With three races left to go in the ALMS season, Flying Lizard heads to Canada next week for Round 8 of the American Le Mans Series season: the 2009 Grand Prix of Mosport on Sunday, August 30. The driver lineup for the race is Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long in the No. 45 Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR and Darren Law and Johannes van Overbeek in the No. 44. van Overbeek and Law are trading off driving duties in the No. 44 this season with Seth Neiman and will drive together for next weekend’s event.
In the No. 45, Bergmeister and Long are leading the ALMS GT2 driver championship, 39 points ahead of Jaime Melo and Pierre Kaffer in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari. The Lizard duo has held the championship lead since the second race of the season and won five races in a row at St. Pete, Long Beach, Utah, Lime Rock and Mid-Ohio. Flying Lizard also holds a 39-point lead in the ALMS GT2 team championships. There are three races left to go: Mosport, a 2-hour and 45 minute race, Petit Le Mans, which runs 10 hours or 1000 miles, and Laguna Seca, which is a four-hour race.
Chief Strategist Thomas Blam discussed Mosport strategy: ‘It’s tough at this point in the season: we have to balance our effort to win the race with making sure that we finish ahead of the No. 62 Risi Ferrari. With six or seven GT2 cars now positioned to win and all running very close together, we have to weigh fighting for individual positions with the BMWs and Corvettes with trying to maintain our point lead over the Ferrari. We saw at Road America how quickly things can change: we were in solid third, next thing you know we are seventh and the Ferarri is in second and suddenly the point gap is closed up.’
Blam reflected on the increased competition in GT2, ‘It was clear at Road America how competitive the BMWs have become and how competitive the Corvettes have been right out of the box; I expect most of the GT2 field to be strong at Mosport. Flying Lizard should have a stronger package here than at Road America, where the extra weight that we’ve run since Mid-Ohio definitely hurt us on the high speed straights and hard braking zones. Mosport is a momentum track: it is mostly flowing, fast corners, and the extra weight should not be as much of an issue.’
From a strategy perspective, Blam added, ‘Mosport should be a two-stop race. Fuel consumption is good because the drivers do not need to be hard on the throttle continuously as they carry speed through the corners. And even though it’s one of the fastest and most daunting tracks on the ALMS circuit, the number of cautions is usually low, probably because the drivers instinctively understand how high consequence the track is and drive accordingly. Also, the Challenge Porsches won’t be running at this race, which will make managing traffic much easier for the rest of the field.’
Follow the Race
The race gets the green flag at 3:05 pm ET on Sunday, August 30. It will be televised live on SpeedTV in the USA and tape-delayed on MotorsTV in Europe, starting on Sunday Sept. 6 beginning at 5:00 pm and 6:00 pm CET.
Fans can listen to Flying Lizard team radio on raceday and read race reports on the team blog at www.lizardms.com. Follow the team on Twitter @FlyingLizard_MS or to receive text updates on your mobile phone send FLMS to 30364
- Flying Lizard Motorsports
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