Flying Lizard Motorsports

Flying Lizard Motorsports
Motor racing team
Founded	2003
Country	United States
Team Principal(s)	Seth Neiman
Current series	American Le Mans Series, Rolex Sports Car Series
Drivers
Drivers' titles	3 (2008, 2009, 2010)
Teams' titles	2 (2008, 2009)

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 #45 996 RSR at Laguna Seca.

The #45 Flying Lizard Motorsport's Porsche 911 GT3-RSRs competing in the American Le Mans Series.

2004-06

In 2004, the Flying Lizard squad finished second in GT2 in the ALMS Drivers’ and Team Championships.

In 2005, the team finished 3rd in the ALMS GT2 Team Championship. The team also competed, for the first time, in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2005. The #80 car, piloted by Johannes van Overbeek, Lonnie Pechnik and Seth Neiman finished 3rd in the GT2 class.

In 2006, the team ran two 996-generation Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs (No. 44 and No. 45) in the complete 10-race ALMS season in North America. The team then fielded its #80 Porsche in the 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans in France, taking a 4th in GT2 class finish.

2007 Season

For the 2007 season, the team took delivery of two brand new 997 Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs in December 2006. On March 5, 2007, the team announced its driver line-up for the 2007 season opener, the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring. 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 finish second in the series driver standings.

2008 Season

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.

2009 Season

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 4rd 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 it's second consecutive championship win. Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long also won the GT2 drivers championship.

2010 season

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.

2011 Petit Le Mans

Flying Lizard Motorsports at the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans.

2011 Season

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.

2012 Season

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.

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 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
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

External links

• Flying Lizard Motorsports - Official Team Website
• American Le Mans Series - American Le Mans Series Official Website