I have been compiling some snapshots from each race we’ve done this past season. I hope you enjoy them.

SEBRING

Sebring was an excellent run for the team. Had we not suffered from an early oil pump filter issue, we would have figured for the win. The pace of the car on average was every bit as good as the winners – our good friends Cytosport – and the team did a perfect job executing in the pits.

There is nothing quite like driving around Sebring at night. In fact, no matter how many days of testing we have done in the offseason, it’s only during Sebring’s night practice session that I truly feel like a new season has begun. It’s incredible how much some darkness and mobbed crowds, with their bonfires and God-knows-what-else burning in the paddock can change your perspective of a place that, in the middle of December testing, is so quiet and lonely. Taking Turn One without the benefit of familiar daytime reference points, for example, is an incredible thrill each and every lap. Dab the brakes ever so slightly and turn in to a blind, 6th gear commitment corner made more daunting in darkness. Did I mention that you’re flat-out on the floor as soon as you’ve turned in? Once you’ve hit the exit bump in that familiar spot, you know you’ve made it. The rush is incredible. Every time. At night, even the entry to Sebring’s “Evans” esses (our team’s half-affectionate name for the tedious section installed by the notorious Andy Evans), is something to behold without sunlight. We always treat the night practice as an installation run and never really go for times as we have all of our race components on the car. But ripping around this crusty old airport, even at nine-tenths effort, gets the blood pumping and the adrenaline going in such an amazing way. Afterwards, I just can’t wait for the race on Saturday.

By the time we see nightfall during the race, it’s a different experience. The track has been green for nearly ten hours and the grip level is quite high thanks to the rubber that has gone down. As drivers, at this point in the race, we have been in a rhythm all day, and the feeling of unfamiliarity of night running is no more. The darkness is a welcome respite from the searing heat. The temperatures are usually quite a bit cooler and the engines begin to put out very nice power. Our MZR-R 4-cylinder turbo engine loves the cooler air, and it’s just a pleasure to begin a run with the wastegate chirping away through the carousel on the “out” lap, knowing the excitement that lies ahead. Usually, cars set their best times in these conditions just after the sun has disappeared.

The sand kicks up at night and creates another interesting feature around Sebring. Also, the tail lights of the cars shows exactly how fast the cars are going—something you don’t totally appreciate in daylight. At some point during my first run at night, once the tires have come in and the fuel starts to burn off, I have to remind myself that what I’m doing professionally is truly an incredible (if slightly insane) undertaking.

It was a good podium finish for us and a strong points haul for the championship standings. Any time the team comes away from Sebring with a healthy car and points, it feels as good as victory.

LONG BEACH

Long Beach is a great event with amazing history. The whole city really comes alive for its traditional April downtown racing festival. Every night there’s some kind of concert or street performance following the racing events. The merchants love it and every restaurant is packed. The buzz is tangible and it’s early in the season, so there’s a distinct aura of possibility and excitement in the paddock. Sebring is behind us and the whole season lies ahead.

The track layout at Long Beach is actually quite good and makes for very good racing, even with mixed classes. I have always enjoyed racing at Long Beach since my first race there in Formula Atlantic in 2005. It has its quirks but in general, it’s a real challenge for the drivers and the engineers.

Long Beach always has the craziest schedule. A couple of years ago, we had a test session on the Thursday evening preceding the race. This was very helpful for the engineers and for us to re-acquaint ourselves with the place, but the test session has gone missing the past two visits, placing a premium on your “truck” setup—our term for the setup with which you hit the track for the first session.

This year’s visit was our first time competing at Long Beach on the Dunlop tires, and we weren’t sure what to expect. Immediately, the Dunlops were encouragingly well-suited for the changing nature of the track and Guy and I were happy with the car.

Even though it’s a street track and one would assume downforce would be king, Long Beach always favors the cars that are fastest in a straight line. The Aston Martin and Intersport’s AER-powered cars staked out this turf on the time sheets early, and both were untouchable by the smaller, formerly LMP2 cars this weekend. Even our Mazda-powered Lola coupe wasn’t even in the big cars’ league this weekend.

