Butch Leitzinger

Butch Leitzinger 2014

Butch Leitzinger in a Dyson Porsche RS Spyder (front), at an ALMS race in 2007

Robert Franklin "Butch" Leitzinger (born February 28, 1969 in Homestead ) is an American automobile racing driver and the son of Bob Leitzinger .

youth

Butch Leitzinger came into contact with motorsport at an early age through his father's racing activities. His parents, aware of the dangers of racing, tried for a long time to keep their son away from this form of sporting activity. Only when he agreed to attend college at Pennsylvania State University did Bob and Sandra Leitzinger support him in his racing activities. After graduating in 1991 - he graduated from college with a degree in business management - he started racing in 1992.

Career

Leitzinger had already attended a racing driver school during his student days and drove sports car races as an amateur. The successes he achieved there, his father's good relationships and his professional demeanor enabled him to work for Dyson Racing in the early 1990s . This partnership became one of the most successful in US sports car racing in the past two decades. Twice, in 1994 and 1997, he won the Daytona 24-hour race for the team . In 1999 he won the title in the United States Road Racing Championship together with partner Elliot Forbes-Robinson . In 1999 Dyson Racing was already active in the American Le Mans Series and Leitzinger celebrated his third overall victory in Daytona with Forbes-Robinson and Andy Wallace as partners.

In 1997 , Leitzinger received approval from Dyson Racing to be able to compete for a British racing team in the 24 Hours of Le Mans . For David Price Racing he drove a Panoz Esperante GTR-1 , which had to be taken out of the race prematurely after an engine failure. He celebrated his greatest success at the Sarthe in 2000 as a works driver for Bentley; third place in the overall standings with the Bentley EXP Speed ​​8 .

Leitzinger competed in three NASCAR races (each in Watkins Glen ) in his career and was also active in the American Le Mans Series in 2010. In 2002 he achieved a historic victory there when he and Weaver won the race in Sonoma on a Dyson MG-Lola EX257 . It was the first overall victory for an LMP 2 (then LMP675) car in this racing series.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1997	David Price Racing	Panoz Esperante GTR-1	James Weaver	Andy Wallace	failure	Engine failure
1999	Panoz Motorsports Inc.	Panoz LMP-1	Eric Bernard	David Brabham	Rank 7
2000	Team Cadillac	Cadillac Northstar LMP	Franck Lagorce	Andy Wallace	Rank 21
2001	Team Bentley	Bentley EXP Speed ​​8	Eric van de Poele	Andy Wallace	3rd place and class win
2002	Team Bentley	Bentley EXP Speed ​​8	Eric van de Poele	Andy Wallace	4th place and class win
2003	Risi Competizione	Ferrari 360 Modena GT	Shane Lewis	Johnny Mowlem	failure	Engine failure

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1989	Leitzinger Racing	Nissan 240SX	Bob Leitzinger	Chuck Kurtz	Rank 28
1990	Leitzinger Racing	Nissan 240SX	David Loring	Chuck Kurtz	Rank 10 and class win
1991	Leitzinger Racing	Nissan 240SX	Bob Leitzinger	Chuck Kurtz	failure	Engine failure
1992	Leitzinger Racing	Nissan 240SX	Bob Leitzinger	Chuck Kurtz	Rank 9
1994	Scandia Motorsports	Spice WSC94	Ross Bentley	Andy Evans	Rank 4
1995	Dyson Racing	Riley & Scott Mk III	James Weaver	Rob Dyson	Rank 35
1996	Dyson Racing	Riley & Scott Mk III	Andy Wallace		Rank 5
1997	Dyson Racing	Riley & Scott Mk III	James Weaver	Andy Wallace	Rank 2
1998	Dyson Racing	Riley & Scott Mk III	James Weaver	Dorsey Schroeder	Rank 12
1999	Dyson Racing	Riley & Scott Mk III	James Weaver	Elliot Forbes-Robinson	Rank 2
2001	Dyson Racing	Riley & Scott Mk IIIC	James Weaver	Elliot Forbes-Robinson	failure	Cylinder overheated
2002	Dyson Racing Team Inc.	Riley & Scott Mk IIIA	James Weaver	Elliot Forbes-Robinson	Rank 4
2003	Dyson Racing	MG-Lola EX257	James Weaver	Andy Wallace	failure	Steering defect
2004	Dyson Racing Team Inc.	MG-Lola EX257	James Weaver	Andy Wallace	Rank 6
2005	Dyson Racing Team	MG-Lola EX257	James Weaver	Andy Wallace	Rank 3
2006	Dyson Racing Team	Lola B06 / 10	James Weaver	Andy Wallace	Rank 5
2007	Dyson Racing Team	Porsche RS Spyder	Andy Lally	Andy Wallace	Rank 9
2008	Dyson Racing Team	Porsche RS Spyder	Andy Lally	Marino Franchitti	Rank 2
2009	Dyson Racing Team Inc.	Lola B08 / 86	Ben Devlin	Marino Franchitti	failure	mechanics
2010	Alex Job Racing	Porsche 997 GT3 Cup	Leh Keen	Juan González	17th place and class win
2012	PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports	Oreca FLM09	Ken Dobson	Rudy Junco	Rank 13
2013	Dyson Racing Team Inc.	Lola B12 / 60	Chris Dyson	Guy Smith	failure	malfunction

literature

• Moity / Teissedre: 24 Hours of Le Mans 1923–1992 . Edition D'Art JP Barthelemy, ISBN 2-909413-06-3 .

Web links

Commons : Butch Leitzinger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Butch Leitzinger at motorsport.com