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TEAM
NEWS
Flying Lizard Lands at Lime Rock Park for First of Five East Coast Races
Flying Lizard heads
east this week for the American Le Mans Series Northeast
Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park on Saturday, July 24. At the midway
point of the nine-race ALMS season, the Lizards hope to regain some
ground lost at Miller Motorsports Park earlier this month (read race report). In the
No. 45 Flying Lizard Porsche, Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long are
now in second place in the GT championship and the team is in third.
Teammates Darren Law and Seth Neiman will drive the No. 44 Flying
Lizard Porsche at this weekend's 2 hour and 45 minute race.
Flying Lizard Chief Strategist Thomas Blam commented, "Lime
Rock will be tough. The GT championship is very close right now: Risi
Competizione, BWM Rahal/ Letterman, Corvette Racing and Flying Lizard
are within a few points in driver and team standings. This weekend, in
the GT field alone, there are at least 10 cars which could run up
front; with 30 cars overall there will be a lot of traffic, and I
expect, quite a few cautions."
Bergmeister and Long won at Lime Rock in 2009. (Bergmeister
has won in GT four consecutive years at Lime Rock--2006 through
2009--three of those with Flying Lizard.) Blam continued, "Strategy at
Lime Rock hinges on pit stops. It's possible to do a one-stop race here
if there are a number of cautions.
Determining when to stop can be as important as what happens
during the stop. Depending on the timing of the cautions, sacrificing a
track position for an early pit stop could eventually work in your
favor or it could also turn out to be disastrous. A podium spot may
depend on the ability to make the right decision in the moment."
<>Chief Engineer Craig Watkins added, "We've had fast cars here
the last few years but we won't be able to really see how things stack
up until we get on track. It's a short race weekend with a limited
amount of track time so we need to be very efficient getting quickly to
our race setup. I think of Lime Rock a bit like a street course: it's
narrow and short, with mostly right-handed turns. Top speed isn't
sustained here the way it was at Miller. It's a high downforce track so
getting to the correct tire compound choice and mix with the 2010 tires
will be critical. And, for sure we'll also have weather to contend
with, I expect we'll see rain at some point during the race weekend,
especially in the afternoons." >
Follow the Race
The race will get the green flag on Saturday July 24 at 2:05 pm ET. It
will be broadcast live on SpeedTV and tape delayed on MotorsTV, Sunday,
August 1, beginning at 17.00 GMT/18.00h CET Flying Lizard will
broadcast their team radio live during the race: for more information,
go to www.lizardms.com. Team
gear will be available in the paddock at the race and online at www.lizardms.com/store.
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.

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