In qualifying, I expected we’d pose a strong threat for the front row. It was looking good until we arrived at the Queen’s Hairpin. We hadn’t been able to run a qualifying simulation in practice due to the compressed schedule, so some of the boost buildup at the low end was surprising on our qualifying map. On the exit of the final turn, I was suffering from some pretty massive wheelspin on power over the washboard bumps. Unfortunately, this was costing us nearly a half-second on the watch and we just missed the front row by a small margin.

In the race, Jon and Clint Field looked like winners early on, but sadly for them a leaky fuel cell problem put them out with 30 minutes to go. This left the game in Aston’s hands, and Adrian Fernandez, who we all greatly respect, did his best to manhandle his wounded Lola and keep it ahead of a charging Simon Pagenaud in the closing laps. Simon pressured Adrian hard and forced a mistake and Highcroft slipped through to take the win.

And the 16 car? After running a steady 3rd early on, and keeping in touch with the Aston-Highcroft battle, I pitted to hand off to Guy. Unfortunately, we ended up pinned between the Autocon and Drayson entries in the pits. There’s precious little (read no) space in the cramped Long Beach pitlane, and being delayed as we jockeyed the car into position for fueling and tire-changing cost us two spots during the pit stops. Guy did his absolute best to hang onto the back of Klaus Graf’s Muscle Milk car but couldn’t find a way past. We were unhappy not to finish on the podium, but 4th was good for the points.

Afterwards, we spent a great evening with an eclectic cast of transplanted New York friends, college alums and extended family members at the local brew pub restaurant. The downtown is always mobbed after the race and it’s at this point that we can stop and enjoy the same festival that every fan is attending. We concluded our evening with some low-key revelry with Ben Devlin and Clint Field at an Irish Pub where Guy’s dear friend “Ginger Jesus” works.

We knew we deserved a podium at Long Beach, but we had come through a street race unscathed, which is a victory somewhat in itself. We couldn’t wait for the next race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

For years, we only had one “home race” a year at Lime Rock. But since we’ve linked up with Mazda, we have two. Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is a fabulous facility and the setting near Monterey simply couldn’t be more picturesque.

You could say the same about the bulk of the race weekend. We rolled the car off the truck and it was instantly very, very good. When we raced at MRLS in late 2009, the car was lightning fast but a bit on the edge. This meant we could push, but with very little margin for error. We had to take a pretty radical approach last year with the setup, mainly to maintain heat in the tires. When we returned this year, however, the characteristics of our new Dunlops have enabled us to revert to a setup that has allowed us to drive right on the limit from the outset with confidence, and with some slip angle. Guy and I both like the car to be able to drive “elbows out,” braking late and driving hard onto the apex, and the Lola on Dunlops rewards this approach.

We cycled in our newest driving partner Andy Meyrick, who drove with us at Sebring, and I was really impressed with how quickly he managed to get right on the pace. For the first time, the MRLS event would run six hours, and since every lap is two miles of non-stop action, Guy and I were delighted to welcome Andy back.

Guy was down to qualify, and I had a great feeling about his performance even before the session started. He had been on it from the first session and before qualifying he was completely focused on extracting the best from the car. We all had confidence that he was going to give the Highcroft and Drayson entries a good run for pole.

All that being said, what happened next surprised all of us. Guy was balked early in his qualifying run by some of the Challenge cars, and in the pits we all groaned. Rather than getting upset as we all were, Guy simply put his head down and patiently waited to find a gap in the frenetic final moments of qualifying. Sometimes, watching from the pits is more stressful than actually being in the car! Guy did manage to get clear for one last shot at a time with the session’s time coming down to the wire, and we all watched expectantly for the lap to unfold as if we were twelve year-olds waiting for the final school bell to ring.

