ROB DYSON

By H.A. Branham

One of IMSA’s all-time driver-owner racers, Rob Dyson was always on the proverbial fast track. He entered sports car racing at the club level in 1974. Nine years later he was in IMSA. Two years after that, he was in an IMSA Victory Lane as a winning car owner after winning the top-level GTP class.

And now, he’s in the IMSA Hall of Fame.

The Dyson Porsche 962 won GTP races in four consecutive seasons from 1985-88, (11 total) against competition that seemed – and certainly looked – other-worldly.

From 1995-2002, Dyson Racing won 36 races including the Rolex 24 At Daytona in 1997 and ’99. Dyson co-drove in the ’97 victory.

Dyson suited up again at the 2000 Rolex 24, winning the SR class in a Riley & Scott MKIII. Check out the driver lineup for that one: Dyson, James Weaver, fellow IMSA HOF 2025 inductee Elliott Forbes-Robinson and Max Papis. Dyson retired from driving in 2007.

“The first road race I went to was Bridgehampton in the early ’60’s,” Dyson writes on the Dyson Racing website. “I watched the Ferraris with Phil Hill and Stirling Moss and I said, ‘that is really fabulous.’

“And road racing has always been special to me because I could do it myself. The idea of a sportsman driver is not alien to sports car racing whereas in NASCAR or IndyCar, it is very rare that you have an owner-driver.”

Dyson Racing competed in both the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series and the American Le Mans Series in the pre-merger days, winning the ALMS driver and team championships in 2011 while also finishing runner-up twice.

“Rob is probably the longest running independent car owner in modern sports cars in North America,” said IMSA Senior Director of Race Operations Mark Raffauf. “When he started out as a driver, he was much more aggressive, more driver-oriented. But when he started racing the 962 [in 1985], he realized things were pretty serious.”

Weaver drove for Dyson more than anyone and certainly more successfully than anyone, winning the 1998 United States Road Racing Championship and the GRAND-AM Rolex Series championship in 2000 and ‘01.

“Rob is the definitive gentleman, sportsman and racing enthusiast, but he also runs a thoroughly professional team, without ever losing site of, or touch with those qualities,” Weaver said on Dyson.Racing.com.

“I can't think of anyone else who has achieved this. “

Dyson now serves as the chairman of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum board of directors. He also is chairman and CEO of Dyson-Kissner-Moran Corporation, a private holding company based in Poughkeepsie, New York – home as well to Dyson Racing, which concentrates now on Historic cars and the career of Dyson’s son Chris, a three-time Trans-Am champion.