What are the benefits of the direct injection engine?

There are several. There is the accuracy of the delivery of the fuel within the cylinder and the pressure with which you can deliver the fuel. In our case, it is in excess of 250 bar. (3625 psi) With air restricted turbo charged engines, you get significant benefits from running GDI rather than port injection. There are also drivability advantages with a direct injection engine. When you perform torque reduction by cutting fuel, that torque reduction is instantaneous because the injector is within the cylinder – it is the equivalent of cutting the spark to the engine, whereas with our port injection engines, if you cut the fuel, it takes a few engine cycles to dry out any wall wetting or pooling in the port and inversely, when you turn the injector back on, it takes a number of cycles to get it wet again, whereas, with the GDI, it is immediate. So this helps all the drivability events you need on track including traction control, and gear cuts. In short, all torque reduction strategies work extremely well with GDI. Overall, the P90 delivers more horsepower, torque, fuel economy and better drivability and puts you on a more level playing field with normally aspirated engines.

So both better gas mileage and power?

Yes. You have to work hard to get the horsepower, as it does not come free. When you first fit the system, you typically have less power than when you started. But you work hard on the combustion chamber shape, the fuel pressure, and the nozzle angles of the injectors. A lot of CFD (computational fluid dynamics) and simulation work is done on these areas followed by testing on the dyno. So in the end, we have found more power and economy using the GDI system than with the port system.

When did development start?

It goes back a while now. AER was contracted by a Formula One company to develop a 1.6 liter four-cylinder GDI engine, and AER successfully produced that engine. It was a four-cylinder 1,600 cc dyno engine to allow for further development on their concept. The engine revved to 12,000 rpm could easily achieve 800 horsepower. It was a tool for a Formula One team engine supplier to take on and turn into a test bed for their further development. In the end, the rules changed and Formula One went to a V6 1,600 cc engine for the 2014 season. But it was a very successful and valid project for us and we learned a lot. That technology has been taken forward into our current LMP1 engine and it is also going into our new 2014 rules LMP1 engine which we are working very hard on.

When did Dyson first run the engine?

Our first track test was immediately after Sebring in March of this year. We had some issues and we went away and looked at those. We had planned on racing the engine at Long Beach. We fitted the engine and went out for the first practice session and the drivability and performance were exceptional. That one hour around Long Beach did highlight there were still some installation issues with the fueling system. It is a surprisingly difficult thing to do – to make the GDI injectors and their sealing mechanisms survive in the incredibly harsh environment of a two-liter turbocharged racing engine. For example, you have vibration issues that you would not have on a road car GDI installation. So for AER there was a period of time spent taking our dyno system which was perfect in terms of performance and making it work as a race car system with all the issues you actually face in a racing environment and submitting the installation to all the conditions you would not see in a steady state situation. It took us a couple of events to get that straightened out, but the system is now trouble free and has been running fault-free since Lime Rock. It is now reliable and robust in the car, so we have moved back to continuing to push the development side of it now.

I read a story that said that at the McLaren F1 team, five to ten percent of the car is new every race. How much changes race to race for an AER engine?

It depends on where you are on its evolution. In sports car racing with lower budgets those kind of percentage are probably true near the beginning of an engine’s life. You tend to push very hard to get your engine out and tested and in the car, but you probably have only 85 or 90 percent of the engine you wanted. And then the developments and improvements will continue in the engine’s early life and gradually trail off as there is not the funding in sports car racing for continuous aggressive development like there is in Formula One. We quietly work away at development items within budget and address any reliability issues that crop up. So I would say that towards the end of the first season, the engine is more stable but there is always improvement going on. For example, at COTA, we replaced a cast component on the water system. It was not unreliable, but had to be replaced on a regular basis. It was a cast part and we replaced it with a stronger part machined from solid billet. That is an example of ongoing updates, in this instance, based on reliability. It is not going to bring any performance advantages or weight reduction, but the chance of it cracking and leaking during a race event are now much reduced.

How many pages of notes do you take back to the office with you after a race?

We take back lots of notes, but more than that, we take home a huge amount of data – hundreds of megabytes of data which we analyze back at the office. We keep a very accurate data base of mileaged parts: when those parts are changed, if there are any problems with those parts, and if so, at what duty point did it occur. We write a race report and a daily run sheet of notes and that along with all the data goes back to AER after each event. And early in the following week, we will sit down and go through any issues and decide what is the best action to take regarding those items.