Sitting here, writing it now, I can still recall very clearly the electricity and excitement in our pitbox as we watched the predictive lap time on the telemetry unfold. The telemetry follows the car over a lap, and the pit / timing stand resembles what can best be described as a mini “mission control.” The team has the ability to monitor literally everything on the car in real time and while this limits a driver’s excuses (sorry James!), it’s an unbelievable detailed way to spectate.

Guy was up on his previous best lap, according to the telemetry, as he approached the famous corkscrew turn, a slow, 2nd gear corner that leads into a five story, flat-out drop downhill into a blind, 5th gear left-hander. It looked like it was going to be close with our Highcroft rivals at this point. But as the car thundered downhill on the telemetry and into view from the pitlane, the predictive lap time suddenly plummeted. Guy completed the lap and was on pole by a very healthy margin. We were all thrilled. The Highcroft guys, our main opposition for pole, were so unhinged late in the session that even “The Oracle” David Brabham decided to come across the start / finish line and slam on the brakes—flat spotting his tires in the process! Any time you can upset your opposition like that you just know you’ve had them. We all laughed our asses off at that story.

When we talked afterwards, Guy excitedly told Andy and me how the sensational Dunlop tires had allowed him to literally throw the car into the corkscrew as never before and commit immediately to the throttle. For a corner with bumps and a sandy exit, where we usually have to feed the accelerator in gradually to avoid wheelspin, this was really saying something. Guy said that he had then taken the blind left-hander faster than ever before, fully committed and trusting the grip of his tires. He was going to get pole no matter what, he said. Brave man, this Guy. We were all very impressed and it was Guy’s first overall pole, which delighted me. He’s been unquestionably one of the fastest drivers in the ALMS over the years and he has been in a position the past few years to be on pole, only for something weird (like a rainout session) or a red flag to get in the way. To grab the first pole at our “second home” track was really special for everyone.

The race the following day was, as is often the case with endurance contests, an incredible emotional odyssey. We were back and forth with Highcroft all day long. We would take the lead, then pit, and then Highcroft would take the lead. We lost a lap, then got the lap back. There were caution periods galore and we were able to capitalize on this and re-fuel the car at every opportunity. To maintain our pace and keep in the game with Highcroft, we were running full power levels with little regard for fuel consumption. We had no choice but to go for broke in an attempt to get ourselves in a position to win. Guy was up for it, for sure, and he was making a real charge at Marino, who’s been doing a stellar job with Highcroft this year. Sadly, a win was not to be, as Guy radioed in that he’d experienced a mechanical failure with twenty minutes to go.

Everyone on the team was crestfallen and somewhat in shock at this outcome. The sight of the car parked on the side of the road as the final laps wound down was tough to accept.

But that’s where racing is so different from any other sport. For us, a machine is the athletic equipment. Machines do experience failures from time to time and you have to accept that. You just don’t ever want it to happen when you’re in the middle of a combat situation. In baseball terms, imagine being up at bat and having a full count in a key situation, only for the bat to be pulled from your hands as the pitch is delivered. That’s what racing feels like sometimes.

It was a weekend of contrasts for sure. The joy of Saturday’s qualifying, followed by the operatic race and then a difficult conclusion. Racing can be an unbelievably cruel business and this was one of those occasions.

But as racers, we have no choice but to close the book once an event has concluded and immediately begin thinking about the next event, confident that it will be better than the last one. Monterey was a difficult pill to swallow, but we knew we had a sizeable gap in our schedule to respond.

Most importantly, we had signaled to the paddock that we were going to be a force to be reckoned with, and it was this feeling we would focus on carrying into the second half of the season. They knew we were there, all day long.

MILLER MOTORSPORTS PARK, SALT LAKE CITY

This was a strange weekend. We arrived and the car was quite good—almost too good, actually, versus our competition in the early sessions. Miller is set in the middle of the desert sands and is notoriously a changeable racing surface. It’s very “green” when it’s not been used and the surface is smooth but abrasive. This really works the tires quite hard and as a result a lot of rubber is laid down on the racing surface, making conditions quite changeable throughout the weekend.

