Dyson and Smith win at Lime Rock

July 9th, 2011

Guy Smith and Chris Dyson took Dyson Racing’s #16 Lola-Mazda to victory in the American Le Mans Series’ Lime Rock round after a long battle with the Muscle Milk Lola-Aston Martin of Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr.

The two LMP1 cars fought hard in the first half of the race, with Luhr all over the back of pole-starter Dyson and making endless attempts to pass during the opening laps.

Just past the half-hour mark, Luhr finally found a way through, and then instantly picked up an advantage when Dyson had to take an escape road detour to avoid a spinning LMPC car.

Although the Lola-Aston then had to make an early first pitstop with a puncture, it got back ahead when both the lead cars came in under yellow shortly afterwards.

But the advantage was shortlived as a tangle with Alex Welch’s GTC class GMG Porsche sent Graf spinning early in his stint and put Smith into a lead which he would hold to the end.

Dyson’s new second entry had to start from the pitlane and made steady early progress with inexperienced driver Humaid Al Masaood. But when Steven Kane took over, he regular matched the leaders’ pace and came through from 14th to third, despite spinning after contact in traffic.

Joey Hand and Dirk Muller took a relatively straightforward GT win for BMW. There was pressure from the Flying Lizard and Falken Porsches in the middle of the race, but the BMW escaped even before punctures forced extra stops for both the Porsches.

The Flying Lizard car got back out in second still, while Falken looked set for its first podium after taking third on the road, only to be given a penalty for Wolf Henzler’s aggressive defence against Robertson Doran Ford driver Anthony Lazzaro on the run to the line as the Porsche slowed with fuel pressure issues. That dropped the Falken car to fifth and meant that it was the Robertson team that collected a maiden top three finish instead.

Many of the other likely GT contenders were taken out of contention when Performance Tech LMPC driver Jarrett Boon tapped Ed Brown’s Extreme Speed Ferrari into a spin just ahead of the #55 BMW and both Corvettes, causing a multi-car pile-up.

After its back of the grid start following a practice crash, the Risi Ferrari got up to third in GT prior to a misfire striking.

Elton Julian and Eric Lux gave Genoa a narrow LMPC win over CORE Autosport’s Gunnar Jeanette and Ricardo Gonzalez.

GTC was even closer, with a four-car battle raging into the final stages, when TRG’s Dion von Moltke and Mike Pierce grabbed the win.