In 2009, Dyson racing was the first team in the American Le Mans Series to use a fuel blended with the biofuel isobutanol. The green fuel can be made from sources like crop waste and non-food plants such as switch 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 from being 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. “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 make their way into regular road-going applications.”

Earlier this year, the leading auto manufactures made a point of showcasing the latest efficiencies of smaller engines at a number of international auto shows. Dyson Racing first ran their turbocharged two-liter in-line four cylinder engine in 2002 and the following year won the ALMS LMP675 driver’s and team championships with the Advanced Engine Research built engine. At the Sonoma race that year, the Dyson Lola was the first LMP675 car to take pole and win overall, winning over the larger Audi R8 LMP900 entry. In 2011, the Mazda-powered Dyson team swept the championship table with five championships overall with their turbo two-liter four cylinder taking home the honors over the Muscle Milk car powered by a naturally aspirated V-12 Aston Martin engine. For years, Dyson Racing has run the lightest and smallest P1 engine in the ALMS.

And last year, the team introduced the new Flybrid Kinetic Recovery System at the Virginia International Raceway ALMS race and ran it at the last two races of the season. It was the first of its kind to race outside of Europe. The KERS system is purely mechanical and fits between the engine and transmission in the bell housing. It is based on a high-speed, lightweight flywheel that stores braking energy for later use under acceleration. The steel and carbon fiber energy flywheel weighs just eleven pounds and can rotate up to 60,000 RPM to allow storage of up to 134 HP for up to five seconds during each braking manoeuvre.

And now the latest in shock absorber technology also has a spinning element. The inerter shock got its start in Formula One, is used by IndyCar teams and last year, Dyson Racing adapted them to their Mazda-powered Thetford/RACER P1 Lolas.

The inerter shock is a combination mechanical and hydraulic damper. There is a ball screw with a weight on it. When the shock compresses, the weight spins clockwise and when the shock extends, the weight stops, changes directions and reaccelerate the other way. When you hit a bump, it spins the weight on a shaft in the shock and then when the suspension wants to change directions, the weight resists the change. To the driver, it calms the car down and takes the “road noise” out.

“When we first put them on the car at a test at Monticello, it was like going from an AM radio station to an FM radio station,” said Chris Dyson. “You are going down the back straight at 160 mph and everything is moving and buzzing and then we put the inerter shocks on all, everything was much smoother.”

In effect, the spinning mass slows down the reaction of the shock and makes it smoother to the driver. The more mass put in the shock, the less hydraulic damping is needed because the mass is controlling the movement of the car. So one of the benefits is the ability to use less hydraulic damping, run a softer spring and let the spinning weight smooth out the car’s movement. It also provides an aero advantage because the ride height tends to change less, and also helps mechanical grip because the elements that excite and cause the tire contact patch to change shape get smoothed out so the average size of your contact patch is bigger and there is more grip.

The inerter shock gives you a higher range of tunability. With the Penske 8780 shock absorber, you have 50 clicks of bleed on the bump side, 50 clicks of bleed on the rebound side and 75 clicks of high speed blow-off. On each side of the piston, there are three bleeds that screw into the piston that can be tuned and then you have an inner stack of shims and an outer stack of shims within the shock. Basically your inner stack is your high speed control and the outer stack is your low speed control. All this allows you to use the shock to find grip and the spring to support the car.

That is the advantage of the inerter shock. You can run softer springs, have more compliance and more low speed mechanical grip, but still be able to control the aero platform at speed and get more aero performance.

At Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in May of this year, Dyson Racing debuted the Advanced Engine Research (AER) developed P90 Mazda engine. An update to the P80, the engine features gasoline direct injection. “The P90 delivers more horsepower, more torque, better drivability and better fuel economy. It is a responsive engine with all the inherent benefits that gasoline direct injection gives you,” noted Andrew Saunders, Engineering Manager of AER. “The fueling commands from the ECU are instantaneous and that carries more benefits for a restricted turbo charged engine than it does for any other engine application. In a GDI turbo engine, the fuel cuts you make are as instantaneous as the spark cuts which bring you on a more level playing field with normally aspirated engines. This is very good for traction control and all the drivability events you need on track.”

