Laguna Seca: Flying Lizard Motorsports qualifying report

Flying Lizard Qualifies 2nd, 4th, and 15th for Season Finale at Laguna Seca

October 17, 2008 -- Monterey, Calif. -- Joerg Bergmeister brought the Flying Lizard Motorsports' No. 45 Porsche into second place in today's qualifying session for the Monterey Sports Car Championships at Laguna Seca. In the No. 46, Patrick Pilet was fourth fastest in class and in the No. 44 Seth Neiman was 15th.

The Lizards, having clinched both the 2008 GT2 drivers and team championships earlier this month at Petit Le Mans, will race for the manufacturers' title at Saturday's 4-hour season-finale at Laguna Seca. With a second-place finish at Petit Le Mans, Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler in the No. 45 Lizard Porsche won the GT2 drivers' championship. (The duo are thirty-one points ahead of Dominik Farnbacher and Dirk Mueller of Tafel Racing in second place, and only 25 points are possible at Laguna Seca.) Johannes van Overbeek and Pilet, whose No. 46 Lizard Porsche was retired at hour eight at Petit after an accident, must finish tenth or better (and complete the required minimum number of laps) to secure third in the GT2 drivers' championship. Darren Law, Neiman and Lonnie Pechnik will drive the No. 44 Lizard Porsche in Saturday's race, with Neiman currently in sixth place in the drivers' championship and Law in seventh.

Stefan Pfeiffer, engineer of the No. 45 Porsche, commented on qualifying, "Overall, we are fairly happy with the result. We had very little time to do setup this morning -- the five red flags during this morning's practice session gave us about 15% of what we normally have to work with. But we are on the front row and we will have a good car for the race."

Patrick Pilet, driver of the No. 46 Porsche, commented on the qualifying session, "The car was pretty good. There are some issues we still need to resolve, but I'm confident we'll have them fixed for the race. Qualfying at Laguna Seca is tough because you have only one or two opportunities to have a real performance lap. We are on the second row for the race tomorrow and Johannes and I are focused on having a solid race and staying out of trouble."

-credit: flm