Coming into the race, our competitors—who by now had a very healthy championship lead– had resumed the tiresome chorus about our “straight line speed advantage.” At altitude (Miller is 5000 feet above sea level), all cars lose horsepower but turbo cars lose less than normally aspirated cars. But that’s just part of the story.

Miller is not as much of a speedway-style road course as the long front straightaway would suggest, so the straight-line speed argument was really just a smoke and mirrors’ game. In fact, since it has five very tight hairpins, Miller is actually a handling track that puts a huge premium on braking, midrange torque and traction. The straight at Miller is massive, but as a percentage of the lap time it’s hardly as important as the tighter corners and midrange performance. If we had such a crushing advantage, we asked ourselves, why hadn’t we been on pole and won every race so far this year? The same sort of PR / moaning campaign happened in 2009, and like a broken record, the song remains the same. It’s gotten tiresome and more than a bit disingenuous.

Our little MZR-R engine lacks some of the lower-end grunt of the normally aspirated cars, but it makes remarkable top end power for a 2.0-liter engine, and we have trimmed the Lola aerodynamically to make the most of this. This means that we often run less downforce than our competitors (which means less drag, too), and this places a premium on our ability to manage the tires with compounds and mechanical setup. Everyone plays to their strengths, right?

Unfortunately at Miller, through the weekend the track “rubbered in” to such an extent that we were on a hard compound when we needed a softer one, and our form in the race showed this. At best, we were looking at a 3rd place finish but would have settled for 4th.

One of the ALMS’s most intriguing variables—and the one that really deserves more attention– is the tire war. Since we have different tire makers competing against each other, the tires are often a wild card that can swing the outcome of a race and really define a team’s strategy. This really spices things up and makes for another variable at each event. At Mazda Raceway, we had a clear advantage over the Michelin runners. But at Utah, it was the other way around in the race, and the Michelin cars simply had us covered. We are learning all the time about the Dunlops, and Dunlop Motorsport has been extremely involved technically with our team and developing tires for the ALMS. In that respect, you can accept the occasional whipping because in the big picture, the relationship with Dunlop is all about developing tires for the future, and doing so together. You just know there will be days when you have the upper hand when you’re in a tire war.

In the past, our team has always done its best when we are fully integrated with our technical partners, and 2010 is the first time in many years where we are truly enjoying a two-way street with every facet of the car’s package. It’s great to see our engineers excited about working with our technical partners and all parties are pushing themselves (and occasionally pushing each other) to extract the most at all times. As a driver, nothing excites you more than knowing that you have such a great operation working behind you, and this inspires tremendous confidence.

Miller, despite being only the 4th race, was the first race of what we inaccurately call “the second half” of the ALMS schedule. This is because there’s an eight-week gap between Monterey and Miller due to Le Mans. Miller was the first of five races that would occur over a seven-week period and everyone was gearing up for a long push through the summer.

A new chapter in this historical narrative was written last year at the last two races of the American Le Mans Series. Dyson Racing ran BP’s new biofuel blend with isobutanol in the #16 LMP2 Mazda Lola coupe at the Petit Le Mans and Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca. This successful test led to the 2010 approval from the ALMS for BP Biofuel IsoButanol’s use in the prototype classes. Dyson Racing ran it during the just-completed 2010 race season and gave the fuel its first overall ALMS win at Mid-Ohio in August. From the first use of a rear view mirror on Ray Harroun’s 1911 Indianapolis 500-winning Marmon, to the pioneering use of isobutanol in a race car, racing continues to drive beneficial advancement.

Isobutanol is an organic alcohol that has four carbon molecules compared to ethanol’s two, giving it 25% more usable energy. Like ethanol, it can be made from sugar cane and corn, but can also be made from lignocellulosic sources like crop waste and purposely grown non-food plants such as switch grass and energy grass. Using those materials produces a smaller carbon footprint than gasoline or ethanol. Using biomass can also produce a negative carbon imprint when the carbon dioxide absorbed by the growing crops offsets the emissions produced when they are cultivated, processed and burned in engines. When burned in an engine, isobutanol produces carbon dioxide but no SOX, NOX or carbon monoxide and is much less evaporative than ethanol or gasoline.