From its very beginning, racing has simultaneously pushed the envelopes of speed and technology. And developments never stand still at Dyson Racing. “We have always been interested in new technology,” said Rob Dyson, team founder. “That has been a constant for thirty years. We are hot rodders at heart, always looking to go faster.”

Your best memories as a team owner?

“The first ALMS drivers’ championship with Elliott Forbes-Robinson in 1999 was one of the high points. I remember when we started the last race of that year at Las Vegas: James Weaver was gridded eighth in the #16 car he shared with Elliott. James went into the first turn in third place and I said right away, ‘we have a legitimate shot at winning the championship.’ We maintained that position and Elliott was crowned the first champion of the ALMS. Interestingly, coming into 1999, we weren’t sure if we were going to run the full ALMS as we were also running in the USRRC Can-Am the same season. But after we won the Daytona 24 Hours for the second time, we went to Sebring in ‘99 for the first ALMS championship event and we came away leading the standings. Elliott was actually originally signed on a race-to-race basis with us in the ALMS, but as EFR was the highest placing guy at Sebring, we continued running two cars in the series. We kept recording great results with Elliott’s #20 car, so we went, ‘Elliott is our horse, let’s ride him.’ So everyone formed in and got behind Elliott, and we took the whole ALMS that year one race at a time, and just kept scoring consistently. With two races to go, Elliott had a real shot at clinching it so we decided to go for it and things worked out beautifully at Vegas.

“I also look back with pride when we won at Sears Point with our little buzz bomb MG in 2003. We took on the might of the factory Joest Audi and beat them. It was the first time a P675 car beat a P900 and we did something that much bigger teams and manufacturers had failed to do by beating the R8 head-to-head. My son Chris winning the title that same year was a special one, too. And then there was that great drive Chris had at Portland in 2004 with J.J. Lehto in the Audi right behind him for the first part of the race. Chris came into the pits and the engine did not restart and we lost time replacing the coil. But J.J. was at his peak then and is one of the most phenomenal sports car drivers, and Chris had kept him at bay for nearly two hours. It underlined our championship success the year before and established him as a top guy in the series.

“Also the championship year we had in 2011 when we took home five titles. That was a lot of fun. It was a year of fundamentally executing. We did not get a single penalty the whole year and finished virtually every race lap. That was an exceptional year. You know, one of the main things that stands out from all this is all the hot rodding we did – all the different engines and different engine configurations. For most of the last decade nearly every race we’ve done were all with our own (AER) engines. You take a look at the grid this year and we are the only race team, other than the factory Porsche, Ferrari and BMW teams, that is running its own engine. We design, build, and run our own engines. There are not a lot of race teams that can say that. Even F1 teams, other than the OEM teams do not run their own in-house engines. That was something that was pointed out to me a couple years ago and I have to say it was eye-opening when someone brought that up to me. We did it because first we wanted the control and secondly, it was interesting and made it more fun. But I think overall, when I look back, the evolution of the race team is what stands out. I think about what we were doing then compared to what we are doing now. The level of sophistication that we have now in our chassis and the level of sophistication we have in our engines and all the data and technology we deal with, has really changed from fifteen years ago and is really a plus.

What made the ALMS special as a series?

“I think the ALMS were smart enough to understand that technology and diversity is a part of sports car racing and they allowed both to flourish. Diversity is the key to good racing. You look back on all the different engines, the different types of cars, the diversity of engineering solutions, and you had a series that never stood still and was always evolving. And that is why I got into racing. You were always trying something different. The fact you are on the pole is never enough – let’s try something else, and see if we can go even faster. That is part of racing that appeals to the hot rodder in me. This country is about diversity and that is what I liked about the ALMS – they embraced diversity and added some American sense to it, recognizing the fact you cannot throw cars away every year. The ALMS under IMSA leadership had a practical vein that ran through it and made it work so well over all these years.

“It has helped that there has been stability in the management and the ownership. There is a sense of belonging to a family. That started before the ALMS when it was John and Peg Bishop’s IMSA. You would check in every race to get your credentials from Peg. And John Bishop walked around the paddock all the time, not just where the big teams where, but also in the small paddock in the back where the guys were working on their own cars in tents. I remember those prize money checks always had Peg Bishop’s signature on it and sometime you were paid that afternoon.

