Poughkeepsie driver wins Northeast Grand Prix

LIME ROCK — National racing came to the Northwest Corner last weekend as Lime Rock Park hosted the American Le Mans Series Northeast Grand Prix.The Le Mans races last two hours, 45 minutes on tracks throughout the United States and Canada. Lime Rock is the shortest, and some say most difficult, track on the schedule, at1.5 miles with eight turns. Thirty-one cars competed with teams of two drivers. Practice and qualifying races were held Friday, July 8, and the main race took off Saturday, July 9.After some wet-weather racing, Chris Dyson of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., representing Dyson Racing, earned the overall pole position for the main race. Dyson set a lap of 45.708 (116.093 mph) to outpace newcomer and fellow Dyson racer Steven Kane by 0.173 seconds. Klaus Graf, representing Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing, qualified third with his teammate, Lucas Luhr. Dyson co-drives a Mazda-powered Lola prototype with teammate Guy Smith. He posted four of the five fastest laps in qualifying heats. The championship race Saturday delivered a generous portion of drama. Kane’s teammate, Humaid Al Masoud, was forced to start from the pit after dealing with a battery problem.Twenty minutes into the race, Ed Brown, CEO of Patron Tequila, the main sponsor of American Le Mans, spun before the bridge and collided with Chevrolet Corvette GT rivals Olivier Beretta and Jan Magnussen. Brown’s car suffered damage to the left front bodywork and rear suspension, but the car was fixed and he and his teammate, Guy Cosmo, were able to complete the race, taking 11th place.Dyson/Smith and Graf/Luhr traded the lead six times before the Dyson team crossed the finish line19.969 seconds ahead of the Muscle Milk team. Al Masoud/Kane took third. Al Masoud, who is from Abu Dhabi, is the first Middle Eastern racer to particpate in top-flight international sportscar racing.The next race in the American Le Mans Series is the Mobil 1 Presents the Grand Prix of Mosportin Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, July 22 to 24.

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