Flying Lizard Qualifies 3rd and 11th in GT2 for Long Beach

April 17, 2009 -- Long Beach, Calif. -- Patrick Long qualified the Flying Lizard No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR third in GT2 and teammate Seth Neiman qualified the No. 44 11th for tomorrow's American Le Mans Series race at Long Beach. *

In the 25-minute qualifying session on Friday, Long clocked the third-fastest time with a 1:20.577. Long had pitted at the fifteen minute mark, holding the fastest time in the session so far. By the twenty minute mark, Long was in third, two-tenths of a second behind the No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche in second. The No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari held the fastest time of 1:20.111. With four minutes left to go, Long returned to the track for another attempt at a fast lap. Unfortunately, on his final flier, he had to negotiate traffic from a slower GT2 car, and had to settle for third in GT2. The No. 87 was second, and Jaime Melo in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari is on the GT2 pole.

Long said, "We bided our time in this session. When I pitted, I was in P1, but we knew that chances were high that some of the cars still out could beat that time. We made the decision to go out on track at the end: I knew that I could find more in the car. It was unfortunate that we didn't get a chance to see that unfold because of the actions of a driver in a slower GT2 car. However, I am really happy with the car setup; we've got a fast car that's strong in the slow turns and can still keep the speed on the fast straights."

For the race on Saturday, Joerg Bergmeister will join Patrick Long in the No. 45 and Darren Law will drive with Seth Neiman in the No. 44. The team is looking for a repeat of their double podium last year here at the 1.968-mile, 11 turn temporary street course in Long Beach.

Flying Lizard narrowly leads in the ALMS GT2 drivers and team championship points, four points ahead of Panoz Team PTG and its drivers Dominik Farnbacher and Ian James, in second place. Porsche is also leading in the manufacturers' championship.

* Although the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari set the GT2 pole, the car will start from the rear of the grid due to a ride height violation. As a result, No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche will start on the pole and the No. 45 will start second.

Follow the Race
The race starts at 4:15 PT, Saturday, April 18. It will be broadcast tape-delayed on ABC on Sunday, April 19, starting at 12:30 pm ET and tape-delayed on MotorsTV in Europe, starting Sunday April 19 at 18:00 CET. Flying Lizard will broadcast their team radio on raceday and a team blog during raceweek and the race. For more info, see www.lizardms.com.

To visit the Flying Lizard store, click here.

About Flying Lizard Motorsports
2009 is the sixth consecutive ALMS season for the Sonoma, California-based GT2 team. Since its first year of competition in 2004, the team has finished every year in the top three in the ALMS GT2 team and drivers' championships. Notably, in 2008, the team won both the ALMS GT2 drivers' (No. 45 Porsche of Joerg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler) and team championships. In 2007, Flying Lizard was second in the ALMS GT2 team championship and No. 45 drivers Johannes van Overbeek and Joerg Bergmeister finished second in the ALMS GT2 drivers' championship.

Flying Lizard has also competed in the 24 Heures du Mans from 2005 through 2008, finishing third in 2005, fourth in 2006, and sixth in 2008.

Flying Lizard is sponsored 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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