POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (June 28, 2021) – Chris Dyson bounced back from a technical issue that denied him pole position to score a decisive win in the Mid-Ohio round of the 2021 Trans Am Championship by Pirelli. Coming on the heels of a dominant flag-to-flag win at Lime Rock Park last month, this weekend’s race marked Dyson’s third victory in the five national championship series races run to date (in addition to a win in the West Coast Trans Am Championship series race at Sonoma in April) and extended his lead in the season-championship point standings.
“It was disappointing to not contend for the pole, and the extra championship points that goes with it,” Dyson said following his race win. “We were comfortably the fastest car in practice. Having a strong front end so the car turns in well is critical at Mid-Ohio. We had some aerodynamic problems at that end of the car in qualifying and it cost us the pole. But we turned it around overnight and in the morning I was confident we had a potential race-winning car.”
Dyson lined up in third position for Sunday’s 100-mile feature race in his #20 ALTWELL Ford Mustang, and once the race started quickly passed second-place qualifier Simon Gregg and then shadowed pole winner Tomy Drissi to the race’s halfway point. “Tomy has been driving better than ever this year and he has a really strong car,” Dyson noted. “I knew we would have a hard race, but I was confident all day.”
Coming up on lapped traffic Dyson saw an opportunity and made his move, seizing the lead from Drissi as the pair came on to the front straight on the 25th lap. Thereafter Dyson maintained a consistent margin over Drissi until a few laps from the end, when defending seven-time Mid-Ohio Trans Am class race winner Ernie Francis Jr., then running in fourth place, suffered a mechanical problem that stranded his car on the verge of the track and brought out a full-course yellow for the remainder of the race.
“It’s a bit anticlimactic to have the race end under yellow,” said Dyson, who also picked up a season-championship point for setting the fastest lap of the race. “But if it had stayed green all the way, I’m confident the result would have been the same. There was a little more left in the car that I had been saving for if I had needed it. But we had some great battling out there together today, truly superb action. We had to work hard for this one and it is such a physically demanding place in this heat. So I’m really happy with this win. The Trans Am cars are a thrill around this place and I think the fans saw a really good show today.”
Now it’s on to next weekend’s July 4th race at Wisconsin’s Road America, which marks the midway point in the Trans Am season, and where Dyson is the defending champion and has won the pole two years in a row. “Road America is a classic American road-racing circuit and one of my favorite tracks,” Dyson said. “I have a lot of race wins there, and the team really has
momentum going now. I can’t wait for next weekend to start.”
CD Racing Ohio Sweep: Tyler Courtney Takes Eldora USAC Silver Crown Victory
In addition to Trans Am cars, CD Racing fields midgets, sprint cars and Silver Crown cars in select USAC dirt and pavement oval-track races. On Saturday, following Trans Am qualifying at Mid-Ohio, Dyson traveled the 150 miles west to Rossburg, Ohio to watch open-wheel short-track ace Tyler Courtney drive the team’s #9 Thetford/Norcold/Racer Magazine Maxim/Kistler-Chevy at the legendary half-mile dirt Eldora Speedway. Courtney started the 50-lap USAC Silver Crown feature from the outside of the front row in the 30-car field, (the largest Silver Crown lineup to ever take the green flag at Eldora in what was the series’ 40th appearance at the track.)
As would be the case the following day at Mid-Ohio for team owner Dyson, once Courtney was in the lead, he was uncatchable, taking the checkered flag with an eight-second margin – huge by the standards of short-track oval racing.
“I know from personal experience how tough it is to win these Silver Crown races,” Dyson said following the race. “Sean Michael, who oversees our short-track program, gave Tyler a great race car today, and Tyler got everything out of it. I couldn’t be more thrilled for both of them. It has been an amazing weekend for the team on all fronts.”