TEAM
NEWS
Flying
Lizard No. 80 Qualifies Tenth in GT2 for the 24 Heures du Mans
Joerg
Bergmeister (Germany) qualified the No. 80 Flying Lizard Porsche
911 GT3 RSR tenth in GT2 for this weekend's 24 Heures du Mans.
Bergmeister set his fast time on Thursday of 4:02.685, in the second of
the three qualifying sessions on the 8.468 mile circuit. (Qualifying
position is determined by the fastest time set over any of the three
qualifying sessions.) The team had been dogged by problems on Wednesday during practice and the first qualifying session, and had started Thursday's sessions fourteenth in class. Heavy rain on Thursday afternoon threatened to sideline the session, but luckily the storm passed quickly and the track was nearly dry by session start. In the two-hour session, after cycling through several setup changes and bedding in a new set of brakes, Joerg had moved up to eleventh. At dusk, on his last lap before the checkered, he set his fastest time of the session, moving up to ninth. Co-drivers Seth Neiman (USA) and Darren Law (USA) finished out the third and final session (now fully night), and the No. 80 finished in tenth.
Team principal Seth Neiman commented, "The extremely long lap here at Le Mans is deceptive. Although we have ten hours of track time before the race, it really is not enough. On Wednesday, we wandered down a blind alley and didn't make the progress that we normally expect. However, the guys turned it around today and I think we have a very good car for the race."
Bergmeister added, "After sorting out some issues in our practice yesterday, I think we now have a really good and fast race car. We did our quickest lap time today on old tires and I think that speaks for itself so I hope that we will be in good shape for this weekend."
The No. 80 is sponsored by ShoreTel and Openwave, both sponsors of the team's 2010 ALMS season.
About the Drivers
Bergmeister is a Porsche factory driver and is currently tied for the
lead in the 2010 ALMS GT championship in the Flying Lizard No. 45
Porsche (with co-driver Patrick Long). He has raced at Le Mans eight
times, three years with Flying Lizard: 2007, 2008 and 2009. He won GT2
in 2004 (with Sascha Maassen and Patrick Long) and has finished on the
podium three times. In the ALMS, Bergmeister is four-time GT2 champion:
2005, 2006, 2008 (with Wolf Henzler) and 2009 (with Patrick Long). He
has won the Rolex 24 at Daytona three times - in GT in 2009,
both GT and overall in 2003 and GT in 2002.
Law and Neiman co-pilot the No. 44 Flying Lizard Porsche in the ALMS in the 2010 season. Neiman finished seventh in the ALMS GT2 drivers' championship in 2009 and Law was tenth. In 2009, Law won overall at the 2009 Rolex 24 at Daytona; notable ALMS finishes include second in 2008 in the No. 44 at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring (with Neiman and Alex Davison) and 2nd in GT2 at Long Beach and Detroit (with Patrick Long) in 2007. Since 2005, Law has consistently finished in the top ten of the Porsche Cup ranking of non-factory Porsche drivers: 5th in 2009, 4th in 2008, 2nd in 2007, 7th in 2006, and 10th in 2005.
In the ALMS, Flying Lizard has won back to back GT2 team and driver championships: 2008 and 2009. Two races into the ALMS 2010 9-race season, the No. 45 is currently tied for the championship lead.
Follow the Race
The 24 Heures du Mans begins at 15.00 h CET (6:00 am Pacific
Time) on Saturday June 12. Flying Lizard will update the race blog
during the race and broadcast the team radio live at www.lizardms.com. Fans can follow
English- language broadcast on Radio Le Mans www.radiolemans.com and SpeedTV.
Live timing and scoring at www.lemans.org.
About Flying Lizard Motorsports
Flying Lizard Motorsports competes in the American Le Mans Series GT
class. The team has finished in the top three in the ALMS GT2 drivers'
and team championships every year since 2004, their first year of
professional competition. In 2009, the team swept all ALMS GT2 titles:
Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long won the drivers' championship in the
No. 45; Flying Lizard won the team championship; Porsche won the
manufacturer championship; and the Flying Lizard No. 44 Porsche won the
Michelin Green X Challenge championship (new for 2009). It is the
team's second consecutive triple championship: in 2008 Joerg
Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler won the ALMS GT2 drivers' title in the No.
45; Flying Lizard won the team championship; and Porsche won the
manufacturers' title.
Flying Lizard has also competed in the 24 Heures du Mans from 2005 through 2009, finishing third in 2005, fourth in 2006, and sixth in 2008. The privateer team is based in Sonoma, California.
Flying Lizard is sponsored by ShoreTel, a leading provider of
enterprise IP telephony solutions; Openwave Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:
OPWV), a global software innovator delivering context-aware mediation
and messaging solutions that enable communication service providers to
create and deliver smarter services; eSilicon, a semiconductor company;
and RedlineCoffee.com, a premium coffee company dedicated to motorsport
enthusiasts. Team partners include Porsche and Michelin.
