Dyson’s Porsche 962 bears tell-tale witness to his earlier warning bump with a straying Corvette at the entry to the Riverside’s famous Esses.
Rob Dyson Photo: Regis Lefebure
Going into the Los Angeles Times Grand Prix at Riverside in April of 1986, one of our Porsche 962s had been wrecked, so we got a new tub from the factory but it needed all the other parts from our wrecked car. In essence we were building the car in the paddock between sessions. The guys were out there striping and painting and tuning the car, and in between sessions we were trying to make it a little bit better, but we were also completing the decals and all the other stuff.
It was the first time I had ever been to Riverside. Obviously I’d heard a lot about it, and the L.A. Times Grand Prix was one of the all-time great races in sports car history. We were using the longest course configuration, which went way up into the back to the Carousel, and it had that long straightaway into Turn 9. My initial impression of the place was that it looked so familiar from all the pictures I’d seen, particularly the Kink before the Esses, which is kind of a classic view that you got from the track. What amazed me was how in the older pictures you see everyone going back and forth through the Esses whereas we were going almost straight, just touching the curbs.
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