“A new circuit is a terrific leveler for all concerned: the team, drivers and engineers. You have to pick up any morsel of information you can about the circuit and try to get ahead of the game. I will use Google Earth to get point-to-point measurements around the track. I contacted the circuit organizers and got a map of the design of the track to get corner radiuses and other track measurements. A little bit of local knowledge is also good if you have people on the ground that can go take a look at the track and see what the surface is like.

“Making sure you do not make a mistake on the gearing is very important. There is nothing worse than going to a brand new track and having your driver ring you up half way down the back straight and saying that he is on the rev limiter. You have very little time at a new track without having to take time out to change the gearing during a session. So I do point to point measurements between the primary corners to try and ascertain what sort of gear we are going to be arriving at each corner in, and at what speed. We know the acceleration of the car from past data, so that gets figured in also.

“In general at street tracks, aerodynamically, more downforce is going to be faster. It was like that in Houston and to a lesser degree, Long Beach. Long Beach is a unique street track because of the length of the pit straight, so you tend not to run maximum downforce there. Mostly street tracks are point and squirt. Relatively slow corner speeds are the norm, so downforce at low speeds is the key.

“So a track map will give you an idea of what kind of course it is going to be. You can see where the primary overtake points are going to be, and where the intersections are where there might be large bumps. And if you can get some advance knowledge about the surface of the circuit, that is absolute gold because street tracks can be bumpy and very smooth at the same time: bumpy from a bouncing around stand point, and yet smooth in terms of the surface which has often been polished by years of traffic. It is not unusual for street circuits to be a mix of concrete and asphalt. Knowing that mix will tell you and the drivers what kind of surface they will be dealing with at each individual corner.

“So it comes down to giving the drivers the most drivable package you can off the truck so you are not wasting time in the pits making too many adjustments and the driver can just spend his time learning the track. At Baltimore this year, we had one abbreviated session before qualifying. So maximizing your time on a new track is critical.

When asked about his pole qualifying effort at Houston in 2006, the first time for the ALMS at the street track, James Weaver said, “I think one of the reasons we are quick here is that the Dyson team has always been good at arrive-and-drive races. The team is excellent with a limited amount of time in making the right calls and the right judgments. When you cannot engineer the car to death, you have to draw upon years of experience and I think that is when you see how much strength and depth there is at Dyson Racing.”

And from a driver’s viewpoint, what are the first laps of the first practice session at new track like? Long time Dyson driver, Butch Leitzinger, talked about the team’s first time at the iconic Long Beach track in 2007.

“Any time you are on a new street circuit, you have to know that the track has very little rubber laid down and has very little grip. We push the traction control up to maximum so it will save you, because on cold tires, the car is already trying to spin on you. And even with that, the first couple of turns, it jumps out on you a couple of places and your heart rate goes up and you hope that Rob is not watching that corner on the monitors back in the pits!

“After a lap or two, the brake markers start to click in and than the thing that takes the longest is getting heat in the tires. Until you do that, it rides a bit lower than at operating pressure, so it hits the ground in some places, and you have to let them come up to temperature before you drive the car hard. On a green track, that is usually around three laps. Than you are turning down the traction control so that by the end of the session you are running about a third of what you started with. At that point, you are able to drive it pretty hard and get in a representative lap.

“One of the easier parts of the process is figuring out how late you can brake. From experience and judging the turn and your speed, you are able to figure how deep you can go in pretty close to where you will do it the rest of the weekend. What takes the most time though, is figuring how much momentum and speed you can carry through the corner, especially on the street course, without smacking the wall. On a road course you can take a few more chances early on because if you make a mistake, you might go off on the grass a little bit. But on a street course, the concrete walls restrain you on how long it takes you to be fast.

“So at this point, your times are coming down and getting faster each lap. But after three or four laps, you are starting to come up to traffic, coming up on the GT cars that are trying to find their way around. So than you start figuring out good places to pass, trying to evaluate where you can pass cleanly, where it is impossible, and where, when everything is right, you might be able to get by.

