POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (May 20, 2024) – Don’t bet against Chris Dyson at Lime Rock Park. The short but very fast Connecticut road circuit is not just the home track for the three-time and defending Trans Am series champion; it’s where three decades ago Dyson first buckled into a racing car. Since then he’s won amateur and professional races at Lime Rock, including three of the four modern-era Trans Am races.
Coming off a win with his #16 GYM WEED Ford Mustang last month at New Orleans’ NOLA Motorsports Park, Dyson is looking this weekend at Lime Rock to become the season’s first two-time race winner and seize the point lead in what is shaping up as a highly competitive season championship.
“Before I won at NOLA, Paul (Menard) took the season-opener at Sebring and then Adam (Andretti) won at Road Atlanta, where we had a photo finish together,” Dyson said. “The points race is very close now and I expect it will remain that way the entire season. But with my extended family and friends enjoying themselves and cheering for me, a win this weekend at Lime Rock would be especially sweet and a big boost to our effort to win a fourth straight Trans Am championship.”
Menard, who will be racing for the first time at Lime Rock, currently has a slim eight-point lead over Dyson, while Andretti is 22 points behind Menard. Former series champion Tomy Drissi, who is looking for his first win of the season, is another six points behind Andretti.
“A win this weekend will really help us in the points race,” Dyson noted. “But it would also make up a bit for finishing second at Lime Rock last season. The team struggled a bit while we were developing our new race car and that cost us in the pace department. Happily, over the winter we unlocked performance in the new chassis and now we have speed again. It’s going to be a fight with all these fast guys coming but that’s why we do this, to push ourselves. Lime Rock makes for a thrilling stage for our title fight.”
Lime Rock Park Recognizes Skip Barber
In recognition of his four decades of stewardship the track’s current ownership group has made 2024 “The Year of Skip Barber” at the track. On Saturday at 12:30 pm the circuit’s primary race control and administrative building will be formally dedicated as the Skip Barber Tower.
Were it not for Barber, the facility’s longtime primary owner, it is by no means certain that Lime Rock Park would still be a motorsports venue. Barber, a three-time SCCA amateur champion and Formula 1 veteran, remains involved with the track, particularly with the annual Labor Day weekend Historic Festival. But he has relinquished majority ownership of the facility.
“Skip Barber and Lime Rock Park are woven into the Dyson family’s racing history,” Dyson said. “On the Memorial Day weekend in 1985 at Lime Rock Park, the second year of Skip’s ownership of the track, Dyson Racing scored its first professional racing victory, in the IMSA Camel GT series.
“Skip has been a longtime friend of our family,” Dyson said. “My dad (Rob) and I are very pleased that Skip is being honored in this way. His contributions to the sport go far beyond Lime Rock Park – over nearly 50 years, the Skip Barber Racing School has trained more racing drivers than probably every other racing school on the planet combined. After racing karts, in 1995 my own introduction to car racing came at Lime Rock Park at the wheel of a Skip Barber formula car.”
The Winners Circle Project
In addition to preparing for this weekend’s race, Dyson will also be doing the performance evaluation of the five Factory Five race cars built over the past academic year by high-school student participants in the Winners Circle Project.
The Winners Circle Project is a non-profit organization that engages teams of high-school students through STEAM programs embedded in the exciting world of car racing. Through the construction of the Factory Five cars over the course of an academic year team members engage in faculty-supervised hands-on learning experiences in the fields of science, technology, engineering, arts and math.
“The Dyson Foundation has been a supporter of the Winners Circle Project since its inception five years ago,” Dyson said. “I’ve been friends since we were kids with Pius Kayiira, the organization’s founder and executive director. I’m happy to have this hands-on involvement with the program. Every year I’ve been impressed with quality of the cars the students have built, and the lives the Winners Circle is inspiring.”
Members of the five 2023-24 academic year teams will be present at Lime Rock Park on Friday for the marketing presentation portion of the competition and the overall team winner will be announced. All five cars will be on display in the Lime Rock Park paddock.
Click here for more information on The Winners Circle Project.
Click here for more on Chris Dyson Racing.
Lime Rock Schedule
Qualifying takes place Monday, May 27, 9:05 AM – 9:20 AM (ET)
The 100-mile race takes the green flag Monday, May 27, at 1:15 PM, (ET)
Broadcast Schedule
The race will be live-streamed on both the Trans Am andSpeedTour’s YouTube channels.
Additional Broadcast Coverage On MAVTV
In addition to the livestream, highlights of the race 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.