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Robert Franklin "Butch" Leitzinger (born February 28, 1969 in Homestead, Pennsylvania) is a professional racecar driver. He is best known as an ALMS driver with Dyson Racing, but he has also 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. Butch was also named 2002 Rookie of the Year in the Trans-Am Series.
Leitzinger won the 1997-98 World Sportscar Championship, 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, and once in a Nissan 300ZX 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 LMP675 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.
NASCAR Career
Leitzinger ran three NASCAR Winston Cup races at Watkins Glen with a best finish of 12th in 1995. In addition, he has five Busch Series starts (including one second place effort) and won four Busch East Series races.
Personal
Leitzinger lives on a working 1840's farm in Rebersburg, Pennsylvania with his wife, Kirsten, and their daughter. He earned a Bachelor of Science in business management from Penn State University in 1991. He is the son of IMSA driver, Bob Leitzinger.
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