You will not see this not so much in the lap times at this point as you will by your more focused feel and judgment. During this whole time, you are also trying to figure out where the car is at a disadvantage, where you are loosing time, and what exactly the car is doing so you can communicate that to the race engineer. But you have to be sure that it is not that the tires are not hot yet, or at the right pressure, or the ride heights are too low because that will send you down the wrong road on set up. You will go on a wild goose chase and end up fixing problems that are not there when everything is working right. So once again, it is important to give it a few laps to make sure everything is at operating temperatures.

“Normally, after about ten minutes, you come in, download to the race engineer what the car is doing and make some changes and than go out again and see if it has improved in places it needed to improve and has not hurt it in places where it was already OK”.

“At this point, you are not at a good qualifying level of confidence because for qualifying you are really pushing it to the edge. You are at a level that would not be too bad going into the race with, because in the race, at least at the beginning, you can scale it back a little bit to make sure you stay out of trouble. As the race goes on, you are getting more experience and getting more comfortable with the car, so by the end of the race you will be fine.”

At the Baltimore Grand Prix this year, the results bore out James Weaver’s observations at Houston back in 2006 about the ability of Dyson Racing to adapt to new tracks well. Dyson Racing qualified first and second and finished first and second, giving the #20 Oryx Dyson Racing entry its first American Le Mans victory at the track that ran around the Oriole Park at Camden Yards. To borrow the local baseball parlance: it was a weekend of batting a thousand.

It takes approximately eighty hours for Advanced Engine Research to build the Mazda MZR-R (AER P70) engine. And the actual assembly is in many ways the end of the process. Most of the engine’s components require major lead-time. The two groups that have the longest lead-time are the machined steel components like crankshafts and gears – they require three to four months to manufacturer – and cast components like the head and block which take two to three months. When the cast components arrive at AER, they require multiple intricate machining steps to finish and are machined in house, taking up to four weeks for completion of complex parts like the head.

This is one of the areas where major costs are incurred in building an engine: a billet of metal is inexpensive, but the time, effort and number of steps required to turn it into a crankshaft, make it an expensive item when finished. And the same with a casting – in itself, relatively inexpensive, but to turn it into a head, block, or pump assembly requires significant amounts of machine time.

Once an inventory of all the parts needed to build an engine are assembled, a kit of parts will be issued to the engine build shop and there will be a builder allocated to a specific build of an engine. The builder will perform the initial checks on the parts and than start to assemble the engine from the bottom end until the engine is complete as a short engine with pistons, rods, crankshaft, and sump. This will take about two days of work. The cylinder head takes another day to assemble with its valve springs, collars, and followers. The two halves of the engine are than put together as an assembly with the head torqued up to the block at which point it starts to resemble a more recognizable MZR-R engine. The camshafts and gear sets are added to the cylinder head and the front of the engine. The valve train is than timed to give the correct valve timing. This is one of many checks performed during the engine build that also include compression ratio check, piston to valve clearance and cam timing. The front cover and the cam cover are than assembled together with the inlet system and the sensor box and the interface to the ECU, at which point it becomes a finished engine, but still not ready for shipment.

Once it is assembled, it is taken to a dyno at AER. There are two dyno test cells, one of which is dedicated to the two-liter turbo LMP engine. If it is a new build or significant rebuild, there is a run-in procedure that allows the bearing surfaces, pistons, rings, liners and the valve train parts to bed in. Once that is completed, there is a power test on the dyno and the engineering team will look at all the engine health parameters and analyze the results and compare to previous engines of that specification to make sure that it is within tolerance. With that approval from the engineering team, it will come back to the build shop for final preparation and the fitting of any ancillary parts or fittings that are specific to the Dyson Lola chassis. The engine will be put in a special engine crate and air freighted to New York or the racetrack where it finally gets to do its job.

