Butch Leitzinger and Dyson Racing are ready to rumble at Mosport
 "Reliability will be the key; the cars really like this track!"
By Kate Shaw
Photos © Dyson Racing and DeFord Photo
BOWMANVILLE, Ontario (September 3, 2005) – Butch Leitzinger, who co-pilots the No. 16 Dyson Racing Lola EX257-AER in the P1 class of the ALMS, is happy to be back at Mosport for this racing weekend. The Dyson cars have done very well at this track, with the No. 16 car winning outright against the Champion Audis in last year’s contest. “The car is going as well as last year,” said Leitzinger, “in the test days Monday and Tuesday; then we had rain on Wednesday and that changed the track somewhat. We are getting more consistent times this week, than we had last year, and so far we have not had any Gremlins.” As fans of Dyson Racing know all too well, Gremlins are the biggest problem faced by this very dialed-in team and their light, fast cars, but Leitzinger said that this is likely the other side of the coin that makes the cars so quick.

“These cars were originally built by MG Lola for the P2 class,” he explained, “and that means they have about a 150 lb. weight advantage over the other P1 cars. That makes them very quick on a track like Mosport with fast turns that need a lot of input from the drivers. But it also means you have given up a certain degree of the reliability that the Champion Audi has – you can’t overbuild the car and put in the higher tolerances that the heavier cars have, and that means when you hit a kerb or get any other difficulty from another car, you’re far more likely to suffer for it.”

I asked him about the team’s unflagging cheerfulness in the face of what sometimes appear to be infuriating glitches that have robbed them of certain victories. “Well,” said Leitzinger, “you could stand out on the track and jump up and down and kick the car, but at the end of it all the car would still be broken or out of gas, and you’ve made a total idiot of yourself on national television. And when you think about all that has happened in the world this week – what they are going through in New Orleans – running out of gas on the last lap comes pretty far down the order of things that really matter!”

Speaking of gas, I asked, what effect will the spike in fuel prices have on the team, and possibly the series? “It’s too soon to know yet,” said Leitzinger, “but if the upward trend continues, likely we’ll have to adjust to the facts, probably by limiting test days. This may be done by individual teams, or it may be a series decision to schedule test dates where everyone would test together. And that might be a good thing too. When you’re testing by yourself, you may come away thinking you’re the fastest guy in the world – and then you get in there with the other cars and wonder where it all went!” Racing fuel is expensive, comparatively speaking, but of course there is the fuel needed to transport the team and all its gear, and the drivers too. At least in the short term, this will cause changes all along the line for racing.

You would think that a man as busy in more than one series as Butch Leitzinger would not have a lot of time to devote to ‘real life’, but in fact he and his family live on a working family farm in Pennsylvania and raise about 50% of their food. “Most of the work is done in the off season,” he pointed out, “and my wife takes care of the work when I am on the road, but there’s not a lot to do but harvest at this time of the year. It’s not a commercial farm, so the work is manageable for us and nice to go back to after a busy road trip!”

About the team’s prospects for the weekend, Leitzinger is cautiously optimistic. “We did very well at Mosport over the last two years,” he pointed out, “but you can’t depend on the Champion Audi going into the wall this year [which helped them in their quest for victory in 2004]. And of course even when they are in the wall, they are not out of the race. We’ll have an exciting time of it and I’m sure the fans will enjoy the battle!”

Whatever happens in the race on Sunday, you can bet that the excitement will be there, and that Dyson Racing will be right in the thick of it all.  "Reliability will be the key," said Leitzinger, "because the cars are very fast; all we can do is try to be easy on the cars and take every opportunity that comes our way."  And you can't ask for better than that.