It’s a significant weekend at Road America, where the Pirelli World Challenge holds rounds 7 and 8 at one of the classic circuits in North America.
This weekend is when one of the most significant happenings in North American sportscar racing this season – the on track appearance of the Dyson Racing run Bentley occurs. This is significant because it somewhat changes the balance between the World Challenge and the TUDOR series, not so much from Dyson opting to not compete in the united series, but from the addition of a well know team and a significant car to the sprint series.
For this first effort, Dyson racing is relying on their long time driver, Butch Leitzinger, which is a perfect choice considering Butch was a member of the Bentley effort at Le Mans in the early 2000’s. The announced drivers – Chris Dyson, “Bentley Boy” Guy Smith and Butch will share in driving the Bentley over the remainder of the season.
Butch, after running two untimed 1-hour sessions on Thursday stated that the car felt “quite good, but we’re just getting the hang of the car. We had a session here recently, which gave me a chance to acclimate myself with the car. I feel good about where we are speed wise, but I can’t really tell where we are in comparison to the competition here, as the sessions have not been timed thus far.” In the late afternoon session, Butch was in the car yet again, but something went wrong with the transponder, meaning that the times were not recorded, but stop watch recorded time put the car within the top 4, which was led by Tomas Enge who turned a 2:08.222 in the Reiter Lamborghini Gallardo.
One of the concerns for Butch is that the World Challenge utilizes standing starts in their races and this is an area of concern for the veteran driver. “It’s been awhile since I’ve done a standing start. I did a few when we last tested, but it wasn’t a priority. I didn’t want to damage the clutch in the car – I felt track time was much more important than practicing a standing start. So, if I fall back at the start, it can all be put on me. “
This car is the first sportscar effort produced by M-Sport, which has a long history of producing successful touring cars and rally cars, mostly for Ford. While the Bentley is a large and heavy appearing car, M-Sport was able to reduce the rather healthy weight of the car by over 2000 pounds, aided by the removal of the components used in the street cars all-wheel-drive system. Butch, who remembers driving in series like the Trans Am in the past, where you had to really take care of the tires, was originally concerned about tire life, but thus far he is pretty content that this should not be a problem at all. “From what I’ve gathered, the Bentley has been pretty forgiving on the tires in the races thus far in Europe and I shouldn’t expect anything to change here.” A quick check with fellow competitors in the series indicates that the Pirelli tires are quite robust and able to withstand a full race length, so the Dyson effort should be in good shape.
While the team is downplaying any expectations of success early on, you just know that all involved would like to be able to duplicate the success that Bentley has already seen this season in Europe.
Gary Horrocks
