Joerg Bergmeister qualified the No. 45 Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR sixth in GT with a time of 2:02.334 for Saturday’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Gianmaria Bruni put the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari on the GT pole with a time of 2:01.561. The No. 44 Porsche elected to start on sticker tires and will start from the back of the GT grid.
Bergmeister commented on the session, “Of course you always hope that you could have qualified better. This morning we made good progress on our race setup, but we didn’t have the car for today’s qualifying. I’m confident that we’ll have a solid racecar for tomorrow.”
Craig Watkins, Flying Lizard chief engineer added, “We’ve been focused on putting a good, consistent car on the course for each session this week. This is going to be an extremely tough race; we won’t really know all that BMW, Corvette, Ferrari and the others have until the green flag. And adding to the complexity is the large field of more than 50 cars; many of those are international teams which are not as familiar with the ALMS environment. It’s going to be a very challenging twelve hours.”
The ALMS season-opener will get the green flag on Saturday, March 19 at 10:30 am ET. The Lizard driver lineup is Bergmeister (Germany) Patrick Long (USA) and Marc Lieb (Germany) in the No. 45; Neiman (USA), Darren Law (USA), and Marco Holzer (Germany) in the No. 44. Bergmeister, Long, Lieb and Holzer are all Porsche Works drivers.
Lieb has been a guest driver with the Lizards in the ALMS endurance races since 2006. In 2010, Lieb won the 24 Heures du Mans in GT2 (with Richard Lietz/Wolf Henzler; Team Felbermayr) and was 2010 Le Mans Series GT champion (with Lietz; Team Felbermayr). Holzer raced with Law and Neiman in the No. 44 for the first time at the 2010 Petit Le Mans. In 2010, Holzer competed in both the FIA GT3 series and the Le Mans Series (Prospeed), with a notable podium finish at the 24 Heures du Mans (BMS Scuderia Italia).
Bergmeister and Long have won the ALMS GT drivers’ championship for the last two consecutive years (2009 and 2010), both with Flying Lizard in the No. 45. Bergmeister is five-time ALMS GT drivers’ champion (2005-2006 and 2008-2010); three of those titles were driving with Flying Lizard (2008 through 2010). Long has won the ALMS GT drivers’ title three times, all with Bergmeister: 2005, and 2009- 2010.
- Flying Lizard Motorsport
Looking for more? Have a look below.
- Marc Lieb and Marco Holzer to join Flying Lizard at Petit Le Mans
- Flying Lizard Announces 2010 Le Mans Program: Bergmeister, Law and Neiman to Return in the No. 80
- Flying Lizard No. 45 to Start on GT2 Pole in Saturday’s Sebring 12-Hour
- Flying Lizard to Field Two Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs for the Complete 2010 ALMS Season
- Flying Lizard Fan Activities at Sebring: New Team Info and Gear Center Opens