“I look back at one of the common denominators all these years: the racer ethic. You do whatever it takes. You have to be ready when the flag falls. You have to be ready to compete and often against guys that are a lot bigger than you. But you can beat them – with your wits, your flexibility and your innovation. You can win against the biggest, because we have regularly done so and it is an awful lot of fun.

“You know, I have been very lucky, at every level. I am not the kind of person who spends a lot of time reflecting, but when I look back on it all, it is pretty neat.”

“The car is great and we made a big step today,” said Dyson. “For qualifying, I was too greedy under braking. We have a strong history here and know how to prepare a car for what is now a 1,000 mile sprint race. We will finish the year and last race of the series on an upbeat note.”

The last chapter of the American Le Mans Series continues to play out this week at the spiritual home of the ALMS. It is a time for reflection on fifteen years of the country’s most technologically advanced racing. Dyson talked about some of his more memorable races: “For me, it would be either Portland 2004 or Mid-Ohio 2010. Both of those events were pretty special as they were up front, exciting battles the whole time and the 2010 Mid-Ohio race we won. In terms of the most rewarding moments, I would say winning my first ALMS championship here at the Petit Le Mans in 2003 was huge for me personally and winning the championship again in 2011 was great. It is so rewarding when you finally scale the mountain because the effort you have to put in is so large.”

Burgess looked back and reflected on “the races where we did well and I contributed. Most recently that would be at Elkhart last year and again this year. Also, my first time at Mosport when I got on the P1 podium and we were third overall was special. The best races are where you are competitive, you have a job to do, and you are racing the whole time and not just holding on. The most satisfying are when you are in a competitive position for the whole race.”

McMurry was a little more forward thinking on picking his most memorable race. “I hope it is going to be Petit Le Mans 2013! We have an excellent chance. The car has been running great and we have good pace, but looking back, I would say Sebring 2005 with Miracle Motorsports was special. We won our class P2 with what I think is still the largest margin of victory in class. I got to do the final lap and take the checkered flag with all the fireworks going off and was able to savor the moment.”

The 1,000-mile (394 laps) or 10-hour Petit Le Mans will be televised live on FOX Sports 2 beginning at 11 a.m. ET on Saturday. Coverage throughout the day alternates between FOX Sports 2 and FOX Sports 1, including a live segment from 6:30-8 p.m. on FOX Sports 1. There will also be an encore presentation the following day on FOX Sports 1, beginning at 4 p.m. ET. Live coverage of the entire event will be available on FOX Sports’ new mobile application, FOX Sports GO (available on iOS devices only).

At the 1999 race, the number 20 Dyson Racing car with James Weaver, Butch Leitzinger and Elliott Forbes-Robinson qualified eighth out of forty-nine entries for the 1,000 mile Road Atlanta race and finished fourth in their Riley & Scott Mark III Ford. The result was a crucial one as the team was fighting to defend successive 1997 and 1998 IMSA series championships. Two races later at the season-ending race in Las Vegas, Nevada, Elliott Forbes-Robinson would take home the inaugural American Le Mans Series Drivers’ Championship, concluding a season where the 57 year-old veteran star had also won the Rolex Daytona 24 Hours with Dyson Racing for the second time.

Over the years at the Petit Le Mans, Dyson Racing has two class wins, three class poles and four class podiums including a class win in 2009. The team also has one overall pole and two overall podiums. Guy Smith was second overall with Chris Dyson in 2005 in his second race with the team, and the year before, Chris Dyson and Jan Lammers were third. In 2011, Dyson and Smith were first in ALMS P1, adding to their first place driver’s championship points for the year. Last year they repeated their Petit prowess and came home first again in ALMS P1.

Joining Chris Dyson this year for the last race of the American Le Mans Series will be Tony Burgess and Chris McMurry. This will be the fourth race for them this year in the #16 Lola Mazda. They were second in P1 at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park race and second overall at both Road America and at the Circuit of the Americas.

Tony Burgess drove the number 20 Dyson entry at last year’s Petit Le Mans with Chris McMurry and Mark Paterson and took home third place ALMS P1 points. He started racing in the ALMS in 2000. Burgess has raced in the series thirteen of its fifteen years and has a total of seventeen 24 hour races to his credit.

