Flying Lizard Teams with The Racer’s Group on No. 66 Porsche Entry at Daytona
Flying Lizard Motorsports announced today that The Racer’s Group (TRG) will enter a TRG/Flying Lizard Porsche in GT at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the season-opener for the Grand-Am Road Racing Series. In the ShoreTel-sponsored No. 66 Porsche GT3 Cup Car, Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long will join Johannes van Overbeek and Seth Neiman for the 24-hour endurance race to be held on January 30-31, 2009. Long and Bergmeister kicked off their ultra-successful 2009 racing season with a GT-class win at the 2009 Rolex 24 At Daytona, driving a TRG Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.
Bergmeister has won three times at the Rolex 24: in GT in 2009 (with Patrick Long), in GT and overall in 2003, and in GT in 2002, all with TRG. He was also the Grand-Am Daytona Prototype champion in 2006 (with Krohn Racing). Bergmeister and Long are Porsche factory drivers and will be co-drivers in the Flying Lizard No. 45 Porsche for the 2010 ALMS season. With Flying Lizard, the duo won the 2009 ALMS GT2 drivers’ championship. van Overbeek, who drove with the Lizards from 2004-2009 in the ALMS, has competed seven times at the Rolex 24. Notably, in 2007 he finished third with TRG, in 2004 took the pole and second in GT (and third overall) with Seth Neiman and Mike Rockenfeller in the Flying Lizard No. 74 Porsche and finished third in GT and overall in 2003.
All four drivers will participate in the test January 8-10 at Daytona. The No. 66 will be managed by TRG, with some Lizards at the helm including Thomas Blam (chief strategist in the ALMS), Craig Watkins (chief engineer) and Tommy Sadler (crew chief and co-technical director).
Seth Neiman commented, “I’ve always loved the 24 Hours of Daytona, but given our other commitments, it just hasn’t been practical to run here. Working with our Porsche cousins at TRG we have an opportunity to field a very strong entry. TRG has had consistent success in Grand-Am and I’m confident that they will deliver a solid program. Joerg, Patrick and Johannes have a lot of combined experience here and of course, have shown that they excel in long races. And having Thomas, Craig and Tommy there will bring the familiarity of the Lizard team to the effort.”
About Flying Lizard Motorsports
Flying Lizard Motorsports 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.
For the 2009 season, Flying Lizard was sponsored in the American Le Mans Series by ShoreTel, a leading provider of enterprise IP telephony solutions and eSilicon, a semiconductor company, both based in Sunnyvale, California; and RedlineCoffee.com, a premium coffee company dedicated to motorsport enthusiasts, based in Boulder, Colorado. Team partners include Porsche and Michelin.
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Patrick Long Motorsport wishes to thank all of its partners and supporters for the 2010 season: Porsche, Flying Lizard Motorsports, Troy Lee Designs, Oakley, Club Corp, Leeper’s Stair Products, Speedware Motorsports and SPEEDTV.com.
Porsche – https://www.porsche.com
Oakley – https://www.oakley.com
Club Corp – https://www.clubcorp.com
Troy Lee Designs – https://www.troyleedesigns.com
Speedware Motorsports – https://www.speedwaremotorsports.com
Leeper’s Stair Products – https://www.stairproducts.com/
SpeedTV.com – https://www.speedtv.com