Sebring: Dyson Racing qualifying report

Saturday Is Pay Day

SEBRING, FL March 15, 2007 Running their two new Porsche LMP2 RS Spyders, Dyson Racing christened its realignment with the storied factory with a qualifying time under last year's P2 qualifying record and more than two seconds quicker than their 2006 P1 qualifying effort for Saturday's Mobil 12 Hours of Sebring.

"We have tested these cars twice and have made some big steps forward," noted Chris Dyson. "We are learning every session and our track time here at Sebring has concentrated on making the car manageable over a double stint. That has been one of our strengths over the years. So even if it means sacrificing a little bit of the ultimate pace over one lap, when you look at a race pace, you are better off."

Porsche scored its first Sebring victory in 1968 and has 17 overall wins and 62 class wins here at America's oldest sports car race. "This car is so well engineered and well thought out: a typical Porsche design," said Guy Smith, Dyson's co-driver in the #20 Thetford Norcold entry. "It does everything it should do and has just what you need for a twelve hour race reliability."

Driving the #16 car will be Andy Lally, Butch Leitzigner and Andy Wallace, who has the most podiums of any driver at Sebring ten, including two wins. "This is one of the classic sports car races in the world," stated Wallace. "Sebring is quite a quick race. Every single corner, every single lap, especially in the early part of the race, there is going to be traffic. This car is unique to anything else I have driven in that you can run higher than normal, without a total loss of downforce. This lets you run a bit softer, and you get more compliance for the low speed corners, which makes for a very good car on 65 year old runways."

The green flag will fall 10 a.m. ET on St. Patrick's Day.

-credit: dr