Dyson Trains Hard To Be 'Nervous'

Chris Dyson's personal trainer is a former Marine, which gives you an idea of how the 31-year-old team owner and driver for Dyson Racing feels about his physical fitness.

"I've been working with a trainer for the last eight years and we've developed a routine," Dyson said as he lounged in his air-conditioned trailer between practice runs on Tuesday. "A big part of conditioning for this type of racing at Sebring is focused on the nervous system because there's so many bumps, and your body gets jarred.

"It's not just brute strength - you also have to have your nervous system kind of geared to react to those circumstances."

Dyson's stamina-based workouts emphasize building lean-muscle tissue with the aim of gaining the necessary strength to drive, along with building the longevity and recovery to withstand the onslaught driving for hours at a time on Sebring's famous bumpy surface. It's a hybrid of strength and cardiovascular training, Dyson said, and so far, it's working.

"It equips not only your body, but your mind," Dyson said. "We do plyometrics (exercise designed to produce fast, powerful movement) and mix that into the workout routine - we keep it fresh, keep it fun, and we always keep an eye on the goal."

Dyson has to be careful, however, not to overdo it. He's big for a driver at 6-foot-3, which means too much muscle can quickly become a liability. He says he's careful not to overdo it in the gym.

"I have to be careful that I'm not just putting mass on," Dyson said. "A lot of the guys in the paddock are doing the same things I am, but you have to pick what works for you.

"I've never been injured and I've never really gotten tired, and there's been taxing conditions over the years, so I think we're doing the right things."

Dyson also draws on the days he played team sports in high school, an experience he says he learned plenty from, both in terms of conditioning and building camaraderie.

"Whenever I played sports, I was usually in some kind of leadership role, and I think I've been able to carry that over to motor sports," he said, noting the commitment level at his level is unlike any other sport, simply because of the sheer hours he and his team put into the many components that allow the car to even get to the track. "The general team spirit, the way you interact, focusing on the positive and never getting your head down - those were the things I learned in sports and I've been able to translate to racing."

With a bold new prototype challenge in 2009 and a partnership with Mazda coming together last fall, Dyson is looking to add to one of sports car racing's most accomplished legacies with two Lola B09 86 Mazdas, Nos. 16 and 20, after establishing himself as a key figure in the American Le Mans Series paddock as both a driver and sporting director for Dyson Racing. Already a championship-winning driver (2003 LMP675 champion), he's now paired with Guy Smith for the fourth year in a competitive P2 class.

"The speed is coming," said Dyson, who qualified second behind Lowe's Fernandez on Thursday. "Through the course of the year, we really want to make sure we're contending for the championship, but the big objective this weekend is making sure we get two cars across the line."