Lead
driver and Sporting Director of Dyson Racing,
Chris was familiar with the Lola-Mazda B09/86
Coupé even before he joined RML for pre-season
testing in 2009. At the time he was sharing
a similar chassis with Yorkshire's’s Guy
Smith in the American Le Mans Series.
They
went on to have a good 2009 season, finishing
on the LMP2 podium in three out of the first
five races, including second at St Petersburg
and Long Beach, and a third in Salt Lake City.
Technical problems sidelined the Mazda-powered
Lola at Lime Rock, Mid-Ohio, Road America and
Mosport, but hit the high notes once again for
Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, where Chris and
Guy took a deserved class win.
They
then rounded off the year by finishing a technical
second in the final race at Laguna Seca, although
didn't score points as a result of agreeing
to experiment with a new biobutanol fuel formulation
- which clearly worked. For a while they'd even
been in conmtention for an overall win.
Born
in 1978, Chris has been involved in motorsport
since he was a child. Dyson Racing was founded
in 1985, 26 years ago, by Rob Dyson, father
to Chris, and the team has been a prominent
competitor in the ALMS since 1999.
Until
signing a deal to run the Mazda-engined Lola
at the end of 2008, Dyson Racing had campaigned
a pair of Porsche RS Spyders in the ALMS, finishing
third in LMP2 in 2008 and helping Porsche to
the manufacturer’s title. The year before
they had finished as runners-up in LMP2, with
Chris Dyson and co-driver Guy Smith claiming
fourth in the individual driver’s championship.
Chris
had finished fifth in the LMP1 championship
in 2006, following on from his second place
in 2005, on both occasions driving a Lola AER.
In 2003 Chris had won the ALMS LMP 675 championship
with four wins, including the class at Sebring.
In sixty-eight starts in the ALMS, Chris has
sixty-seven top ten finishes and twenty-nine
podiums to his credit.
In
2008 Chris finished third in LMP2 at Sebring,
but despite a promising front-row start to the
2009 race, the #16 BP Dyson Racing Lola-Mazda
B09/86 he shared with Guy Smith retired after
127 laps. The team’s second car in 2009
was co-driven by Butch Leitzinger and Marino
Franchiiti.
Before
signing to drive with RML Chris had raced at
Le Mans once before. In 2004 he joined Jan Lammers
and Katsumoto Kaneishi in the Racing for Holland
Dome-Judd LMP1 to finish seventh overall; the
highest-placed American.
Chris
and Guy were back together again in 2010,
competing in the American Le Mans Series
once more, and sharing the cockpit of the
updated Dyson Racing Lola Mazda with a third
driver; Briton Andy Meyrick, for the year's
major endurance races at Sebring, Petit Le
Mans and Laguna Seca.
Please
note: This biography has not been updated
since 2010.