The first race engine of the 2011 ALMS season, P70-02, was installed in Dyson Racing’s #16 G-OIL/ModSpace/Construct Corps Lola Mazda coupe before Thursday’s night practice at this year’s 12 Hours of Sebring. It acquitted itself quite well. Sebring is a track notoriously tough on a car and the engine is under wide-open throttle over 70% of the time, every lap. P70-02 ran without a single mechanical issue during the 12 hour race, placing sixth overall after 1238 miles of racing and second among the ALMS LMP1 entries. The engine remained in the car for the next race, winning the pole and coming in second at the Long Beach Grand Prix.

One mis-torqued bolt and P07-02 would not have lasted very long on the concrete runways of Sebring. Here is to the engine builder, perhaps the most unrecognized of the many unsung heroes that make up the backbone of racing.

Dyson took the #16 G-OIL ModSpace/Construct Corps car from fifty-first to seventh place in his first stint. Guy Smith moved the Dunlop-shod Lola Mazda to fifth place, before falling back to twenty-fourth after replacing a brake line cut by debris. He then did his own field carving, and handed the car over to Jay Cochran in ninth place overall, and first in ALMS points. Dyson got back in with a little over an hour left, but had to retire twenty minutes from the end after car contact damaged the oil cooler. This was the second combined American Le Mans and Intercontinental Le Mans Cup race this year with the two series racing for their respective series points. The #16 Dyson entry had enough laps under its Dunlop tires to be the first ALMS car to cross the finish line.

Smith said that, “It was one of the best long distance cars we have had. The performance of the car was fantastic: the Mazda engine, the Dunlop tires and Lola chassis were perfect today.”

The #20 Oryx Dyson Racing entry of Humaid Al Masaood, and Steven Kane had its race day end early when Petit addition Butch Leitzinger had a turn one crash an hour and fifteen minutes into the nine and a half-hour race. “We joined the ALMS series at Lime Rock with a strong start and would have liked to finish the season the same way, but it was not meant to be today,” said Al Masaaod. “But overall the season has been really great. We could not have hoped for more. The win in Baltimore was awesome. It is still sinking in. The car ran great all year and all the guys at Oryx Racing and Dyson Racing put together a car that worked well at every track we raced at.”

Kane echoed similar sentiments. “The season has really beaten all our expectations. Humaid and I came this year to learn the series and the circuits. For both of us to be at the front from day one has really made for a great year. For me, it makes me more eager to come back next year and compete for the championship. We have enjoyed working with Rob and Chris. It has been a challenge and a learning curve at all levels, but we have enjoyed every minute of it. It has given us more hunger for next year.”

In addition to Chris Dyson and Guy Smith winning the 2011 ALMS Drivers Championship, Dyson Racing winning the Team Championship, Mazda the Manufacturers Championship and Dunlop the tire title, Dyson Racing won the Michelin Green X Challenge for the 2011 season at today’s season ending race.

“It was definitely a great season for the team,” stated Dyson. “To end up with the championship is hugely gratifying and to have done it against such great competition like Greg Pickett and his team makes it even sweeter. We started off as a one-car team and than Humaid Al Masaood, Steven Kane and Oryx Racing joined us and it was a huge boost in the arm for the team and put us in a great position for the second half of the year as we mounted our title charge. We had G-OIL, ModSpace and Construct Corps come on board this year and we are happy to give them these championships to help reinforce their reputations as winning companies.

“We cannot thank our team guys enough. They really are the unsung heroes and work at such an incredibly high-level week in and week out. And they could not do it without the support of their families. These achievements would not be possible without them.”

“This was a season you work hard for and dream of as a driver,” said Smith. “It has been a fantastic season. Sebring was the key to our season. Coming away from there with points gave us a good foundation for the rest of the season. All credit to Mazda and AER for an engine that gave us fantastic reliability as well as great power. Every weekend we qualified on the pole or front row and were strong in the races every weekend. Lime Rock was great race to win on with it being our home circuit. From the team standpoint, that was the best. For me personally, I think road America was one of my best drives. Even though we did not win, it was the closest finish in ALMS history. It was a season with a lot of highs.”

