Bergmeister and Long Look to Hold Their GT Championship Lead
Flying Lizard Motorsports returns to ALMS racing this weekend for round four of the season at Miller Motorsports Park near Salt Lake City. In the No. 45 Flying Lizard Porsche, Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long currently lead the GT championship after two consecutive wins at Long Beach and Laguna Seca. In the No. 44 Porsche, Seth Neiman and Darren Law team up again, hoping to shake the bad luck that has dogged the No. 44 since Sebring.
Flying Lizard chief strategist Thomas Blam commented, “Historically we’ve been fast at Miller: the No. 45 won in 2008 and 2009 and was on the pole at both races. However, things have evolved rapidly this year in the ALMS: BMW has come on very strong over the season and the Corvettes and the Ferraris have been consistently fast. I expect that this will be the first race in which we see how the GT field really stacks up.”
In the month-long break since the last ALMS race at Laguna Seca, the Lizards travelled to Le Mans, France for their sixth Le Mans program. An early retirement of the No. 80 Porsche put an abrupt end to their podium hopes. Blam continued, “The last few years have been challenging ones for us at Le Mans, but we’ve learned that regardless of the outcome there, we need to transition smoothly back to the rhythm of ALMS racing. We are less than a third of the way through the ALMS season so the next few races are pivotal. And this one is going to be tough – any one of 10 cars could run up front in GT. From a strategy perspective, we could see a race with very few or no cautions. If that happens, a chance at the podium depends on being able to get to the front of the field on speed and then hold that position without losing any advantage in the pits.”
The Lizards tested at Utah earlier this year. Flying Lizard Chief Engineer Craig Watkins commented, “At the test in April we learned quite a bit about what the car and tires need at this track. It will be much warmer this weekend so not everything that we learned at the test will be applicable, but hopefully we’ll have a good start on our setup. At this circuit, we have to balance getting enough downforce for the many long, high-speed turns without sacrificing the speed required for the fast sections. Managing tire wear will be crucial: we have to understand exactly how the tires will wear through the stint given the heat and the possibility that we will have limited cautions.”
Follow the Race
The race will get the green flag on Sunday July 11 at 2:35 pm MT (1:35 pm PT/4:35 pm ET). It will be broadcast live on SpeedTV starting at 2:30 pm MT and tape delayed on MotorsTV in Europe, starting Sun, July 18 at 16.45h GMT; 17.45h 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.
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