Flying Lizard Motorsports

Flying Lizard Motorsports

Founded	2003
Team principal(s)	Tommy Sadler, Thomas Blam, Darren Law
Current series	Pirelli World Challenge, United SportsCar Championship
Former series	American Le Mans Series Rolex Sports Car Series
Teams' Championships	3 (2008, 2009, 2013)
Drivers' Championships	3 (2008, 2009, 2010)

The Flying Lizard Motorsports group is a motorsport team from Sonoma, California, formed by Seth Neiman in early 2003. The team has competed in the full American Le Mans Series season as well as the 24 Hours of Daytona since 2004. The Lizards have also been Porsche Motorsport North America's development partner from 2007 to 2012. The team helped develop the first- and second-generation 997 GT3 RSR as well as bring it to victory several times in its six-year run in the series.

American Le Mans Series

The #45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3-RSR at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

The #44 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3-RSRs at the 2011 Petit Le Mans.

2004-06 (Beginnings)

The 2004 American Le Mans Series season saw Flying Lizard Motorsports and drivers Darren Law and Johannes van Overbeek finish 2nd in the GT2 team and drivers championship.^[1][2]

In 2005, the team finished 3rd in the ALMS GT2 Team Championship with drivers Johannes van Overbeek and Jon Fogarty finishing 5th in the GT2 drivers championship.^[3][4]

In 2006, the team finished 3rd in the GT2 team championship and driver Johannes van Overbeek finished 2nd in the drivers championship while his teammate, Wolf Henzler finished 4th.^[5][6]

2007-12 (Factory Support)

For the 2007 season, the team took delivery of two brand new 997 Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs. Team also became Porsche Motorsport North America's development partner and received factory support from Porsche. Drivers Johannes van Overbeek and Jörg Bergmeister and the new addition of Marc Lieb shared duties of driving the #45 car, while Darren Law, Seth Neiman, and Lonnie Pechnik shared the #44 car. After the #45 car won three times in 2007, including the prestigious Petit Le Mans,^[7] the team would finish second in the team standings to the Risi Competizione team.^[8] Drivers Jörg Bermeister and Johannes van Overbeek would also finish second in the series driver standings.^[9]

For the 2008 season, the Flying Lizard team continued on in its fifth consecutive season in the GT2 class of the American Le Mans series. For this season, the team expanded into a three car operation with three Porsche 2008 911 GT3 RSRs. In the #45 car, previous season driver Jorg Bergmeister was joined by Wolf Henzler for the full season of competition with third driver Marc Lieb. Johannes van Overbeek and the new addition of Patrick Pilet piloted the team's #46 entry full-time with guest driver Richard Lietz. In the #44 entry, Darren Law and Seth Neiman with guest driver Alex Davison piloted the car. The #45 car of Bergmeister and Henzler was in tight contention with the Tafel Racing squad of Dominik Farnbacher and Dirk Müller, and at the end of the season emerged the overall points winners, giving Flying Lizard Motorsports their first ever GT2 class championship.^[10]

For 2009, Flying Lizard Motorsports back moved to a two car squad with the returning GT2 class champion #45 car being piloted by Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long for the majority of the races with Marc Lieb as the reserve third driver for longer races. The #44 car will be piloted by Seth Neiman and Darren Law for the majority of the races with Johannes van Overbeek as the reserve driver. After coming in 4th at the season opener at Sebring^[11] with a heavily damaged car, the #45 team took the class win in the following 5 races. At the following two races at Road America and Mosport they faced much tougher competition with a greatly improved Rahal Letterman Racing BMW team and a new Corvette Racing team. The #45 managed 3rd at Mosport and 4th at Road America but came back to claim first place in GT2 at the season finale in Monterey, California. Winning 6 out of 10 races, the #45 car won the GT2 team championship giving the team its second consecutive championship win.^[12] Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long also won the GT2 drivers championship.^[13]

