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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:
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.
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.
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.
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, the team would finish second in the
team standings to the Risi Competizione team.
Drivers Jörg Bermeister and Johannes van Overbeek would also finish second in the series driver standings.
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.
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 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.
Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long also won the GT2 drivers championship.
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, 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 and first in the Drivers Championship 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, 1st in class at Laguna Seca and a 2nd in class finish at Petit Le Mans.
The team managed a 3rd place finish in the GT Season Championship while Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long finished 4th
in the GT Drivers' Championship.
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 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. The team
finished 4th in the GT championship with Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long finishing 5th in the Drivers Championship points.
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. 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 United Sports Car Championship.
2014 (Audi)
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. 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 close second place at the 24 Hours of Daytona.
Luck would soon desert the team, however, with the #35 car managing only two fifth place finishes during the remaining
ten races.
2015 (Team up)
In this year they partnered up with K-Pax for driving in the Pirelli World Challenge, fielding 2 McLarens.
FLM also is going back to his roots by entering the PCA Club Racing with 2 Porsches.
Le Mans
In 2005 the team participated the 24 hours of Le Mans in the GT2 class and finished 3th with drivers Johannes van
Overbeek, Lonnie Pechnik and Seth Neiman.
In 2006 the team drove again with drivers Johannes van Overbaak and Seth Neiman, this time the third driver was
Patrick Long, and became 4th in the GT2 class.
As of 2007 the team got Porsche factory driver Jörg Bergmeister in the car and together with Johannes van Overbeek
and Seth Neiman they drove Le Mans in a by Troy Lee specially design Porsche. Unfortunately they didn't finish the
race because on the ninth an half our mark Johannes reported that he lost 6th gear. Back in the pits they spotted
problem with the transmissin, due to regulations they were not able to fix this and had to retire.
In 2008 the team showed op with another #80 car with the same driver line-up as last year. This time they got to the
finish in GT2 class in 6th place.
For 2009 the team got a new driver for Le Mans, this time Darren Law is driving toghter with Jörg Bergmeister and
Seth Neiman, driving the car to a shameful 14th place.
In 2010 it all went even worse, the same driver line-up did finish, but on a 15th place in LMGT2 class.
So for 2011 the team fielded two cars during the 24, again beautifully designed by Troy Lee the orange #80 with drivers Jörg Bergmeister, Lucas Luhr and Patrick Long were the guys
in the LMGTE Pro, and in blue, the #81 drivers Seth Neiman, Darren Law and Spencer Pumpelly drove in the LMGTE Am class.
The #80 finished in 6th place in class, the #81 lost at the 18 hour mark all drive and had to retire from P2 in class at that time, they were set to victory in class but it couldn't be.
In 2013 again the team brought 2 cars to La Sarthe, this time with nummers #79 and #80, the #80 again in the LMGTE Pro
class with drivers Jörg Bergmeister, Patrick Long and new guy Marco Holzer. In the #79 drivers Seth Neiman, Spencer
Pumpelly and Patrick Pilet(who set the pole in class) drove the LMGTE Am and finish in front om the numer #80 LMGTE Pro car.
But that wasn't hard to do, Patrick Long spun on gravel from another cars, hit the tirewall hard and wasn't
unable to continue to race
In 2013 there wasn't any Lizard to spot on the tracks....
2014, Seth would like to ride for the last time at Le Mans, unfortunately al the Porsche seats were taken, so with some phone calls he came at JMW Motorsports,
they field a Ferrari 458 and had 2 seats left, Seth toke some team members and Spencer Pumpelly to race a last time at Le Mans. They finish 7th in LMGTE Am class.
For more information please visit there site:
Because I am a huge fan of this team, here are al the things I've collected though the years:
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Spark
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Le Mans 2006 Spark
Le Mans
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Le Mans 2006 Spark
Le Mans
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Le Mans 2006 Spark
Le Mans
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Le Mans 2006 Spark
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ALMS |
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Daytona |
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Eligor
"Team Truck"
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Autobarn/Spark (ABSS 050) [LE: 29 of 50 pcs.] Signature |
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Autoart
ALMS 2006 In GT2 class: |
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Autoart AutoArt didn't |
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Minichamps Le Mans Best result: In GT2 class: |
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Autoart
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Spark Le Mans Best result: In LM GTE Pro class: |
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This site was last updated: 01/12/15
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