Chris McMurry’s first Petit Le Mans was in 2001 and he has also raced in the series for thirteen years. There are eleven drivers in this year’s race that were driving in his first Petit in 2001. Of those eleven, only four were in prototypes then and now: Chris McMurry, Klaus Graf, David Brabham and Stefan Johansson. In addition, Tony Burgess has sixty-two ALMS starts, Chris McMurry sixty-eight, and Chris Dyson one hundred and seven, giving the Dyson driving trio a total of two hundred and thirty-seven starts – among the most of any pairing at this year’s event. A lot of great team memories in all of those races as we bid a fond farewell to the American Le Mans Series at its last race.

The Dyson entry started from the back of the grid, having elected to change the tires they qualified on. Chris Dyson started the car and moved from thirty-fourth to third by his second pit stop. Variable track conditions were still the norm when Tony Burgess started his first stint, getting in the car at the two-hour mark and dealing with the challenging weather. By the time Chris McMurry got in the car a little after the four-hour mark, it was mostly dry and he ran consistently fast laps, helping the car advance up the running order. Dyson returned to the controls after the six-hour mark, and turned the fastest race lap for the car forty minutes later, 1:12.626 on lap 277. Burgess got back behind the wheel two hours later. His run was punctuated by a memorable save when a tire went down after being hit in the rear and he spun down the front straight but managed to keep the car from hitting the wall. McMurry was in the car for the last rotation when the car was retired five laps from the end with burned wiring from header heat, which the team believed was the result of contact earlier in the evening.

“The big races are always very important to this team,” reflected Dyson afterwards. “Everyone put their best foot forward this weekend. We wanted to close out the P1 era with a good result and we acquitted ourselves well. To come from the back and finish second on the P1 podium is a very solid day for us. It has been a great story here over the years and the Petit has been a huge part of the team’s history. It is sad to see the end of the ALMS era but we will look forward to moving on to the next challenge.”

Tony Burgess noted “it was a good race for us and a good way to end my series of races this year with Dyson Racing. The conditions were variable and made for a constant challenge in the cockpit. I would like to say there was skill in keeping the car on the track during my spin, but racing luck played a big part!”

“Racing with (overall race winner) Rebellion and holding them off for a long time was a highlight of the race for me,” said McMurry. “You do not get those opportunities too often. The car was very good. That is the only way you can keep a team like Rebellion at bay. It was a good race, and a podium at Petit was a memorable way to wrap up the last race of the ALMS.”

The 2013 ALMS season started in March with the 12 Hours of Sebring and ended with the 1000 mile Petit Le Mans this weekend. At the finish of the ten-race season, there were 1,579 laps and 4,362 miles of competition in the record books. Dyson Racing finished the season second in the P1 Team Championship. Tony Burgess and Chris McMurry were third in the Drivers Championship, followed by Chris Dyson fourth and Guy Smith fifth. Over the past fifteen years of the ALMS, Dyson Racing has five driver’s and team championships, nine overall wins, seventeen class wins, twenty-five overall poles, thirty- four class poles, forty-four overall podiums and forty-two class podiums.

In looking back on the ALMS era, Chris Dyson commented that “it had all the right ingredients. It embraced diversity, variety and technological advancement. It was truly global in its platform. Its connection with the 24 Hours of Le Mans provided strong heritage. IMSA worked very hard to make sure the rules were stable so you could preserve the best elements from overseas but retain the historically thrilling IMSA competition. I think both of those factors really played to the series’ favor. The fans agreed. There was always solid crowd participation and good energy in the paddock. We were constantly seeing new equipment and new technology which produced good racing thorough all the classes. That connected with the fans. They very much enjoyed it over the years as I have also enjoyed every minute of it.”

Rob Dyson agreed. “The ALMS understood that technology and diversity is an integral part of sports car racing and they allowed diversity to flourish from top to bottom. I remember in 2007 when there were six different power plants in the top classes. You had a great mix of engines and body styles and variety of applications on how to go fast. There was a large envelope within which you could be creative with original solutions.

