2013 News
RYAN DALZIEL TO MAKE WORLD CHALLENGE DEBUT FOR TRUSPEED
- 20 March 2013
2012 Speed.com Sports Car driver of the year Ryan Dalziel has signed a stunning deal to make his Pirelli World Challenge debut with TruSpeed Motorsports.
It promises to be a baptism of fire for the proud Scot – who lives in Windermere, Florida - as he will be out in the car this weekend for the double-header at St Petersburg in Florida.
Ryan will drive the #46 Privacy Star/Entrust Porsche for the California-based team as they return to Pirelli World Challenge action.
It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks as Ryan concluded the deal as he was preparing for the Mobil1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, where he came fifth in the GT class at the weekend.
Although the crew hadn't seen the car till earlier this week Ryan is confident in the TruSpeed crew and knows they will give him a fast reliable race car.
For Ryan, it is another dream come true – the chance to tackle the championship for the first time and an opportunity to take on the streets of St Pete.
Ryan, who is originally from Airdrie in Lanarkshire, Scotland, will be hoping to continue the form that saw him help Starworks Motorsport to the LMP2 class title in the FIA World Endurance Championship and a career-best second place in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series.
The deal also sees Ryan reunited with TruSpeed Motorsports team manager Tyler Tadevic. They worked together in the American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series when Ryan was with Pacific Coast Motorsports.
RYAN SAYS: “I’ve been watching World Challenge racing for a few years and have been really impressed with the series so I’m really happy to be joining TruSpeed and to go for the championship for them.
“Tyler and I have been trying to make a deal work for a couple of years now and, eventually, all the pieces fell into place in the past two weeks.
“TruSpeed are a great team. They won the championship in 2011 and were on the top step in races last year so I’m hugely honored to be joining them.
“I’m at a great point in my career just now where great opportunities like this are coming my way.
“I have to say a big thank you to Charles and Rob Morgan, along with Privacy Star and Entrust, for making this all come together.
“I really can’t wait for St Pete this weekend. I’ve always wanted to race there and now I have that chance.
“It’s cool to get reunited with Tyler and a couple of other guys there that were from the Pacific Coast days. Hopefully we can get the Porsche on top.
“It’s nice to go back to sprint races where it’s one driver and one car and you can kind of concentrate just on being selfish.
“TruSpeed are pretty much putting everything into it at this point and they’re going out there to see what the package is and I think we’re all expecting to do well. We’re not really going to know until we get there how good we’re going to be but I’m expecting good things.”
TYLER SAYS: “We are so stoked that Ryan was available to race for us, and hopefully we can get things off to a good start in St Pete. World Challenge is incredibly competitive and we feel like we’ve put everything we can into this program to be successful.
“Kudos to the crew for how the whole team has put in that extra effort to put this program together on such short notice. This is also a big weekend for our team partner Privacy Star and we are looking forward to activating the partnership, and having a lot of guests on hand this weekend from Syniverse as well as Bridgehampton Investments.”
NOTES: The Pirelli World Challenge series is part of the IndyCar Series event at St Pete. Round 1 is on Saturday, March 23, with Round 2 on the following day.
Ryan will next be in Grand-Am Rolex action for Starworks Motorsport at Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Alabama, April 3-6, 2013.
Ryan managed a career-best second place in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series in 2012, with a win at Watkins Glen, second place in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and third at Sahlen’s Six Hours Of The Glen and Laguna Seca. He also won the Rolex 24 in 2010.
He had four Rolex Grand-Am podiums in 2011 – a win at Mid-Ohio and third at Barber, Lime Rock and Watkins Glen. He also had three fourth-place finishes. Ryan also gave Starworks Motorsport its first DP victory, at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, in 2008.
Ryan and Starworks Motorsport won the FIA World Endurance LMP2 Championship, thanks to class wins at Sebring in Florida, the Le Mans 24 Hours and Brazil. They were also on the podium at Silverstone in the UK, Japan, China and Bahrain.
He also grabbed an American Le Mans Series LMPC class wins at Petit Le Mans, Baltimore and Long Beach in California as well as a third place in class at Mosport in Canada.
Find out more at www.ryandalziel.com
Follow Ryan on Twitter: @ryan_dalziel
Facebook: Ryan Dalziel Official Fan Club