The next step is the development of technologies to convert sugars produced by macroalgae into isobutanol. The goal is to take the most land-efficient feedstock (algae) and use it to produce the most gasoline-like biofuel in a cost-efficient manner. The macroalgae aquafarming project will be conducted in Southern California by Butamax™ Advanced Biofuels LLC, a joint venture between DuPont and BP. Butamax will be responsible for the commercialization of the resulting technology. The expectation is that using aquafarmed native macroalgae to produce isobutanol will reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly compared to petroleum.

“Racing has the responsibility to lead by example. Motor racing’s DNA is not just about racing,” noted Chris Dyson. “It is about pushing the boundaries of future technologies that eventually make their way into regular road-going applications. Because resources are becoming scarce all across the planet, we need to have a new dialogue about how we are going to live in the future. The American Le Mans Series got on board with the “Green Initiative” very early on and for the past five years, they have added a new or advanced fuel each year. Our engine partner, Advanced Engine Research, worked hard developing the Mazda MZR-R engine for isobutanol, and the immediate results at the Petit Le Mans last year spoke for themselves. Our alignment with Mazda, BP and Castrol is the perfect fit because they use racing as a platform for developing new technologies in a rapid and advancing atmosphere. Technologies and fuels now used in the ALMS are setting the stage for positive and ecologically conscious developments for consumer cars in the future.”

Isobutanol has many advantages compared to first generation bio fuels. Its longer hydrocarbon chain gives it a molecular structure that is closer to gasoline, resulting in better fuel economy. It can be blended in gasoline at higher concentrations than ethanol without the need to modify vehicles, thus allowing greater concentrations of renewables in the transportation mix. It can be used with ethanol to help improve the performance of ethanol/gasoline blends. Compared to ethanol and methanol, it does not absorb water and does not affect the metal and rubber components of a car’s fuel system. Isobutanol can be used in existing pipelines and storage tanks, eliminating the need of truck and rail transportation and expensive infrastructure investment required by first generation biofuels.

The Mazda MZR-R four-cylinder turbocharged engine developed by AER and used in Dyson Racing’s Lola coupe is a natural development tool. “The smaller turbocharged engines of the ALMS offer a valuable test-bed for evaluating fuels that can offer the best performance, and Mazda brings a wealth of knowledge and experience that will help us develop the best fuels,” said Tim Hayes, vice president, strategic accounts for BP. “BP sees this as a great opportunity to test and learn about the performance and capability of these advanced fuels and their respective components like isobutanol and ethanol.”

“We are pleased to take the technical relationship between Mazda and BP to this next step,” said Robert Davis, senior vice president, Product Development and Quality for Mazda North American operations, and the man responsible for the company’s North American motorsport programs under the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development banner. “This is a great opportunity to combine learnings from advanced fuels with a production-derived 2.0-liter turbocharged MZR-R engine. It shows the commitment that both Mazda and BP have to understanding advanced clean, efficient, and environmentally sensitive technologies, and leveraging the learnings to bring relevant technologies to the public in the future.”

The rear view mirror from the 1911 Indianapolis 500 is the most often quoted example of racing being the mother of invention for the cars we use everyday to go to work and take the children to soccer practice. A century of racing has produced disc brakes, high speed wipers, improved fuel injection for better mileage and less emissions, direct injection, clean diesel technology; improved traction control and ABS, metallic and ceramic brakes, electronic engine management, improved tire construction and tread designs, etc. A complete list would cover virtually all aspects of today’s’ automobile. Equally as important as these physical inventions, are the advancements that come from racing’s ability to accelerate the time to market compared to more traditional engineering channels. Designs, manufacturing processes and materials are often tested and proven in racing before being introduced into daily transportation.

Racing is a citizen in a world of finite resources. There is no better real-life high performance laboratory than motorsports to produce tomorrow’s advancements. The partnership of Dyson Racing, BP, Castrol, Mazda and the ALMS are excited to be at the cutting edge of this positive and relevant technology.

