Flying Lizard Qualifies 2nd and 10th for Lime Rock

July 17, 2009 - Lakeville, CT. - In an exciting GT2 qualifying session today, the Lizards finished 2nd and 10th for Saturday's Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock. Risi Competizione No. 62 took the pole, but only after a late session challenge from Patrick Long in the Flying Lizard No. 45 Porsche. After setting the fastest time halfway through the 20 minute session, Jamie Melo in the No. 62 had pitted to wait out the rest of qualifying. Patrick Long, in the No. 45, who had battled traffic in the first half of qualifying, then pushed to take P1, just beating out the No. 62's fast time. With six minutes left, the No. 62 immediately hit the track again for a flier that edged out Patrick, retaking P1 for the pole. Teammate Seth Neiman qualified the No. 44 tenth on the GT2 grid.

Patrick commented on the session, "There's never a dull moment at Lime Rock. It was a nailbiter: we were pretty far down the roster when we came in for our first refueling halfway through the session and Risi had just set the fastest lap. The engineers had made a lot of improvements over the sessions today; I knew we had a quick race car but I never managed to find one clear lap in that first run because of traffic. Those are the moments when it seems like the pressure can't get any higher: I was confident, but no longer calm. We didn't end up on the pole, but being able to set the provisional pole with just minutes to go was definitely a lot of fun."

The No. 45 Flying Lizard Porsche, driven by Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long, has won in GT2 the last three races in a row and is 21 points ahead of Jaime Melo and Pierre Kaffer in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari. Bergmeister has won at Lime Rock for the last three consecutive years: twice with Flying Lizard (2008 with Wolf Henzler, and 2007 with Johannes van Overbeek), and in 2006 with Patrick Long (Petersen/White Lightning). In the No. 44, Neiman and Johannes van Overbeek will take the car out for its first race on a new chassis, which was replaced after the car was destroyed in an accident at Le Mans in June (running as the No. 80 Porsche).

Race Details
The 2009 Northeast Grand Prix gets the green flag Saturday, July 18 at 2:05 pm Eastern Time. It will be broadcast live on SPEEDTV. In Europe, MotorsTV will broadcast the race tape delayed on Monday, July 27th beginning at 9:15 PM (UK); 9:00 pm CET (Central European Time). Fans can also listen in at www.radiolemans.com and to the Flying Lizard team radio at www.lizardms.com. Also follow the team on Twitter: @FlyingLizard_MS.

Lizard team gear will be available in the paddock at the Flying Lizard store July 17-18. To visit the 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 2009, finishing third in 2005, fourth in 2006, and sixth in 2008.

Flying Lizard is sponsored in the American Le Mans Series 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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