January 30, 2011 – Daytona Beach, FL – The No. 45 Flying Lizard Porsche- powered Riley Daytona Prototype – driven by Joerg Bergmeister, Patrick Long, Johannes van Overbeek and Seth Neiman – was retired from the 2011 Rolex 24 at Daytona in Hour 23, with just 90 minutes left to go in the 24-hour race. The No. 45 was eleventh (overall and in class) at the time of retirement.

Team principal Seth Neiman added, “At the end of his final stint, Joerg lost drive, and there was a small fire in the engine bay. He’s fine, but the car was done. We don’t really know what happened yet, but at this point it seems likely that there was more damage than we realized from the incidents early in the race. The entire team did a fantastic job this weekend – from preparing the car to qualifying on the pole to running an extremely hard, consistent race.”

The No. 45 finished thirteenth in class and twenty-first overall. Bergmeister ran the fastest lap of the race, with a time of 1:40.417.

For details on the race, read the Lizard race updates and race blog

Up Next for the Lizards
Our next event is the ALMS Winter Test at Sebring, February 9-10, 2011.

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 GT2 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 GT2 titles: drivers’ championship (Bergmeister and Long in 09, Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler in 08); 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.

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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