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Butch Leitzinger
Leitzinger atRoad America in 2014
Born	Robert Franklin Leitzinger (1969-02-08)February 8, 1969 (age 56) Homestead, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Pirelli World Challenge career
Debut season	2014
Current team	Dyson Racing
Car number	20
Starts	7
Best finish	11th in2014
Finished last season	11th
Previous series
1999–2013 1998–2012 1994–1996,2007 1994–1996,2000,2006 1993–1996	ALMS Grand-Am NASCARNextel Cup Series NASCARBusch Series NASCARBusch North Series
Championship titles
1999	Rolex Sports Car Series
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years	1997,1999–2003
Teams	David Price Racing Panoz Motorsports Team Bentley Risi Competizione
Best finish	3rd (2001
Class wins	2 (2001,2002)
NASCARCup Series career
4 races run over 4 years
Best finish	54th (1995)
First race	1994The Bud at The Glen (Watkins Glen)
Last race	2007Toyota/Save Mart 350 (Infineon)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0
NASCARO'Reilly Auto Parts Series career
5 races run over 5 years
Best finish	78th (1996)
First race	1996Fay's 150 (Watkins Glen)
Last race	2006Zippo 200 (Watkins Glen)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 1 0

Robert Franklin "Butch" Leitzinger (born February 28, 1969^[1]) is an American professional racing driver. He is best known as anALMS driver withDyson Racing, but he has also driven for a variety of other teams and race series. He won theIMSA Pro WSC Championship driver's titles in both1997 and1998 while driving for Dyson Racing. Leitzinger is also a three time winner of theDaytona 24 Hours race, having won in1994,1997 and1999.

Leitzinger has driven for theBentley factory team atLe Mans in 2001 and 2002, for theCadillac team at Le Mans in 2000 and forPanoz at Le Mans in 1999. Leitzinger has also driven in theGT classification forRisi Competizione at Le Mans in 2003. Leitzinger was also named 2002 Rookie of the Year in theTrans-Am Series. Butch drove the Alex Job Racing (AJR) No. 81 Porsche GT3 car in the first four events in the American Le Mans Series GTC class for the 2010 season, with Juan Gonzales earning victories at the2010 12 Hours of Sebring as well as at Long Beach and a podium finish at Laguna Seca, resulting in the duo achieving a healthy lead in the points standings before unfortunate circumstances forced Alex Job Racing to downsize to a single-car effort with the No. 23 car for the remainder of the season.

Leitzinger spent the 2011 season as a substitute driver when needed and as a third driver during endurance races. As a substitute, Leitzinger ran a total of two ALMS races, one of which was the Lime Rock race in which he and Bill Sweedler finished third in class in the AJR GTC Porsche. The other race was the Road America race in which he drove the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports LMPC car with Rudy Junco and on his first time ever driving an LMPC car and the first time with the team Leitzinger qualified on pole in class and along with Junco, won the race in class. As a third driver in endurance races Leitzinger drove along with Humaid Al Masaood and Steven Kane in the No. 20 Oryx Dyson Racing car at Laguna Seca and Road Atlanta. At Laguna Seca, the No. 20 car led much of the race and finished in third. In the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta the car was sidelined early with a throttle position sensor problem. Shortly after returning to the track something in the left rear of the car broke as Leitzinger rounded turn 1 at about 150 mph (240 km/h) which sent him off the track and hard into the tires ending the day for the 20 car.

It was later announced that Leitzinger would drive the full 2012 season in the ALMS in the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports LMPC car. The 2012 season will reunite the successful combination from Road America 2011 of PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, Leitzinger, and Junco, who were co-drivers for the majority of the 2012 season.

Leitzinger shared the 1999United States Road Racing Championship (USRRC) championship with teammateElliott Forbes-Robinson and won the famedRolex 24 at Daytona: twice with Dyson Racing (1997 & 1999), and once in aNissan 300ZX (1994) co-driven withScott Pruett,Steve Millen andPaul Gentilozzi.

At the beginning of their involvement inALMS, Leitzinger and the Dyson team fieldedFord-poweredRiley & Scott cars but switched to the newerMG-Lola EX257 midway through the 2002 season. Dyson Racing achieved its first ALMS victory in the car when Leitzinger andJames Weaver scored an overall win atInfineon Raceway inSonoma, California. This also marked the first time that anLMP675 (now calledLMP2) class car scored an overall win in an ALMS race.

Leitzinger competed inNASCAR races as aroad course ringer. He ran in threeWinston Cup Series races atWatkins Glen with a best finish of twelfth in 1995. On June 24, 2007, Leitzinger ran the NASCAR Nextel Cup race atInfineon Raceway in theBill Davis Racing-owned No. 23CaterpillarToyota and finished 28th. Leitzinger's nearest-miss in NASCAR racing was the Busch Series race at Watkins Glen in 2000 when he drove the No. 30 car for Innovative Motorsports; he led thirteen laps, and finished second behind fellow ringerRon Fellows.

Leitzinger lives inState College, Pennsylvania with his wife, Kirsten, and their daughter and son. He earned aBachelor of Science in business management fromPenn State University in 1991. He is the son ofIMSA driver, Bob Leitzinger, and artist Sandra Leitzinger.

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1997	David Price Racing	Andy Wallace James Weaver	Panoz Esperante GTR-1	GT1	236	DNF	DNF
1999	Panoz Motorsports	David Brabham Éric Bernard	Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S-Élan	LMP	336	7th	6th
2000	Team Cadillac	Franck Lagorce Andy Wallace	Cadillac Northstar LMP	LMP900	291	21st	11th
2001	Team Bentley	Andy Wallace Eric van de Poele	Bentley EXP Speed 8	LMGTP	306	3rd	1st
2002	Team Bentley	Andy Wallace Eric van de Poele	Bentley EXP Speed 8	LMGTP	362	4th	1st
2003	Risi Competizione	Shane Lewis Johnny Mowlem	Ferrari 360 Modena GT	GT	138	DNF	DNF
Sources:[2][3]

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time.Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

¹ Leitzinger's team was a post-entry for the race and thus did not receive points.

• Butch Leitzinger driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• Butch Leitzinger owner statistics at Racing-Reference
• [1] Butch Leitzinger], Dyson Racing
• Butch Leitzinger is the Class of American Racing, Speed Channel editorial July 8, 2005
• [2] PWC 2014 Toronto on Board Highlights of Butch Leitzinger Round 9 GT
• The Complete Driver: Butch Leitzinger of Dyson Racing, RaceFamily Motorsports

• 1969 births
• Living people
• NASCAR drivers
• NASCAR team owners
• American Le Mans Series drivers
• Trans-Am Series drivers
• Smeal College of Business alumni
• Sportspeople from Homestead, Pennsylvania
• 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
• 24 Hours of Daytona drivers
• Racing drivers from Pittsburgh
• Rolex Sports Car Series drivers
• David Price Racing drivers

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