As part of an ACO USA membership you’re invited to join Evening With A Legend, a series of presentations exclusive to ACO USA Members where a Legend of the famous 24 Hours of LeMans race will share stories and highlights of the big event. However, this month the IMRRC in partnership with the ACO USA is proud to help share Rob Dyson’s Le Mans story with you! Rob is a long standing supporter of the IMRRC and get his start in racing at Watkins Glen International in the ’70s. And through the Motoring Podcast Network you have a chance to sit in during a live recording with Rob, ask questions, and hear his Le Mans journey first hand!
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Rob Dyson is a New York based businessman and retired professional racing driver with a long association with Watkins Glen International and the International Motor Racing Research Center. Following completion of his licensing school at Watkins Glen in 1974, Dyson began competing in amateur SCCA competition. In 1981 he won the Sports Car Club of America’s GT2 national championship.
Dyson began racing professionally in IMSA GTO and the SCCA Trans-Am Series in 1982. The following year, to support his professional racing efforts, Dyson founded the Dyson Racing Team, which over the next few years grew to be one of America’s premier sports car racing teams. From it base in Poughkeepsie, over the course of nearly four decades the team won 19 championships, 72 race victories, started 72 times from the pole and achieved 224 podium finishes. Among the team’s notable accomplishments is a pair of overall victories in America’s premier endurance race, the Rolex 24, at Daytona International Speedway. In 1986 he found himself behind the wheel of a Porsche 956 at the famed Circuit de la Sarthe: Le Mans.
The team fielded cars during the heyday of the IMSA Camel GT, winning its first time out with a Porsche 962 at Lime Rock Park. Under Dyson’s leadership the team went on to successfully field entries in Indy car, the World Sports Car Championship, the United States Road Racing Championship, the American Le Mans Series (where the team scored two championships), the Rolex Sports Car Series, and the Pirelli World Challenge, where the team scored Bentley’s first-ever North American race victory.
During his 21 seasons as a professional racing driver Dyson drove in 92 races, scoring four overall race wins (including the 1997 Rolex 24 at Daytona) and a total of 18 podium finishes. Dyson continued to compete episodically in professional racing through 2007 and today remains active driving his collection of vintage Indy cars in a variety of demonstration events. Dyson’s personal historic Indy car collection ranges from a 1913 Isotta Fraschini tipo IM to Johnny Rutherford’s 1978 Budweiser McLaren M24B, and includes the 1961 Kimberly Cooper Climax, the first successful rear-engine car to compete in the 500.
Named chairman of the board of directors of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum in 2021 following a decade as a member of the board, Dyson is guiding the institution through its $89 million transformational renovation as it charts its future path as the repository of the history and related artifacts of America’s oldest active and most storied racing facility.
In 2011 Dyson donated to the IMRRC the historic archives of National Speed Sport News, America’s premier motorsports news publication since the late 1930s.
Dyson is the chairman and chief executive officer of Dyson-Kissner-Moran Corporation, a privately-owned international holding company.
REGISTER FOR THIS EVENING WITH A LEGEND EVENT
Membership into the Automobile Club de l’Ouest – the founder and organizer of the 24 Hours of Le Mans – is open to all! The Club hosts events in Le Mans and around the world, attracting fans who enjoy their shared passion for motoring and motor racing. Tired of sitting in the pits. Explore the many advantages of becoming an ACO Member today!
Brought to you by our friends at the Motoring Podcast Network, through sponsorship from the ACO USA. Enjoy this podcast episode featuring Corvette Racing’s, Ben Keating.
Evening With A Legend is a series of presentations exclusive to Legends of the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans giving us an opportunity to bring a piece of Le Mans to you. By sharing stories and highlights of the big event, you get a chance to become part of the Legend of Le Mans with guests from different eras of over 100 years of racing.
Photos courtesy of Gran Touring Motorsports. 2023, Monterey Historics, Laguna Seca.
To learn more about or to become a member of the ACO USA, look no further than www.lemans.org, Click on English in the upper right corner and then click on the ACO members tab for Club Offers. Once you become a Member you can follow all the action on the Facebook group ACOUSAMembersClub; and become part of the Legend with future Evening With A Legend meet ups.
Check out the interview with the IMRRC’s front man Kip Zeiter, and SCCA Archivist Rick Hughey during Season-1 of Break/Fix Podcast
and check out the bonus “Down Watkins Glen’s Memory Lane” episode with Kip & Rick