No. 80: Bergmeister, Long and Luhr; No. 81: Law, Neiman and Pumpelly

May 10, 2011 – Flying Lizard announced today the driver lineup for the 2011 24 Heures du Mans, June 11-12 at the Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, France. Joerg Bergmeister (Germany), Patrick Long (USA) and Lucas Luhr (Germany) will team in the Flying Lizard No. 80 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR in the GTE Pro class*. Darren Law (USA), Seth Neiman (USA) and Spencer Pumpelly (USA) will pilot the Flying Lizard No. 81 Porsche in the GTE Am class.

All six drivers have significant endurance racing experience. Bergmeister and Long are both Porsche factory drivers and drive the Flying Lizard No. 45 Porsche in the ALMS. Bergmeister has won the last three consecutive ALMS GT driver championships with Flying Lizard (2009-2011); two of those with Patrick Long (2010-2011). Bergmeister is five-time ALMS GT driver champion and Long has won the title three times.

Bergmeister has competed at Le Mans nine times; four years with Flying Lizard (2007- 2010). He won Le Mans in GT2 in 2004 (with Long) and has finished on the podium three times. Bergmeister has won the Rolex 24 at Daytona three times: GT in 2009, both GT and overall in 2003 and GT in 2002.

Long has competed at Le Mans seven times and has won the race twice in GT (2004 and 2007). Among other notable results, Long has won Daytona in 2009, Petit Le Mans three times (2005-2007) and Sebring in 2005.

This will be Luhr’s first time driving with Flying Lizard. He has driven with Bergmeister and Long before: the trio won at Sebring in 2005 with Petersen White Lightning. Luhr has competed in six Le Mans races and has won in class twice: 2002 with The Racer’s Group and 2003 with Alex Job Racing. Luhr has won in class at the 24 Hours of Nurburgring (2006), the Spa 24 Hours (2005), Petit Le Mans (2002), Daytona (2001) and five times at Sebring. Luhr has five ALMS championship titles: 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2008.

In the No. 81 Porsche, Law and Neiman will team up again for their third Le Mans together. The duo drives the No. 44 Flying Lizard Porsche in the ALMS. 2011 will be Neiman’s seventh Le Mans entry; in 2005 he finished third in class in the Flying Lizard No. 80 (with Johannes van Overbeek and Lonnie Pechnik). Among his distance race results, Neiman has finished second in class twice at Daytona (2010 and 2004) and second at Sebring in 2008.

Law has competed twice at Le Mans, both years with Flying Lizard. In 2009, Law won overall at the 2009 Rolex 24 at Daytona; notable ALMS finishes include second at Sebring (with Neiman and Alex Davison) in 2008 in the No.44 and second in GT2 at Long Beach and Detroit (with Long) in 2007.

Pumpelly joins the No. 81 in his first race with Flying Lizard and his first 24 Heures du Mans. For the last five years he has competed in the Grand-Am Series with The Racer’s Group. He has won twice in GT at the Rolex 24 at Daytona (2011 and 2006) and finished second and third in 2009 and 2008, respectively.

*Beginning in 2011, the newly named GT Endurance category comprises two classes: GTE Pro and GTE Am. For details, see www.lemans.org.

Follow the Race
The 24 Heures du Mans will get the green flag at 15.00h CET (6:00 am PT) on Saturday June 11. The race will be broadcast live in its entirety on Eurosport in Europe and partial coverage on SpeedTV in the United States. Radio Le Mans will broadcast live English language radio coverage. Flying Lizard will broadcast the team radio live throughout the race; read the team race blog for frequent team updates at www.lizardms.com.

About Flying Lizard Motorsports
Flying Lizard Motorsports has competed in the American Le Mans Series GT class since 2004. The team has finished in the top three in the ALMS GT drivers’ and team championships every year since 2004. In 2010, Flying Lizard No. 45 drivers Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long won a hard-fought battle for the GT drivers’ championship. In 2009 and 2008, the team swept all ALMS GT titles: drivers’ championship (Bergmeister and Long in 2009, Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler in 2008); Flying Lizard won the team championship; and Porsche won the manufacturer championship. In 2009, the Flying Lizard No. 44 Porsche also won the Michelin Green X Challenge championship.

Flying Lizard has also competed in the 24 Heures du Mans from 2005 through 2010, finishing third in 2005, fourth in 2006, and sixth in 2008.

The team is sponsored in the ALMS by Openwave Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: OPWV), a global software innovator delivering context-aware mediation and messaging solutions for communication service providers and eSilicon, a semiconductor company. Visit the team website at www.lizardms.com. For the latest team racing apparel and Porsche gear visit the Flying Lizard stores online and in the paddock.

The privateer team is based in Sonoma, California.

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