May 9, 2006–Sonoma, California–Flying Lizard Motorsports heads to Houston this week for the Lone Star Grand Prix of Houston, the second contest of the American Le Mans Series season. The 1.7-mile street circuit at Houston’s Reliant Park will be the first street race for the Lizard team and the first street race that the American Le Mans Series has run since 2003.

Johannes van Overbeek, who will be joined at Houston by Wolf Henzler for the duo’s first race together in the team’s Porsche 911 GT3 RSR No. 45, said, “There will be some fireworks at this race for sure. It’s a newly-created street circuit with tight, twisty turns, few straightaways, and lots of bumps. Needless to say, there’s little margin for error on a small track lined with concrete walls. It’s going to be tough for the faster cars to pass, which will make our job even harder. With the rear engine of the Porsches, we should have good traction off of the slower curves, but with the bumps and the tight turns we’ll definitely have our work cut out for us again in GT2.”

Joining Johannes and Wolf are teammates Seth Neiman and Lonnie Pechnik, who will be at the wheel of the Lizard’s No. 44 Porsche, coming off of their fourth in class finish at Sebring in March.

Lizard crew chief Tommy Sadler added, “Houston will be an entirely different kind of animal than Sebring. Sebring was a test of endurance and durability, Houston is going to be more about managing the complexities of the course and the traffic and staying incident-free. One of the challenges for the teams will be to get to a race setup in such a condensed race schedule. The track will be very green during our track setup time and the first chance we’ll have to drive the cars in race conditions (at night with evening ambient and track temperatures) will be during the race itself. That said, it should be an exciting race and we’re looking forward to our first event in Houston.”

Before the Race

• Meet Lizard driver Johannes van Overbeek at the ALMS driver chat, Thursday May 11, 2:00-2:30 pm CDT in the paddock at the IMSA compound.
• See GT2 qualifying at 6:20 p.m. CDT on May 11.
• PCA members, meet the Lizard drivers at the Porsche Corral Friday May 12, 4:15-4:45.
• Raceday Lizard driver autographs will be signed at the Lizard transporter, Friday May 12, 5:15-6:00.

From the Pits

• The race starts at 8 p.m. CDT on May 12. During the race, follow the team’s progress on the Lizard blog, at www.lizardms.com. American Le Mans Radio coverage and live timing and scoring are at www.americanlemans.com.
• The race will be broadcast at 1 p.m. May 13, EDT on CBS Sports, the first of five straight Series events on the CBS network.

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.

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.