American Le Mans Series

Dyson Racing Mosport race report

© Dyson Racing – Dan Boyd

The #16 Thetford/Norcold Porsche RS Spyder of Chris Dyson and Guy Smith finished seventh in Sunday’s Grand Prix of Mosport, one position ahead of the sister #20 car of Marino Franchitti and Butch Leitzinger. It was a clean start and an uneventful forty-five minutes of the two hour and fortyfive minute race. The team took advantage of the first full-course yellow on lap thirty-six to bring in Dyson for tires, fuel and a driver change over to Smith.

Dyson’s #16 car had suffered from a high-speed oversteer balance in the first session, and at the first stop a new nose with different dive planes was fitted along with adding a rear tail gurney. Franchitti came in two laps later for fuel and tires. Both cars pitted under the next yellow an hour later with Smith in first, followed a lap later by Franchiitti, who handed over to Leitzinger along with fuel and a new battery. The cars rejoined seventh and eighth in class, and maintained those positions to the end.

“It is disappointing that we were not able to build on our podium finish at Road America two weeks ago,” said Dyson. “Taking care of our mechanical issues lengthened our stops and the cars’ handling slipped thorough the race. With the long duration and high speed corners at Mosport, you need a car in which you have complete confidence to attack, and we didn’t have that today, unfortunately. But we will go Detroit next week looking to rebound and close out this season on a strong note.”

The American Le Mans Series returns to the states for the Detroit Sports Car Challenge next Saturday, the ninth race of the eleven-race ALMS season. Qualifying will be shown in a one-hour streaming video on SPEEDtv.com, after a successful debut at Mosport and the race will be broadcast live on SPEED.

Pos Car# Class Drivers Difference Car Make
1 2 P1 Luhr/Werner Audi R10
2 1 P1 Capello/Pirro 21.392 Audi R10
3 9 P2 Brabham/Sharp 22.156 Acura ARX
4 15 P2 Fernandez/Diaz 31.233 Acura ARX
5 6 P2 Massen/Long 44.132 Porsche RS Spyder
6 26 P2 Rossiter/Montagny 52.635 Acura ARX
7 66 P2 de Ferran/Pagenaud 1 lap Acura ARX
8 7 P2 Dumas/Bernhard 1 lap Porsche RS Spyder
9 16 P2 Dyson/Smith 2 laps Porsche RS Spyder
10 20 P2 Franchitti/Leitzinger 2 laps Porsche RS Spyder