“Dyson Racing has always been a family type effort, so it is hard to separate where the family stops and where the race team starts,” noted Rob Dyson. “We view all the guys as being part of the family, so I am elated for them in every respect. This is a year they can look back on with immeasurable pride. We come back as champions next year and that will be great for the guys to savor during the winter.”

Dyson Racing won first place points at the season-opening 12 Hours of Sebring and built the championship season momentum from there. They went on to win two more races at Lime Rock and Baltimore. The team took five poles and three of those were one-two starts for the team. There were four fastest laps and thirteen podiums added to the record books. They had their first one-two finish since 2005 when Humaid Al Masaood and Steven Kane won the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix. It was the best American Le Mans Series season in Dyson Racing history.

“The trophy will go in the middle of the shop on a special shelf between the two cars, so the guys can see what they have accomplished,” said Rob Dyson. “It is the team’s championship to enjoy.”

Steven Kane qualified the #20 Oryx Dyson Racing car ninth in the fifty-three car field. “We had a very good car this morning, but there was a wind in qualifying we have not had all week. That caused the car to touch in a couple places and with the two long straights here, that takes speed out of the car. The car was good in the corners so obviously we have a good car. Tomorrow will be cooler and windy and we will adjust accordingly.”

Humaid Al Masaood, Kane’s teammate, noted that, “We have a very reliable car plus the experience of Butch Leitzinger as our third driver this weekend. With a 1000-mile race in front of us, it is important we have a strategy that can be adapted to the challenges that occur in endurance racing. It will be key to get as much out of the car as possible and make sure we finish the race to give us a good result.”

“We qualified tenth at Sebring in March and finished first in ALMS points at the end of the twelve-hour race,” said Chris Dyson, qualifier of the #16 G-OIL ModSpace/Construct Corps entry. “Qualifying is good for bragging rights, but does not pay points. We expect to close out the season in the manner that brought us our championships this year.”

Sharing the car with Dyson and Guy Smith this weekend is Jay Cochran, who also co-drove with them at Sebring. Smith has won four poles this season including the pole at the ModSpace Monterey two weekends ago. It was the third one-two qualifying effort for the team this year. “The Europeans will fight their own battles tomorrow. These are long races. The goal is to be there at the end, and the results will come,” commented Smith.

Dyson Racing wrapped up four American Le Mans Series championships at Mazda Raceway two weeks ago. Dyson Racing won the team championship and Chris Dyson and Guy Smith took home the driver’s honors. Mazda won the manufacturer’s championship and Dunlop the tire title fight. “We are relieved to have gotten the championships wrapped up before coming here to Petit,” Dyson said. “To be able to come to this great event with the freedom to race without worrying about points, makes for a much more enjoyable weekend. It feels good – like a reward for all of the hard work the team has put in this year.”

The 14th annual Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda will take place Saturday, Oct. 1 at Road Atlanta and air on ABC at 4 p.m. ET, Sunday, Oct. 2. Live coverage will be available in the U.S. on ESPN3 or outside the U.S. on americanlemans.com.

Chris Dyson, Guy Smith and Jay Cochran finished second in the race in their #16 G-OIL ModSpace/Construct Corps Lola Mazda. They led 149 laps of the 248-lap race. Guy Smith added the fastest race lap to the record book to go with his pole yesterday. The #20 Oryx Dyson Racing entry with Humaid Al Masood, Steven Kane and Butch Leitzinger came in third, leading 35 laps in the course of the event. Between the two entries, Dyson Racing led over 70% of the six-hour event.

