Flying Lizard Qualifies Fifth and Eleventh in GT2 for Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg

April 3, 2009 -- The Flying Lizard No. 45 and No. 44 Porsches qualified fifth and eleventh, respectively, in GT2 today for the Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg. Following close on the heels of the season-opener, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, the St. Petersburg event is a short, 1 hour and 55 minute race held on a 1.8 mile, 14-turn temporary street course established in downtown.

In the No. 45, Patrick Long had the fifth fastest time of the session, which ended early for the No. 45 when Long slid into the tire wall in Turn 10. Long commented, "We were out there to squeeze every inch out of the car. I did two 1:13.4s in a row, but to move up a position, I knew I'd really have to push it. On my last attempt, I ended up in the tire wall. Luckily, there doesn't appear to be too much damage to the car, but obviously, it was not the result we wanted out of the session. We still have some balance to find in the car but in qualifying it was the best it's been all day."

In the No. 44, Seth Neiman used the session to finalize race setup, and qualified eleventh. Joining Long and Neiman for the race will be Joerg Bergmeister in the No. 45 and Darren Law in the No. 44.

On the pole is the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari, with a time of 1:12.892 (Jaime Melo).

Follow the Race
The Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Pete will get the green flag on April 4 at 1:20 pm ET. The race will be broadcast live on ABC, starting at 1:30 pm ET and tape-delayed on MotorsTV in Europe on Sunday, April 5, starting at 4:00 pm CET (Central European Time).

Flying Lizard will broadcast the team radio live during the race and update the team blog throughout race week. For details and schedule, see www.lizardms.com.

To visit the Flying Lizard online 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 coffee club dedicated to motorsport enthusiasts, based in Boulder, Colorado. Team partners include Porsche and Michelin.

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