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Grand Am
GRAND-AM: Dyson Eyes Rolex Series Return
Dyson Racing looks set to add a customer-based Rolex Series program, starting at next month’s race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Marshall Pruett  |  Posted July 28, 2010   Hayward, CA
The familiar blue and white Dyson Racing colors have been absent from the Rolex Series for a few years, but if all goes according to plan, the sportscar racing veterans could be back as early as August with customer program. (LAT)
Famed sportscar entrant Dyson Racing looks set to add to their 2010 racing calendar with a new, customer-based GRAND-AM Rolex Series program, starting at next month’s race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

If all goes according to plan, the team would also contest the final round, held at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah, as a precursor to an assault on the 2011 24 Hours of Daytona.

Chris Dyson, sporting director of the New York-based outfit, confirmed their interest without going into specifics.

“We've been looking to try to get back to the Rolex 24 for a few years now. We’re fortunate now that we’ve got, with our new facility, the opportunity to take a look at additional projects. We've been keeping an eye on the Rolex 24 for the past few years, and we haven't been there with a car entered out of our shop for some time now and we really just want to find the right timing. We made no bones about getting back there and trying to win, and we've been approached by a few people trying to do something in partnership with us. So we've been looking at a variety of different options. Just trying to come up with the right package to begin with, but also trying to make sure that anything we do does not conflict with our primary program for Mazda. But we're still talking, trying to see if everything will logistically work. We'll see what happens.”

Staffing resources and scheduling conflicts pose a challenge for the team to debut at Montreal, as their factory Mazda program will be competing just a few hours away at Mosport the same weekend.

“I think it's resource dependent, to be honest,” said Dyson. “If you look at the schedule there’s some logistical hurdles that you’d have to scale but clearly you have to make sure that the resources are in place, and the budget’s in place to do it. We're talking to some people. There’s interesting conversations going on. I'd say encouraging, I would characterize them as. Nothing to announce at this point but we're certainly doing little a bit of work to see what's doable. Like I said, if things line up and work out, yeah, it would be looking at the last couple of races as a precursor to maybe giving a serious look at Daytona; it's definitely on our radar screen right now.”

The most likely candidates to go forward with Dyson Racing in the Rolex Series appears to be John McCutchen II, who was involved with Leighton Reese’s Corvette program at this year’s Rolex 24.1996 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Davy Jones, who shared the Corvette’s driving duties with McCutchen, is also expected to be involved with the Dyson Daytona Prototype program.

Jones, while unwilling to confirm the program, did tell SPEED.com "I'm looking forward to returning to the Rolex Series for the last two races this year, and like we did at Daytona, the Texas Heart Institute is the charity we'll be doing our best to help. Beyond that, a press release on what we're doing should be out shortly."

Solutions for the chassis for Dyson's DP entry could come from Canada’s Multimatic Racing, as team principal Larry Holt is known to have his own Proto-Auto chassis and has expressed the desire to see it used into competition.

As two-time overall winners of the Rolex 24, Dyson would like nothing more than to add a new chapter to his team’s record at the storied event. As a driver, the chance to earn his first Rolex 24 victory as a pilot could be hard to pass up next January, but he says there’s another event that month that could take precedence.

“For me personally, it's kind of an exciting time. It's interesting the way the dates lined up, but I've got a baby on the way that's going to be born right around the time of the Daytona 24. I don't know how that's going to overlap with anything with the Rolex 24. Clearly, that's where my priority will be, above all else, racing included. If we've got the right package and the right group of people to do something, and you’ve got the right resources in place – because you cannot go into the Rolex Series without doing your homework -- we'd like to go loaded for bear and do a good job there.”

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