Al Masaaod had a competitive stint in the 20 car battling the 007 Aston Martin. “The tires came in well and I had a good pace and felt very good about my time in the car. For me, it was a good benchmark to be mixing it up with experienced drivers in good cars.” Leitzinger shared the same satisfaction with his run: “It was great fun, especially in the beginning when there were four of us in a very tight pack racing very hard. It is satisfying as a driver when you have a car that handles this well and everyone is racing fairly and competitively.”

“This is a day to be savored,” said Chris Dyson. “I am really thrilled with the team. It is a great accomplishment to have the team back on top. We have had the equipment everywhere this year with our Lola Mazda and our Dunlop tires and the AER engines have been strong all year. It has really been a culmination of a three-year program with Mazda. They have shown unwavering support through it all. We could not be happier to reward them with a championship today.”

“Our guys back in the shop and the guys on the road have shown incredible application this year. And Lola has been pushing the edge on the development – we have not sat still once this year. I won my first championship in 2003 but think I was too young to enjoy it and thought things were going to come easily but have had the last eight years to learn the lesson that this is not something that comes around without a lot of hard work from a lot of people. I am so happy for Guy. He has been my partner through all this and he is like my brother. When you get down to it, it really is a family affair and our team is as much a family as it is a team.”

Guy commented, “I would just like to say a big thank you to the Dyson Racing Team and to Rob and to Chris, my co driver since 2005. We have worked very hard and had a lot of highs and lows through our time driving together. This year has been phenomenal and Greg Pickett’s Muscle Milk team has been great competition. We have enjoyed every battle with them. They are true sportsmen. The Mazda engine has been reliable and strong all year and the Dunlop tires – some would say it was a gamble two years ago to go with them, but they have proven this year to be the tire of choice. G-OIL came on board this year and we are pleased to give them their first championship along with ModSpace and Construct Corps. We are very happy for everyone who has made this happen. This is truly a team championship.”

John Doonan, Director of Motorsports, Mazda North American Operations, said, “It is a very special day when you can win three championships (driver, team, and manufacturer) at your home track on the same day. We`re thrilled for Chris and Guy and the entire Dyson team, and appreciative of the countless hours of hard work and effort from everyone at Mazda, Dyson Racing, and AER. This was the first IMSA manufacturer’s championship for Mazda since the RX-7 won the GTO title 20 years ago. The Mazda battle cry of “Never Give Up” rang loud today.”

Team Manager Michael White said he “Could not be more proud of what our team has accomplished this year. Everyone within our organization has worked tirelessly to realize this goal and they`ve all played like Champions. But without a doubt this wouldn`t have happened without the heroic efforts put forth by Andrew Saunders, Dr. Mark Ellis, Eloi Revereau, Stuart Parmenter and everyone at Advanced Engine Research. Thanks to David Scotney, and Steven Charsley and Lola Cars International for a car that never let the team down. Most of all, thanks to Rob Dyson for giving all of us the opportunity to be here and accomplish so much.”

Smith won his first ALMS pole here last year. “There is no better place to get pole than at Mazda Raceway for a ModSpace race,” said Smith. “The car was really good in qualifying. There was an initial misfire, but we soon fixed that and I was amazed at how quickly the Dunlop tires worked. I gave it everything. Any time you are driving a race car on the edge and it is dancing around and on its limit – that is one of the most enjoyable things you can experience in a race car.”

Humaid Al Masaood and Kane are coming off their first ALMS win at the Baltimore GP. “To be honest, after spinning on my out lap yesterday, I was not sure we were off to a good start,” joked Kane. “I have to thank all the boys for giving us a great car that put us at the front again. We can make a few changes to the car to make it a little bit better for tomorrow, but I have grown to love this circuit in a short period of time.”

At six hours, tomorrow’s race is the third longest of the season. Joining Al Masaood and Kane this weekend is Butch Leitzinger, a fifteen-year veteran of Dyson Racing. “I was a little worried about how much “rust” would have caked on in the last two years but I think Dyson is embedded in my DNA. I felt like I had been here the whole time when I first got in the car and was able to get up to speed quickly. The car has been improved a lot since I last drove it. It is much more stable. It is like there is a ten percent improvement everywhere: it is better on entry, better on putting the power down, and the engine is much more responsive.”

