POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (May 22, 2023) – Anything can happen in racing, but when the Trans Am series returns on Memorial Day to Connecticut’s Lime Rock Park following a two-month hiatus the smart money will be on Chris Dyson and his CD Racing teammate Matthew Brabham and their #16 and #20 GYM WEED Ford Mustangs.
Dyson, the series champion the past two seasons, has won all three Trans Am races – always from the front row – since the series returned to his home track in 2019 (there was no race at Lime Rock in 2020).
“Lime Rock is short, barely a mile and a half, but it’s the second fastest track we race on,” Dyson said. “And it’s deceptive; Lime Rock’s basic layout isn’t that hard to grasp. Knowing the track’s idiosyncrasies well enough to have the pace to win there is a different matter.”
A mechanical problem in the season-opener at Sebring dropped Dyson to a 10th place finish. Although Brabham won the Sebring race, Dyson found himself playing catch-up. His win at the most recent race, at Road Atlanta, means Dyson arrives in Connecticut with a narrow five-point lead over Brabham.
An Enviable Record
Going back to the final two races of the 2022 Trans Am season, CD Racing has won the last five races in a row, including a trio of 1-2 finishes. Looking farther back, to the beginning of 2021 and the start of Dyson’s first Trans Am championship-winning campaign, the team’s record is even more impressive. Of the 25 headline TA-class races run, CD Racing has won 19. Dyson owns 15 of those victories and Brabham the other four.
“We had an excellent test last week at VIR (Virginia International Raceway) with our Riley car,” Dyson said, noting that although he’s won the two most recent races in this machine, “we are far from having developed the Riley’s full potential.”
A Family Affair
When it’s a race at Lime Rock Park it’s always more than just another race for the Dysons.
“My family’s racing roots go back here almost 50 years, since my dad Rob started club racing in the 1970s,” Dyson said. “We have so much history at Lime Rock. It’s barely an hour’s drive from where I grew up and where we still live. Our families and friends and all come to watch and hang out, and that makes the race even more special. And it is such an exciting track to race on: fast, flowing, with no room for mistakes, and great vantage points for everyone. It’s a real favorite of ours.”
Dyson Racing’s Four Decades of Professional Motorsport
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Dyson Racing Team’s transition from amateur to professional racing. For 1983 and 1984 the team campaigned a GTO-class Pontiac Firebird in the International Motorsports Association’s Camel GT series. The highlight of those first two years was a third-place class finish at Road America in 1983. The team made its debut in the headline GTP class at Lime Rock Park in 1985, winning the race overall, the first of scores of professional racing victories under the Dyson banner.
CD Racing Scores USAC Silver Crown Win On Belleville’s High Banks
An 80-horsepower deficit wasn’t enough to keep Brady Bacon and the Chris Dyson Racing #9 Concord American Maxim out of the winner’s circle at Saturday evening’s United States Auto Club Silver Crown race at Kansas’ 100-year-old Belleville High Banks half-mile dirt track. In Friday’s practice session Bacon, a four-time USAC sprint-car champion, quickly set the fastest time for the 24-car field – and then on the sixth lap the brand-new engine suffered a catastrophic failure.
For Saturday’s 50-lap race team manager Sean Michael and his crew replaced the broken engine with the spare, a backup powerplant designed for a lower-performance race series. “I knew we’d be down about 80 horsepower (about 10%) and it would hurt us in qualifying,” Michael said. “But the track would get hard and slick during the feature and I thought with Brady’s talent we’d be okay.”
Michael’s prediction proved accurate; Bacon qualified fifth, but by the midpoint of the race he was engaged in a furious duel for the lead with archrival Justin Grant.
“That was the hardest I’ve ever driven a Silver Crown car,” Bacon said later. “This place is really intense.”
With just five laps remaining Bacon and Grant scythed through a pair of lapped cars, but in the process bounced wheels off each other. The impact briefly launched Bacon’s car off its rear wheels while Grant hit the outside wall and flipped. Grant was unhurt and Bacon went on to take the checker.
“I saw it live and I have re-watched the video a few times already,” said Dyson. “It was amazing watching two of the best in the business going at it like that! Congratulations to Brady and Sean for overcoming a substantial setback and coming back for a big win.”
For more on the Belleville Silver Crown race.
For more on Chris Dyson Racing.
Lime Rock Park Schedule
Qualifying takes place Monday, May 29, 8:45 – 9:00 a.m.
The 100-mile race takes the green flag Monday, May 29, at 1:10 p.m.
Broadcast Schedule
The race will be livestreamed on both the Trans Am and SpeedTour’s YouTube channels.
Additional Broadcast Coverage On MAVTV
In addition to the livestream, 60-minute feature produced by Greenlight TV will be broadcast the following Thursday at 9:00 p.m. ET to MAVTV’s 22 million North American linear households and 175 million connected devices.