Butch Leitzinger Explained

Butch Leitzinger
Nationality:American
Birth Name:Robert Franklin Leitzinger
Birth Date:8 February 1969
Birth Place:Homestead, Pennsylvania
Current Series:Pirelli World Challenge
First Year:2014
Current Team:Dyson Racing
Car Number:20
Starts:7
Best Finish:11th
Year:2014
Last Finish:11th
Prev Series:ALMS
Grand-Am
NASCAR Nextel Cup Series
NASCAR Busch Series
NASCAR Busch North Series
Prev Series Years:1999–2013
1998–2012
1994–1996, 2007
1994–1996, 2000, 2006
1993–1996
Titles:Rolex Sports Car Series
Title Years:1999
Module:
Embed:yes
Years:1997, 1999–2003
Teams:David Price Racing
Panoz Motorsports
Team Bentley
Risi Competizione
Best Finish:3rd (2001
Class Wins:2 (2001, 2002)
Embed:yes
Total Cup Races:4
Years In Cup:4
Best Cup Pos:54th (1995)
First Cup Race:1994 The Bud at The Glen (Watkins Glen)
Last Cup Race:2007 Toyota/Save Mart 350 (Infineon)
Cup Wins:0
Cup Top Tens:0
Cup Poles:0
Total Busch Races:5
Years In Busch:5
Best Busch Pos:78th (1996)
First Busch Race:1996 Fay's 150 (Watkins Glen)
Last Busch Race:2006 Zippo 200 (Watkins Glen)
Busch Wins:0
Busch Top Tens:1
Busch Poles:0

Robert Franklin "Butch" Leitzinger (born February 28, 1969[1]) is an American professional racing driver. He is best known as an ALMS driver with Dyson Racing, but he has also driven for a variety of other teams and race series. He won the IMSA Pro WSC Ckampionship driver's titles in both 1997 and 1998 while driving for Dyson Racing. Also a three time winner of the Daytona 24 hours race in 1994, 1997 and 1999.

Racing career

Sports car racing

Leitzinger has driven for the Bentley factory team at Le Mans in 2001 and 2002, for the Cadillac team at Le Mans in 2000 and for Panoz at Le Mans in 1999. Leitzinger has also driven in the GT classification for Risi Competizione at Le Mans in 2003. Leitzinger was also named 2002 Rookie of the Year in the Trans-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 the 2010 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 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 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 1999 United States Road Racing Championship (USRRC) championship with teammate Elliott Forbes-Robinson and won the famed Rolex 24 at Daytona: twice with Dyson Racing (1997 & 1999), and once in a Nissan 300ZX (1994) co-driven with Scott Pruett, Steve Millen and Paul Gentilozzi.

At the beginning of their involvement in ALMS, Leitzinger and the Dyson team fielded Ford-powered Riley & Scott cars but switched to the newer MG-Lola EX257 midway through the 2002 season. Dyson Racing achieved its first ALMS victory in the car when Leitzinger and James Weaver scored an overall win at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. This also marked the first time that an LMP675 (now called LMP2) class car scored an overall win in an ALMS race.

NASCAR

Leitzinger competed in NASCAR races as a road course ringer. He ran in three Winston Cup Series races at Watkins Glen with a best finish of 12th in 1995. On June 24, 2007, Leitzinger ran the NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Infineon Raceway in the Bill Davis Racing-owned No. 23 Caterpillar Toyota and finished 28th. Butch'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 13 laps, and finished second behind fellow ringer Ron Fellows.

Personal life

Leitzinger lives in State College, Pennsylvania with his wife, Kirsten, and their daughter and son. He earned a Bachelor of Science in business management from Penn State University in 1991. He is the son of IMSA driver, Bob Leitzinger, and artist Sandra Leitzinger.

Motorsports career results

24 Hours of Le Mans

YearTeamCo-DriversCarClassLaps
David Price Racing Andy Wallace
James Weaver		Panoz Esperante GTR-1GT1236DNFDNF
Panoz Motorsports David Brabham
Éric Bernard		Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S-ÉlanLMP3367th6th
Team Cadillac Franck Lagorce
Andy Wallace		Cadillac Northstar LMPLMP90029121st11th
Team Bentley Andy Wallace
Eric van de Poele		Bentley EXP Speed 8LMGTP3063rd1st
Team Bentley Andy Wallace
Eric van de Poele		Bentley EXP Speed 8LMGTP3624th1st
Risi Competizione Shane Lewis
Johnny Mowlem		Ferrari 360 Modena GTGT138DNFDNF