Jay Cochran returns to the #16 Dyson entry, having last run with Dyson and Smith at the season-opening 12 Hours of Sebring. Cochran also noted the car’s improvement: “The whole package feels stiffer and you get a much better read across the whole platform that you did before. It is obvious that this is a team that never stands still.”

Dyson Racing has led the drivers’ and team championships since the Sebring race. They enter the penultimate round of the 2011 season with a 24-point edge over its season-long competitors, the Muscle Milk Aston Martin. Commenting on the championship, Dyson said, “the most important thing is completing the next two races and doing well. We want to run hard but not put the car in any undo risk. We will concentrate on the race and do what we have done throughout the season – execute on the track and in the pits.”

A fan favorite and a true sportscar legend, Leitzinger has thirty-four victories driving for Dyson Racing. He won the 24 Hours of Daytona twice, the IMSA World Sportscar Championship twice and the CanAm championship with Dyson Racing. He finished second in the 2009 ALMS LMP2 championship with two class wins at their home track of Lime Rock and also at the Petit Le Mans, helping to make Mazda the only Japanese manufacturer with victories in both the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Petit Le Mans. At Road America on August 20th, he took home the LMPC class victory driving for PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports.

“I have been very impressed with how quickly both Humaid and Steven have come to grips with the car,” said Leitzinger. From their first race at Lime Rock, they have been right on the pace. And when you look at the results from any session, they always have the speed. It is a credit to both of them that they have been able to jump right in with a new car, a new team and a new series and instantly be fighting for poles and now to win in their fifth race in the series.”

“When we were talking about possible additional drivers for the last two long endurance races of the season, the discussion centered around Butch,” said Al Masaood. “There is no one who matches his experience with the team, our cars and the Mazda Raceway and Road Atlanta tracks. It will be great for Steven and myself to be able to draw on his expertise. He does not have to sit in the car two hours to get a handle on it, he gets to the pace instantly, which will allow Steven and I more time to learn these legendary circuits. We feel Butch will help us deliver strong performances at both races.”

“We are thrilled to have been able to help Butch join Oryx Racing for these important races,” Chris Dyson said. “We could not think of a better fit for Humaid and Steven and the Oryx Mazda. We expect him to be a big contributor to the team’s efforts.”

Dyson started the #16 Lola Mazda. “Our goal at the start was to get out in front and push as hard as we could to stretch out a gap we could comfortably maintain.” Both Dyson cars came into the pits for fuel, tires and driver changes during the first full course yellow forty-five minutes into the race. A delay in starting the #16 car saw the 20 car leave the pits in front and they maintaind that order to the end, with the 16 car seven seconds back at the end. Dyson Racing led sixty-seven of seventy-one laps.

“This feels unreal to get this win in such a short period of time,” remarked Kane. “Everyone has done such a fantastic job. You know, as soon as I first drove with Humaid, I knew he had something special. I told him from the very beginning that he could take it to the top and race at the highest levels.”

“I know it is a cliché, but this is still sinking in,” commented Al Masaood. “This is our fifth race in the ALMS with Dyson Racing and it has been an unbelievable experience. The win today shows our shared values and commitment and solidifies our good future.”

“You look at the way Humaid and Steven have been driving, and it has enhanced our overall effort,” said Dyson. “To have two cars running this well is not an easy task. The victory podium photos always show the drivers, but in truth, it is Mazda, G-OIL, ModSpace, Dunlop and AER who should be spraying and enjoying the champagne.”

Smith noted that “Chris and I picked up valuable points today for our lead and Mazda’s lead in the championships. Today’s accomplishment ads momentum going into the last two races of the season. Both are among the toughest of the year – six hours at Mazda Raceway, and the season-ending ten hours at Petit. And to have both cars running strongly is great for all the team guys who put in such long hours week in and week out. Those hours are what make it happen.”