Rob Dyson: “I am pleased with our results this year. We have been competitive at every race. We are making good developmental progress on the car. We are actually the only car that is doing all its own development from top to bottom. That has made it more interesting but gives us more control over our destiny. Everybody on the crew has done a terrific job and the drivers have done a superb job every lap this year. It all came together at Mid-Ohio where we broke the barriers for everybody: Mazda, Castrol, Dunlop, Guy Smith and BP Biofuel. It was a gift and a wonderful thing to experience.”

Chris Dyson: “Mid-Ohio came at a point in the season where we had experienced a couple of tough finishes and the result really turned the corner for the team. It moved momentum back in our favor and we have confidently been in the mix everywhere.

“Our team put in a great effort this year. The pit stops were excellent and Mike White’s leadership was superb. The engineering staff, Peter Weston and Vince Wood, did a phenomenal job all year with the race strategy and set-ups. I am actually kind of sad the season is over. It has been such a strong second half, it is tough to now wait a couple months before we can go back and do it again.”

Guy Smith: “For me personally, it has been a good year. I scored my first ALMS pole position and my first ALMS win, so it is nice to achieve that from a personal point of view. The team only gets better. I don’t look back at any races and say we should have done this or we should have done that. I look back at every race and say that we did the best job that we could. The work ethic of the team has been exceptional this year.

“Dunlop has produced a very consistent tire that has done well everywhere. We have been able to fine-tune the Lola to work even better this year. And the final piece in the jigsaw has been the engine. The AER guys have worked tirelessly to improve the engine and it is very good. It has been a good year for all concerned.”

Andy Meyrick: The year has been very positive. Sebring was my first race outside of Europe and my first in America. I loved it. It was my first race with Dyson and it blew me away how positive the team was and how professionally they worked together.

“I followed the American Le Mans series when I was in Europe, and now that I have seen it from the inside, I see why they are such a good team. It comes from the top – Rob and Chris really like to have a family atmosphere and everybody enjoys working here. That family atmosphere is one thing you can’t necessarily see from the outside and the passion for racing that everybody on the team has is why they are so successful.”

Mike White, Team Manager: “Last year, we analyzed expertise and experience and moved some team members around and this year it really gelled into a cohesive team. They are good people in addition to being very good at what they do. We have a group of people that enjoy being around each other and enjoy working together. They are all self-starters. They look at something and see what needs to be done and they start running with it. I could not be prouder of them and their hard work this year and they should all be proud of each other and themselves.”

The team picked up from their LMP2 win here last year with a pole-winning drive by Guy Smith on Friday. Dyson started the Dunlop-shod car race morning and pitted on lap fifty-eight for fuel, tire and driver change, with Andy Meyrick taking over. “We were running the leader’s pace, and running according to plan,” commented Dyson. “We were really just keeping pressure on them and hoping for a couple of breaks to fall our way.”

Meyrick first drove for Dyson Racing at this year’s 12 Hours of Sebring, co-driving with Dyson and Smith to the season’s first podium finish. “The pace was quite good in traffic,” said Meyrick. “It is a very rewarding car to drive and I think we have the quickest car in the series.” Smith took over from lap 121 to 189, noting on the radio that the “car was very, very good with good balance.”

This was the last race of the year for the American Le Mans Series. The highlight of the year for the team was the overall win at Mid-Ohio in August. It was the first overall American Le Mans Series victory for Guy Smith, Mazda, BP Biofuel IsoButanol, Dunlop, and for Castrol. Smith took his first ALMS pole at Mazda Raceway in May and backed it up with the LMP2 pole yesterday. Dyson set fast lap at Mid-Ohio and Smith took the honors at Mazda Raceway. The team finished on the podium three more times with the team finishing third in the LMP team championship and Chris Dyson third and Guy Smith fifth in the LMP drivers championship

“We would have liked to end the year in victory circle, but this was a positive year for us,” said Team Principal Rob Dyson. “This is a season where we re-asserted ourselves as a team to beat for overall wins. I think that is a credit to Mazda, BP/Castrol and the hard work that everyone did last winter at Advanced Engine Research on the wonderful 2.0-liter MZR-R Turbo engine and the IsoButanol. Also, our thanks go to Lola whom we have developed this LMP and work with our engineers and team so well. Our switch to Dunlop tires could not have worked better. The team executed brilliantly and our drivers did a phenomenal job. We were a force to be reckoned with all year.”