“It would take a book to thank everyone for the past fifteen years of ALMS memories: All the guys on the team who work so hard for us. Dr. Don Panoz for having the guts to create something out of nothing. All the fans that follow us and say hello to us at the tracks. The promoters -without them we would not have a sport. The officials who have to make the necessary calls. The safety team and the corner workers. They are the best and are the reason we can do so much of what we do. My family – I could not do it without their support. My son Chris who is a prime mover in a lot of different projects and programs. All the guys at AER who do all the engine development. Plus my fellow competitors – without them it would not be fun. All our great drivers over the years: James Weaver is a friend and member of the family and easily one of the best sports car drivers in history. Butch Leitzinger – I never met a guy who had such depths of natural talent and was so easy to work with. Guy Smith who has been a bulwark for us and is fast as hell. Elliott Forbes-Robinson, a legend and the series first champ. Andy Wallace, who was so essential to so much of our team’s success. And of course, Marino Franchitti – the list goes on.

“I think about the picture taken at our twenty-fifth anniversary at Lime Rock Park with me in front and all the people in the back of the cars. I am just a part of it. I should have been in the back in that photo and everyone else should have been in the front. They are the ones responsible for the wins, championships and all the accomplishments of the past fifteen years.”

Guy Smith won the pole yesterday on the seventeen-turn, 3.27 mile southern Virginia course. Commenting after the race, Smith said, “We had a solid car all weekend long. Every session we have been quickest or close to. The pole position was fantastic: it was a reward for all the work everyone has put in. The car has improved all year. I really felt we had a shot in the race. We raced them hard and led the race. I wish we had the car we have now and the season was starting again at Sebring!”

Johnny Mowlem is one of only a few drivers who have competed in every race year in the American Le Mans Series since its inception in 1999. Johnny talked about his effort: “The car was very good as was shown yesterday after what Guy did in qualifying. I was annoyed at myself at the start because I was too tentative on the (cold) tires, so Klaus got a gap on me the first few laps. But we had a yellow which bunched us up again and the second time around I did not make the mistake. I pushed really hard and kept the gap around four seconds and in traffic I was taking some risks to keep him close and I actually found that I was catching him and then he made a mistake and I got past him. I basically kept pushing and pushing and used the traffic to my advantage and I gave the car over to Guy in the lead as I promised him I would! He then did a phenomenal job and got past Lucas to lead after the pits stops and I thought this is looking really good. The Muscle Milk car pitted under the second yellow and they could not go to the end without another stop, but then they got very lucky with a twenty minute yellow four laps later that allowed them to run to the end. The Dyson guys worked so hard this weekend, and deserved to win.”

The American Le Mans Series stays south and will be holding its final race October 19th at Road Atlanta. At last year’s 1000 mile Petit Le Mans Powered by Mazda, Dyson Racing took home the maximum ALMS points in their #16 entry. This year, Chris Dyson, Tony Burgess and Chris McMurry will be bringing the curtain down on fifteen years of the ALMS at the Petit Le Mans in their Mazda-powered Lola.

Follow Dyson Racing at dysonracing.com Facebook Twitter and our YouTube Channel.

Guy is an American Le Mans Series veteran having driven in every year of the series since 2000 and for Dyson Racing since 2005. “No matter how long you have been doing this, winning a pole is a great feeling,” stated Smith. “We came close a couple times this year and were just a tenth or two away. I knew this was going to be one of the better chances to get pole position, but I also knew that the Muscle Milk guys are a very strong team and are quick here. We made some changes last night to the car and from the get-go this morning the car has been brilliant. On my best lap, I actually ran a little bit wide onto the back straight. I could have gone a tenth or two quicker but it was enough – and that is the main thing. A lot of hard work this year and this weekend went into this.

“This is very good for the guys and for Johnny. He has been doing a real good job in the car this weekend and here’s to a good race tomorrow and a win.”

Johnny Mowlem comes to VIR this weekend a recently crowned champion having won the European Le Mans Series GTE drivers’ championship along with Matt Griffin at Paul Ricard on September 28th, driving the #52 Ferrari 458 Italia of Ram Racing.
“The last time I raced with Dyson was at VIR exactly a year ago, and since then, I have been racing for Ram Racing in the European Le Mans Series and we have done very well,” said Mowlem. “I am very pleased; it is not often that you win a European championship. But I am absolutely delighted to be back with Dyson Racing. Chris Dyson asked me to stand in for him for this race and I am delighted to do that and only hope that I can step into his shoes and do them justice and support Guy as best I can. This is the last opportunity for myself and Guy to win an LMP1 race in the American Le Mans Series, so we are really fired up to try and make that happen.”