Rob Dyson summed up the weekend’s experience. “We are fortunate to race in a number of great markets through out the year and I have to say that the fan support here in Baltimore was an A plus. This surpasses any first year event I have ever been to. Even the tops of the skyscrapers were filled with people watching the race. The amount of enthusiastic fans that showed up today, to feel that kind of energy – really honors us. The Charm City has lived up to its reputation.”

Smith commented that “Baltimore has done a great job with the circuit. It is demanding and bumpy but that is what street courses are all about. If they were the same as everywhere else they would not be special. I now have this fast young teammate who is always pushing me. It was a good battle with Steven and I am looking forward to tomorrow.”

My last street race was in Monaco six years ago,” said Kane. “It is great to back on city streets. There is great atmosphere here and the track is a challenge with a variety of slow corners and surfaces. Some parts are new tarmac and are very nice and clean and suit the car, and than you have the parts like the front straight and the back section that are very bumpy and a challenge for the engineers and for us driving and learning the track.”

To be quick off the truck on a brand-new street track with limited practice time shows the value of a strong engineering department. Peter Weston, Technical Director, talked about what it takes to prepare for a new street track. “Our job is to produce the best possible car for each individual circuit you go to. New street tracks are a huge leveler for drivers and engineers alike. The goal is to give the drivers the most drivable package you can so they can just stay out and spend their time learning the track. That is the key. You do not want to bring the driver into the pit to make changes during valuable practice time. So you concentrate on arriving at the track with a car that has the proper gearing, ride height that suits the track, and a car that absorbs the bumps so a driver can put the power down smoothly.”

“A new track like this shows what teams and drivers are made of,” said Rob Dyson. “I cannot be more proud of how hard our guys work. There is a lot of racing still to be run tomorrow, but a win would be very fitting on Labor Day weekend.”

The Baltimore Grand Prix is set for 4:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, September 3. The race will air on ABC, Sunday, Sept. 4 at 4 p.m. ET (2 p.m. PT) and be shown live in the U.S. on ESPN3.com or americanlemans.com outside the U.S. Live coverage also will be available on Rogers Sportsnet in Canada and MotorsTV in Europe.

“It was one of the best races we have ever been part of,” said Smith’s teammate Chris Dyson. “You cannot ask for a better race to come down to such a close fight after four hours. I have to hand it to Guy: some of the moves he pulled off at the end, especially where he overtook on the grass, were inspired and brave and this is why I so enjoy having him as my teammate. He is able to dig deep and find the speed when needed and put in exceptional performances.”

“The car was awesome at the end,” recounted Smith. “The last set of Dunlop tires was fantastic. A couple of times Klaus would get really good breaks in traffic and we would drop five or six seconds back but I kept charging and would catch up again, only to have to repeat it again as we went through traffic. I am disappointed because it was so close, but it shows that even after four hours of hard racing, how strong the Mazda is.”

Steven Kane had an equally strong race beginning in the #20 Oryx Dyson Racing entry. He led the first nineteen laps and an additional thirteen laps five laps later. He passed the #6 car on the first lap under braking going into turn three and repeated the move two more times in his hour and a half in the car. “The stint went very well. We were able to fight back every time the Aston got close and when he passed I fought back right away and kept him at bay. It is great to be competitive and we are doing better than our expectations were to start off with.”

Humaid Al Masaood took over from Kane on lap thirty-six, but nine laps later, a water leak necessitated a radiator change that put them down the order. Their race ended prematurely three hours into the event when the car ran wide and slid off the track. Humaid noted that “Steven’s run shows the pace of the car. Unfortunately having the radiator fail today was totally out of any ones hands, but performance wise, it is hard to fault this weekend.”

Today’s event was one of motorsports’ better examples of two teams putting their whole heart and soul into a race. The playing field moves to the east coast for the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix on September 3rd. Stay tuned for more of the best that ALMS racing has to offer.