September 2, 2006–Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada–The Flying Lizard No. 45 and No. 44 Porsches are fifth and ninth, respectively, on the provisional grid for the Labor Day Grand Prix of Mosport. However, once the final grid is complete, the team anticipates that they will start from third and sixth positions. This is the result of three GT2 cars having to start from the rear of the grid because their drivers were unavailable for the practice sessions, which is required by IMSA regulations.

The qualifying session was cancelled today due to heavy rain as the tail end of Hurricane Ernesto hit the Toronto area. The teams ran two practice sessions earlier today, but by the end of the second session, the weather had degraded substantially and cars were having a tough time staying on the track. In lieu of qualifying, starting positions were determined by each car’s fastest time over the three practice sessions held today and Friday. Johannes van Overbeek in the No. 45 and Lonnie Pechnik in the No. 44 set the team’s fastest times in those sessions.

The driver line-up for Mosport will be van Overbeek, who is leading in the ALMS drivers’ GT2 championship points, and Marc Lieb in the No. 45 Porsche. Lieb is filling in for Johannes’ regular teammate Wolf Henzler who has a scheduling conflict with the Mosport race. (Henzler will be back with van Overbeek for Petit Le Mans and Laguna Seca.) Lonnie Pechnik and Seth Neiman will team up once again in the team’s No. 44 Porsche. The team is leading in the ALMS GT2 team championship points as they head into the eighth of the 10-race season.

“It was a skating rink out there today,” said van Overbeek of the afternoon session. “This is a tough track in the rain: if something happens, you are likely to impact the wall: there’s no runoff and no time to recover. We needed to run today to make sure we have a rain race setup in case it rains tomorrow, but it was tough to keep it together out there.”

From the Pits
The Labor Day Grand Prix of Mosport starts at 3 pm ET on Sunday, Sept 3. The race will be broadcast on live on SpeedTV beginning at 3 pm. The race will also be broadcast by www.radiolemans.com.

The Lizards normally broadcast radio transmission during each race, but due to lack of Internet connection at the Mosport facility, this feature may not be available at this race. It will be back again at Petit Le Mans in Atlanta.

About Flying Lizard Motorsports
Founded in 2003, the Sonoma, Calif-based Flying Lizard team is competing in its third season of sports car racing with the American Le Mans Series (ALMS). The team is running two Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs — the No. 44 and the No. 45 — in the 10 race ALMS season in North America.

The Flying Lizard squad finished second in GT2 in the 2004 ALMS drivers’ and team championships and third in 2005. In 2005, the team also enjoyed a hard-earned podium finish at their first competition in the historic 24 Heures du Mans race in Le Mans, France. The team was fourth in GT2 at the 2006 24 Heures du Mans.

Flying Lizard is sponsored by several leading technology companies. PortalPlayer, based in San Jose, Calif., is a leading supplier of semiconductor, firmware and software solutions for personal media players and secondary display-enabled notebook computers. iPass, based in Redwood Shores, Calif., provides trusted connectivity services that help enterprises maximize their return on investment in workforce mobility. ShoreTel, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., provides IP telephony solutions and is the fastest growing IP PBX company in the world. eSilicon, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., designs and manufactures custom integrated circuits for the world’s leading electronics companies.

The team is managed by six principals: drivers Johannes van Overbeek, Lonnie Pechnik and Seth Neiman; chief engineer Craig Watkins; crew chief Tommy Sadler; and team manager Eric Ingraham. Visit the team website at www.lizardms.com.