For 2010, Flying Lizard Motorsports continued running two cars. The two-time GT2 championship winning #45 car, driven by Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long with Marc Lieb as the reserve third driver, competed alongside its sister car, the #44, driven by Seth Neiman and Darren Law with Richard Lietz as the reserve third driver. The Lizards faced fierce competition from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Risi Competizione. After finishing 4th at the 12 hours of Sebring,^[14] the #45 car went on to take first place in its class at Long Beach, Laguna Seca, Lime Rock Park and Mosport. The Lizards placed second in the Team Championship^[15] and first in the Drivers Championship^[16] thanks to Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long. This gave Flying Lizard Motorsports and Bergmeister three consecutive Driver Championship titles.

For the 2011 season the team utilized the brand new second-generation 997 GT3 RSR. Both the #44 and #45 car were piloted by the same team as the year before, with the exception of Marco Holzer replacing Richard Lietz as reserve third driver in the #45 car. After finishing second in GT2 Championship the year before, Rahal Letterman Racing came back to fight even harder against the Flying Lizard Motorsports group. The #45 car managed a 2nd in class at Lime Rock,^[17] 1st in class at Laguna Seca^[18] and a 2nd in class finish at Petit Le Mans.^[19] The team managed a 3rd-place finish in the GT Season Championship^[20] while Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long finished 4th in the GT Drivers' Championship.^[21]

In 2012 the team took deliver of two brand new second-gereration GT3 RSRs. This years car has a front and rear track that has been widened by 1.9 inches^[22] allowing for much wider tires giving more grip. The Flying Lizard Motorsports team struggled to find speed and consistency with the new car. The #45 car managed a win at Lime Rock Park after a fierce battle with Corvette Racing and Extreme Speed Motorsports. The team also managed a win at Mosport but was disqualified after failing a stall test at the end of the race.^[23] The team finished 4th in the GT championship^[24] with Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long finishing 5th in the Drivers Championship points.^[25]

2013 (Transition to GTC)

With the development of the 997 GT3 RSR ending, the team's relationship with Porsche Motorsport North America was discontinued. On November 15, 2012, Flying Lizard Motorsports announced that they would transition to competing in the GT Challenge category.^[26] The team fielded a two car team for what would be the final season of the American Le Mans Series before it merged with the Rolex Sports Car Series to form the Tudor United SportsCar Championship in 2014. With the team winning four races of the ten round season, including a victory at the season finale, Petit Le Mans, drivers of the #45 car, Spencer Pumpelly and Nelson Canache Jr, would finish second in the GTC drivers' championship behind the Alex Job Racing's Jeroen Bleekemolen and Cooper Macneil and the team would claim its third ALMS Teams' Championship and their first in the GTC class.^[27][28]

The #35 Flying Lizard Motorsports Audi R8 LMS at the 2014 6 Hours of Watkins Glen

United Sports Car Championship

After competing with Porsches since its inception, the Flying Lizard team announced on November 11, 2013 that it would partner with Audi Sport Customer Racing to campaign a two car Audi R8 LMS effort in the newly formed Tudor United SportsCar Championship GT Daytona Class.^[29] Seth Neiman and Dion von Moltke would team in the #35 car Nelson Canache Jr. and Spencer Pumpelly sharing the #45 car. The season began with a last lap battle at the 24 Hours of Daytona, resulting in the first-place finishing car to receive a penalty for intent for avoidable contact, awarding Flying Lizard as the winners.^[30] Five hours later, the penalty was revoked, moving the Lizard squad to second place. The team finished out the season with four top-five finishes.