Smith took the overall pole at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca’s six-hour endurance race in May. As he did at Mazda Raceway and the 12 Hours of Sebring, Andy Meyrick joins Chris Dyson and Smith in the #16 Dunlop-shod entry this weekend. “This qualifying shows the progress we have made,” said Smith. “Andy Meyrick got in the car this weekend and the first thing he commented on was how much the car has improved.”

“The engineers did a great job for qualifying. We thought we could get pole position, but knew it was going to be close. It was an exciting qualifying session and it bodes well for tomorrow. The race is going to be your normal ten-hour endurance race here – it is going to be a battle all the way through. We feel confident we can do well and it would be great to end the season on a high.”

Dyson Racing won the LMP2 class here last year, making Mazda the first Japanese manufacturer to have won both the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Petit Le Mans. The #16 entry of Chris Dyson and Guy Smith actually finished nine laps ahead of their winning sister car last year, but ran unclassified as they were running BP IsoButanol for the fist time. The series subsequently approved the use of IsoButanol and the team has been successfully running the biofuel this season.

“This has been the most competitive year in the ALMS,” noted Dyson. “We enter the last race of the season with all championships up for grabs in all four classes. We have numerous Mazda and Castrol guests here this weekend. We gave them something to cheer about today and will work to do the same tomorrow.”

SPEED will air the 1,000 mile/ten hour enduro starting at 11 a.m. tomorrow, with live radio available on ALMS Radio as well as Sirius Channel 127 and XM Channel 242.

Jones, winner of both the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, started the Roush-Yates powered Lola Daytona Prototype and maintained his qualifying position through his stint, handing the car over to McCutchen on lap 23. Pro-Am driver McCutchen, winner of twelve races since his return to racing in 2008, turned consistently fast times and handed the car back to Jones on lap 47 who ran to the end thirty-nine laps latter, setting a time late in the proceedings over five seconds quicker than his practice best.

“This is exactly what we hoped for,” affirmed McCutchen. “Davy and I have never been in a Daytona Prototype before. We did some testing at Monticello Motor Club and we get the car here and it runs flawlessly all weekend long. It just goes to show how skilled Dyson’s group is to receive a car ten days ago, put it on a trailer, take it all the way out here, prepare it and compete heads-up with everybody. That is what it is all about.”

“It is good for the team to get reacquainted with the Grand-Am series and it is good for the Texas Heart Institute to be represented on a national platform,” noted Jones. “The beauty about the Dyson team is we will come away from this race with our notes and I know the next race that Dyson Racing competes in Grand-Am, they will be on it and will know exactly where they stand.”

Chris Dyson, who won five races in the Rolex Grand-Am series in 2002, commented that it was a weekend of catching up with old friends. “It was good to be back among the Grand-Am paddock again. We have great affection for the people here and thank the series for their help along with Lola, Roush-Yates Ford and Multimatic Motorsports. Everyone pulled out all the stops to help us get to this point.”

Added Rob Dyson, “I would give this weekend a solid grade– we accomplished all that we wanted to do: we got the car here, we ran it for two days and we learned an awful lot. We have work to do to get more familiar with the car, but the guys turned the car out on a very rapid time frame. We are very proud of the crew and their tireless efforts the past few weeks. Davy and John have done a terrific job and it was great having them with us.”

More information on Godstone Ranch Motorsports and their mission to fight heart disease can be found at www.godstoneranchmotorsports.com. With their cell phone giving campaign, anyone can text “car” to 50555 and donate $10 to the Texas Heart Institute. The team can be followed at www.twitter.com/godstoneranch.