August 1, 2011 – Sonoma, California – Flying Lizard heads to Ohio this week for the American Le Mans Series Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge on August 6, the midway point of the nine-race season. The driver lineup will be Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long in the No. 45 and Seth Neiman and Darren Law in the No. 44.

Mid-Ohio holds fond memories for the Lizards: eight years ago, the new team saw their first ALMS victory here in the No. 45 (with Darren Law and Johannes van Overbeek then behind the wheel). “Standing on the podium for the first time here as a Lizard was an incredible rush,” said Law. “It was only our second race in the ALMS and the team was so new to the whole environment: I think Mid-Ohio will always have a place in our hearts as the race where it all began.” Law is back with the Lizards for Mid-Ohio; this season he is trading off driving duties with Marco Holzer because of scheduling conflicts.

The team hopes to be able to shake the bad luck which has shadowed them since Sebring. After another disappointing race at Mosport, when a mechanical issue took the No. 45 out of contention for the GT win at the one-hour mark, Bergmeister and Long are now sixth in the GT drivers’ championship with 34 points. Neiman is ninth and Law is twelfth. Dirk Mueller and Joey Hand of the No. 56 BMW lead with 80 points. The team is fourth in the team championship and Porsche is fourth in the manufacturers’ championship.

Flying Lizard chief strategist Thomas Blam added, “It’s definitely been a frustrating season so far for the No. 45. We’ve had the speed and have been on pace at every race; we’ve qualified well and have run up front, with seamless pit stops. It’s been tough to not have that translate into race results and not see the finishes that we wanted. We are at the halfway point of the season; hopefully we’ll be able to turn things around here at Mid-Ohio. We’ve won here four of the last eight years – it’s definitely a circuit that the drivers like and the Porsches can excel at.”

Blam continued, “The first post-Long Beach GT performance adjustment will go into effect starting at Mid-Ohio: the Porsches will carry an additional 15kg of weight to run at 1235kg and the BMWs will run a smaller restrictor. We’ll see how that plays out over the rest of the season.”

Follow the Race
The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge broadcast on ESPN2 begins at 10 pm ET on Sunday August 7. ESPN3.com will carry live coverage of qualifying (starting at 2:20 pm ET on Friday Aug 5) and the race (starting at 3:15 pm ET on Saturday August 6). American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón races are also broadcast live in Canada on Rogers SportsNet, in Europe on MotorsTV, and in the Middle East and Latin America on Fox. Check local TV listings for details. Outside of the U.S., the race will be available live at americanlemans.com/live.

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 2011, finishing third in 2005, fourth in 2006, sixth in 2008, and sixth in 2011.

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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