Hour 20 Update
11:30 am ET – Daytona Beach Florida – With four hours to go in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the Lizards are P11, with Patrick Long currently behind the wheel. It was a long but uneventful night for the Lizards, capped by a rather dismal three-hour full course caution due to heavy fog.

At the twelve-hour halfway point, Patrick Long had just taken over for Joerg, with the No. 45 in P 12. Patrick clocked through his 90 minute stint with no problems, handing the wheel over to Seth Neiman. 45 minutes into Seth’s stint, after one full course yellow and scheduled front brake work for the No. 45, a prototype in the tires caused yet another full course caution. As the temperature dropped rapidly, iIt looked like we would be underway shortly when dense fog suddenly blanketed the circuit. The short yellow extended into a nearly 3-hour caution period, as officials waited for the fog to clear.

After more than two hours of the fog, Seth pitted, still under yellow, to turn the wheel over to Johannes van Overbeek. When the green flag finally flew around 8 am ET, Johannes was still in P12, 17 laps down on the overall leader and 3 laps down on the next-closest DP competitor. Just over 90 minutes later, the crew took advantage of the next full course yellow for a driver change to Joerg Bergmeister. After working through another series of full couse cautions, Joerg found himself stuck in the lead group of DPs on a restart and focused the last part of his stint on getting through them. At 11 am ET, with 4.5 hours left in the race, Joerg handed the No. 45 over to Patrick, now in P11. At 11:30 am ET, the No. 45 is 17 laps down on the DP leader, and about 5 on the next closest DP .

Hour 12 Update
3:15 am ET Sunday January 30, 2011 – Daytona Beach, FL – Just shy of the half-way point at the 2011 Rolex 24 at Daytona, the Flying Lizard No. 45 Porsche-powered Riley DP is in twelfth position. Patrick Long is in the car in his third stint of the race, following Joerg Bergmeister’s double stint. It’s been a seesaw race for the Lizards: starting from the pole only to fall to the back of the DP pack after an early race incident sent them to the garage for a lengthy repair. Over the last eight hours, the Lizards have clawed their way back to P12 and regained several laps lost during the repair, helped by the numerous cautions so far in the race. With 12 hours to go, the team is focused on staying out of trouble and keeping a consistently fast pace. The No. 45 is 15 laps back from the overall leader, and 5 from the next closest DP.

Hour 8 Update
11:30 pm ET – January 29, 2011 –Daytona Beach, FL – At the 8-hour mark of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the Flying Lizard No. 45 DP has climbed steadily back from the rear of the DP pack to P13. An early race incident required a 35-minute repair in the garage, putting the No. 45 19 laps down from the overall leader just three hours into the race. Rejoining after the repair, Johannes van Overbeek moved the No. 45 back up to P16. Over the next few hours, the Lizards cycled through the driver lineup: Joerg Bergmeister, then Patrick Long, then Seth Neiman; progressing back up to P13. Johannes van Overbeek is now in the car in his second stint of the race. Over the last four hours, with the help of the many cautions, the No. 45 has regained several of the laps lost during the lengthy repair and is now 16 laps down on the overall leader.

Hour 4 Update
7:30 pm ET – January 29, 2011- – Daytona Beach, FL – Just past the four-hour mark, the No. 45 Flying Lizard DP is 15th in class after a lengthy garage repair early in the race pushed the LIzards to the back of the DP pack. Starting from the pole, Joerg Bergmeister had a strong stint, holding P1 for the first hour of the race. Just before the one hour mark, Joerg handed the wheel over to Patrick Long, pitting under green. The first yellow of the race occurred shortly after the Lizard’s first pit stop, and Patrick made a quick pit stop for a fuel top up. By the end of his stint, Patrick had made his way back through the field to P2. At hour 2, Seth Neiman took over under yellow. Neiman was hit by another prototype on the restart, requiring an unplanned pit stop to repair some minor damage and replace the right rear tire. Later in his stint, Neiman was forced to go off course to avoid an incident in front of him. With front damage from the run over the grass, the No. 45 went straight to the garage for repairs. The crew replaced the front splitter, front radiator, and took the opportunity to change rear brake pads which might have required replacement at some point over the race. The No. 45 lost 19 laps during the 35-minute repair. When Johannes van Overbeek took the No. 45 back out on course he was at the back of the GT field. By the end of his stint an hour later, Johannes had worked his way up to P16. Joerg is back in the car for his second stint and is currently P15.

Joerg commented, “We had the quickest car out there for sure. In my stint, I had no problems pulling away from the rest of the field. It was very consistent from the beginning to the end of the stint so I could push the entire way. Even after the setbacks that we had, we will keep on pushing – we still have 20 hours to go. ”

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