SALT LAKE CITY, UT May 19, 2007 – Butch Leitziger survived an exciting moment at the start of the Utah Grand Prix and he and Andy Wallace finished fourth overall and third in class in today’s race. After being hit off the road going into the first turn of the first lap, such a result would have been considered fanciful at the beginning of the event. “I don’t know if the car next to me did not see me,” said Leitzinger. “He just turned into me and it was a big hit, but surprisingly the car was OK.”
After two hours and forty-five minutes of hard running in the Utah high desert, the #20 car of Chris Dyson and Guy Smith finished twenty seconds behind Leitzinger and Wallace for fifth overall and fourth in class. “We were maybe a little conservative with the setup so that when the track was hot we were comfortably quick but not super fast,” said Dyson. “As the track cooled down it came to us. I am encouraged because that is what we were aiming for: to be quick at the end of stints and in the second half of the race and the goal was achieved. I had some good runs with the Penskes during the race and we are making good progress with the Spyder program.”
The call of the race came when the team called Leitzinger in for fuel and tires on lap five in what turned out to be the only yellow of the race. That allowed the car to run to the end with only one more stop. Leitzinger and Wallace made up twenty places from that stop to the end of the race. With a third and fourth in class, the Dyson team tightened up the points race approaching the season’s second half. “It was a good week,” said Wallace. “We did some proper testing, and we had our best qualifying with these cars and gained good championship points.”
The ALMS takes a six week break to allow teams to run the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Round six of the twelve-race season takes place July 7 at Lime Rock, CT. Dyson Racing will be building on the momentum of this week with more testing planned before their home race at Lime Rock.
Pos | Car# | Class | Drivers | Diff | Car Make |
1. | 6 | P2 | Maassen/Briscoe | 0 | Porsche RS Spyder |
2. | 1 | P1 | Capello/McNish | 9.932 | Audi R10 |
3. | 7 | P2 | Dumas/Bernhard | 57.191 | Porsche RS Spyder |
4. | 16 | P2 | Leitzinger/Wallace | 1:28.563 | Porsche RS Spyder |
5. | 20 | P2 | Dyson/Smith | 1:50.637 | Porsche RS Spyder |
6. | 2 | P1 | Pirro/Werner | 1:57.262 | Audi R10 |
7. | 15 | P2 | Fernandez/Diaz | 5 laps | Lola B06 |
8. | 4 | GT1 | Berretta/Gavin | 5 laps | Corvette C6 |
9. | 3 | GT1 | OConnell/Magnussen | 5 laps | Corvette C6 |
10. | 3 | P1 | Field/Field/Berry | 6 laps | Creation CA06 |