For 2015, the team announced they would run a partial season in United SportsCar, in addition to running a full season in Pirelli World Challenge and Porsche Cup of America. The team ran five races with the Audi R8 LMS throughout the season: the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Monterey Grand Prix, Lone Star Le Mans and Petit Le Mans.^[31] The 2015 drivers included: Tomonobu Fujii, Satoshi Hoshino, Robert Thorne, German Markus Winkelhock, Colin Thompson, Marco Holzer, Guy Cosmo, Patrick Byrne, Mike Vess and Jason Hart. The team's highlight of the season included a top-5 finish at Petit Le Mans, which was canceled with only 7 hours and 51 minutes of the 10-hour race completed.^[32]

Pirelli World Challenge

Flying Lizard partnered with championship winning team K-PAX Racing in 2015 to enter two McLaren 650S GT3s for a full season in the Pirelli World Challenge GT championship.^[33] With McLaren GT factory driver Kevin Estre and K-PAX veteran Robert Thorne, the unified effort had a successful first season, earning four wins and 8 podiums.^[34] Estre proved to be a front runner, winning Round 2 at Circuit of the Americas by over 30 seconds in torrential downpour, establishing himself early as a championship contender.^[35]

Results

American Le Mans Series

United SportsCar Championship

Pirelli World Challenge

24 Hours of Le Mans Results

Year	Class	No	Tyres	Car	Team	Drivers	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2005	GT2	80	M	Porsche 996 GT3-RS Porsche 3.6L Flat-6	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Johannes van Overbeek Lonnie Pechnik Seth Neiman	323	13th	3rd
2006	GT2	80	M	Porsche 996 GT3-RS Porsche 3.6L Flat-6	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Johannes van Overbeek Patrick Long Seth Neiman	309	18th	4th
2007	GT2	80	M	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR Porsche 3.8L Flat-6	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Johannes van Overbeek Seth Neiman Jörg Bergmeister	124	43rd	DNF
2008	GT2	80	M	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR Porsche 3.8L Flat-6	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Johannes van Overbeek Seth Neiman Jörg Bergmeister	289	32nd	6th
2009	GT2	80	M	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Darren Law Seth Neiman Jörg Bergmeister	194	45th	14th
2010	GT2	80	M	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Darren Law Seth Neiman Jörg Bergmeister	61	46th	15th
2011	LMGTE Pro	80	M	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Patrick Long Lucas Luhr Jörg Bergmeister	310	18th	6th
LMGTE Am	81	M	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Darren Law Seth Neiman Spencer Pumpelly	211	32nd	DNF
2012	LMGTE Am	79	M	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Patrick Pilet Seth Neiman Spencer Pumpelly	313	27th	4th
LMGTE Pro	80	M	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Patrick Long Marco Holzer Jörg Bergmeister	114	39th	DNF
2014	LMGTE AM	66	M	Ferrari 458 GTE	JMW Motorsports	Abdulaziz Al-Faisal Seth Neiman Spencer Pumpelly	327	27th	7th

24 Hours of Daytona Results

Year	Class	No	Car	Team	Drivers	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2004	GT	74	Porsche GT3 Cup	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Johannes van Overbeek Seth Neiman Lonnie Pechnik Peter Cunningham Mike Rockenfeller	523	3rd	2nd
2010	GT	67	Porsche GT3 Cup	TRG/ Flying Lizards	Jorg Bergmeister Patrick Long Seth Neiman Johannes van Overbeek	703	9th	2nd
2011	DP	45	Porsche Riley	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Jorg Bergmeister Patrick Long Seth Neiman Johannes van Overbeek	654	22nd	13th
2014	GTD	35	Audi R8 LMS	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Seth Neiman Dion von Moltke Alessandro Latif Filipe Albuquerque	661	22nd	5th
45	Audi R8 LMS	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Spencer Pumpelly Tim Pappas Nelson Canache Jr. Markus Winkelhock	662	19th	2nd
2015	GTD	45	Audi R8 LMS	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Markus Winkelhock Robert Thorne Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii	670	24th	10th

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Flying Lizard Motorsports.

• Official Flying Lizard Motorsports Team website
• Flyinglizardstore.com: About the Flying Lizard Racing Team
• American Le Mans Series website
• Flying Lizard Motorsports: TUDOR United Sportscar Championship Racing Team