POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (November 23, 2020) — Chris Dyson started from the pole and led every lap of the Sunday race of the doubleheader weekend at Road Atlanta that concluded the 2020 Trans Am by Pirelli season. But that achievement was nowhere near as easy as it might sound. Facing challenging track conditions, Dyson was hounded all the way to the checkered flag by Austrian sports car ace Martin Ragginger, in a race where lapped-traffic strategy and tire management proved crucial.
“I had to work hard every single lap,” Dyson said. “The track was much more slippery than it had been on Saturday and Martin kept the pressure up the whole way. I had to pull out every weapon in my experience arsenal today. We really earned this one. This is a great way to finish a season that was up and down for our team.”
Dyson, who for the second year in a row won the Trans Am series finale, noted that in a race that featured 43 starters in four classes (with lap times that varied up to 15 seconds) on a racetrack where passing can be a challenge, his many years in multiclass endurance racing provided an important advantage. “I know Road Atlanta very well – I have a lot of laps at this track. In a multiclass race, passing cars in the slower classes efficiently requires a fine balance of aggression and judgment. You come up at a pretty quick closing speed on some of those cars, and these guys are having their own hard fight for position, so it’s your responsibility to make a safe pass without getting slowed down. They aren’t going to just get out of your way, and this place is so unforgiving if you go off. It’s critical, particularly when your own race is so tight, to pass efficiently and without getting boxed in. I have been doing that style of racing for 20 years and it really paid off today.”
Dyson was not just leading, but dominating the Saturday race before being stopped by mechanical problems. “The car was just perfect on Saturday,” Dyson recalled. “It couldn’t have been any better for the conditions and I knew I had the situation covered.”
In a way, the Road Atlanta weekend was Dyson’s entire Trans Am season in a nutshell. He finished on the podium in all five of the nine races where mechanical problems didn’t sideline his #20 Plaid Ford Mustang. Sunday’s win, combined with another flag-to-flag victory from the pole at Road America earlier in the season and the three other podium finishes, salvaged a third-place finish for Dyson in the Trans Am season championship.
Dyson noted that the COVID-19 situation had made racing especially challenging for everyone in 2020, and paid tribute to the Trans Am Series’ ownership and management for the job it did in salvaging the season. “My hat is off to Tony Parella, John Clagett and his team for the amazing job they did,” Dyson said. “They should be pleased with how well everything worked out in the end. Their performance and the races we put on all year demonstrate the core strengths in this series and confirms its future. I can’t wait for the start of the 2021 Trans Am season.”
Plaid
Headquartered in Atlanta, Plaid Enterprises, Inc. is one of the world’s largest, most diverse manufacturers of creative do-it-yourself products. Plaid’s product innovation and dedication to the ever-changing needs of consumers have made the Plaid family of products among the most recognized and desired brands worldwide.
Founded in 1976, Plaid began as a publisher of how-to craft books. The company soon expanded into manufacturing, with paint becoming the primary focus. Today, Plaid is the industry’s leading small batch paint manufacturer, proudly producing paint in its facilities located outside of Atlanta, GA.
Notable brands in Plaid’s portfolio include FolkArt, Apple Barrel, Delta, Bucilla, Martha Stewart Crafts, and one of the industry’s best known, Mod Podge, a favorite since 1967.