The penultimate round of the American Le Mans Series will be televised on ESPN2 at 5:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 6. ESPN3 will offer live streaming of the race on Saturday beginning at 2 p.m. ET. ALMS.com will also carry the live in-car race cameras.

Follow Dyson Racing at dysonracing.com Facebook Twitter and our YouTube Channel.

Greaves Motorsport finished fifth in the LM P2 class today in the 6 Hours of the Circuit of the Americas, the fifth race in the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship. A new driver combination of Christian Zugel, Chris Dyson and Tom Kimber-Smith all drove strong stints in the team’s Nissan powered Zytek prototype. This result means that the team is now in fifth place in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

The team’s regular professional driver, Tom Kimber-Smith took the opening stint in the Texan endurance event and made up several places during his early laps. He handed over to Christian Zugel who maintained the excellent form he displayed in the last race at Sao Paulo. Chris Dyson was third man in and kept the car in contention with a consistently competitive drive, Tom took over the wheel to bring the car home, running at a very fast pace during the final stages of the race. This was despite the engine losing power with an uncharacteristic problem that the team are investigating.

Team Manager, Jacob Greaves: “We have had a good result here in Texas, the team and drivers raced at a high level and we were in the leading group throughout the race. Our ultimate pace was confirmed by the lap times turned in by Tom in his final stint, so the result is deserved. The Zytek chassis, the Nissan engine and the Dunlop tyres were a very effective combination and the guys on the team were, as ever, the best in the pitlane. We are looking forward to the rest of the season and to maintaining our place in the Championship.”

Chris Dyson: “The car was outstanding in the race. We had been working on a race set-up all weekend and I think we arrived at quite a good set-up with a very good balance across the double stint. The tires were outstanding and I felt comfortable pushing. The lap averages were right with the leaders and I was pleased with that. Tom Kimber-Smith did his usual brilliant job bringing it home and it was great to drive again with Christian Zugel and to be back with the Greaves Motorsport guys.”

It was a textbook race at the newest permanent road course in the U.S. Chris McMurry started the late afternoon race. Fifty minutes into the two hour and forty-five minute race, Chris stopped for fuel, tires and driver change to Tony Burgess. Toward the end of Tony’s stint, team manager Michael White radioed and asked how he was doing, to which he replied. “I could do this all day.” Tony came in for the last stop an hour and forty-eight minutes into the race and Chris got back in to finish the race.

Tony enjoyed his run. “This is one of those tracks where the more you race on it, the more you see how it works and certainly that was the case today,” commented Burgess. “My drive today was actually quite conservative. With the weather this week, plus it being our first time here, we were a little behind the curve in terms of proper practice. Even if you sort out the track during the race, that does not mean that you can take chances. So it is always best not to overextend yourself or the car.”

“I was more relaxed in the car for my second stint,” said McMurry. “We were in fuel conservation mode for most of the last stint, but we were still able to run 1:57’s. We tried a different tire compound during the second stint and I think it was a bit sturdier and faster. I had some good fun with the Muscle Milk car for five or six laps. I cheated and turned it back to a richer setting so we could run with them and that was good fun. So it was a really great day. The team did a fantastic job and the car was easy to drive: it behaved the whole race as it did in qualifying. I really enjoy driving this car; I wish I could do it for other ten or twenty years!”

This is a shared weekend with the FIA World Endurance Championship with a combined sixty-one cars between the two series. Chris Dyson is co-driving the #41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek P2 entry in tomorrow’s six-hour WEC race and qualified the car earlier today seventh in P2 . “Missing the day on Friday due to the rain was challenging. But having said that, I think we have a solid race car. We’ve been focusing on the race setup and qualifying was a chance for us to try another step. We are making another change for the race and I have full confidence in Tom, Christian and myself that if we run a trouble-free race, we will get a result.”

Chris Dyson on his World Endurance Championship weekend: http://youtu.be/3QX-xBerY40

ESPN2 will carry this afternoon’s ALMS race at 1 p.m. ET tomorrow, Sunday. Tomorrow’s WEC six-hour race will be streamed live on www.fiawec.com starting at Noon ET.