NASCAR

(key) (

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

Nextel Cup Series

NASCAR Nextel Cup Series results
YearTeamNo.Make123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536PtsRef
1994Butch Leitzinger Racing03ChevyDAYCARRCHATLDARBRINWSMARTALSONCLTDOVPOCMCHDAYNHAPOCTALINDGLN
MCHBRIDARRCHDOVMARNWSCLTCARPHOATL72nd70[2]
1995Dick Brooks Racing40PontiacDAYCARRCHATLDARBRINWSMARTALSONCLTDOVPOCMCHDAYNHAPOCTALINDGLN
MCHBRIDARRCHDOVMARNWSCLTCARPHOATL54th127[3]
1996Diamond Ridge Motorsports29ChevyDAYCARRCHATLDARBRINWSMARTALSONCLTDOVPOCMCHDAYNHAPOCTALINDGLN
MCHBRIDARRCHDOVMARNWSCLTCARPHOATL58th103[4]
2007Bill Davis Racing23ToyotaDAYCALLVSATLBRIMARTEXPHOTALRCHDARCLTDOVPOCMCHSON
NHADAYCHIINDPOCGLNMCHBRICALRCHNHADOVKANTALCLTMARATLTEXPHOHOM66th79[5]

Busch Series

NASCAR Busch Series results
YearTeamNo.Make1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435PtsRef
1994Butch Leitzinger Racing91FordDAYCARRCHATLMARDARHCYBRIROUNHANZHCLTDOVMYBGLN
MLWSBOTALHCYIRPMCHBRIDARRCHDOVCLTMARCAR113th01[6]
1995American Equipment Racing95ChevyDAYCARRCHATLNSVDARBRIHCYNHANZHCLTDOVMYBGLN
MLWTALSBOIRPMCHBRIDARRCHDOVCLTCARHOM86th115[7]
1996Butch Leitzinger Racing91FordDAYCARRCHATLNSVDARBRIHCYNZHCLTDOVSBOMYBGLN
MLWNHATALIRPMCHBRIDARRCHDOVCLTCARHOM78th118[8]
2000Innovative Motorsports30ChevyDAYCARLVSATLDARBRITEXNSVTALCALRCHNHACLTDOVSBOMYBGLN
MLWNZHPPRGTYIRPMCHBRIDARRCHDOVCLTCARMEMPHOHOM87th175[9]
2006NDS Motorsports79DodgeDAYCALMXCLVSATLBRITEXNSHPHOTALRCHDARCLTDOVNSHKENMLWDAYCHINHAMARGTYIRPGLN
MCHBRICALRCHDOVKANCLTMEMTEXPHOHOM116th91[10]

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

Busch North Series

NASCAR Busch North Series results
YearTeamNo.Make12345678910111213141516171819202122PtsRef
1993Butch Leitzinger Racing91FordLEENHAMNDNZHHOLGLNJENSTAGLNNHAWISNHANHARPSTMPWMMLEEEPPLRP
N/A0[11]
1994NHANHAMNDNZHSPEHOLGLN
JENEPPGLN
NHAWISSTATMPMNDWMMRPSLEENHALRP
39th442[12]
1995DAYNHALEEJEN
NHANZHHOLBEETMPGLNNHATIOMNDGLN
EPPRPSLEESTABEENHA
TMPLRP
38th587[13]
1996DAYLEEJENNZHHOLNHATIOBEETMPNZHNHASTAGLNEPPRPSLEENHANHABEETMPLRP
69th 184[14]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Driver.
  2. Web site: Butch Leitzinger – 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Results. Racing-Reference. November 29, 2014.
  3. Web site: Butch Leitzinger – 1995 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Results. Racing-Reference. November 29, 2014.
  4. Web site: Butch Leitzinger – 1996 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Results. Racing-Reference. November 29, 2014.
  5. Web site: Butch Leitzinger – 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Results. Racing-Reference. November 29, 2014.
  6. Web site: Butch Leitzinger – 1994 NASCAR Busch Grand National Series Results. Racing-Reference. December 13, 2014.
  7. Web site: Butch Leitzinger – 1995 NASCAR Busch Grand National Series Results. Racing-Reference. December 13, 2014.
  8. Web site: Butch Leitzinger – 1996 NASCAR Busch Grand National Series Results. Racing-Reference. December 13, 2014.
  9. Web site: Butch Leitzinger – 2000 NASCAR Busch Grand National Series Results. Racing-Reference. December 13, 2014.
  10. Web site: Butch Leitzinger – 2006 NASCAR Busch Series Results. Racing-Reference. December 13, 2014.
  11. Web site: Butch Leitzinger – 1993 NASCAR Busch North Series Results. Racing-Reference. May 21, 2020.
  12. Web site: Butch Leitzinger – 1994 NASCAR Busch North Series Results. Racing-Reference. May 21, 2020.
  13. Web site: Butch Leitzinger – 1995 NASCAR Busch North Series Results. Racing-Reference. May 21, 2020.
  14. Web site: Butch Leitzinger – 1996 NASCAR Busch North Series Results. Racing-Reference. May 21, 2020.

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