Laguna Seca: Dyson Racing qualifying report

Qualified Prediction

October 14, 2005 -- This afternoon, before qualifying for the final race of the season for the American Le Mans Series at Laguna Seca, Andy Wallace said, "We have a good shot at qualifying. There are probably six cars that could all do a 'fifteen'."

The co-driver of the #20 Thetford/Norcold Lola was half-right. The first three were all under 1:15, including the two Dyson Racing entries who qualified second and third, both under the track record set five years ago, with Butch Leitzinger in the #16 entry besting Andy Wallace by .015 seconds.

"Qualifying was very interesting," Wallace said afterwards. "We got our cars extremely close together. Butch did a brilliant job; I take my hat off to him. We figured the Zytek was going to make a good run for the pole but this is a four-hour race, so we are in good shape."

"I think it should be a really good punch up"

Talking about tomorrow's "Racing into the Darkness" four-hour race, Leitzinger said, "The top six cars are all within a close gap: I think it should be a really good punch up. We could have another train like we had at Mid-Ohio where we had an exciting race with six, seven cars battling for one position. You know, the team has worked so hard this year and if we could cap it off with another win and take this car out in a blaze of glory and get some momentum for next year, that would be great for us."

In a season that has seen Dyson Racing garner five of ten poles, this is also the third time their two cars have qualified ahead of both Audis. The last time was at Mosport where Leitzinger went on to win the race. The team couldn't think of a better way to cap the season on Saturday.

You can listen to a live radio broadcast of Saturday's race from 6:15 to 10:15 PM EST on www.americanlemans.com and watch the broadcast on Sunday, October 16 on SPEED Channel from 1:00 to 5:00 EST.

-dr-