Flying Lizard leaves Daytona today after a successful test of the No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. Over the three-day test, drivers Joerg Bergmeister (Germany), Patrick Long (USA), Mike Rockenfeller (Germany), and Seth Neiman (USA) took the Porsche through its paces in preparation for the 2012 Rolex 24 At Daytona race, January 28-29.
Driver Perspectives
Patrick Long:“The driver objective for Daytona test days is two-fold: get a balance with the Porsche and get comfortable with the car. By the time we get to race week, we need to have completely sorted through ergomomics issues and be 100 percent with the car. This week, everything came together seamlessly: with Flying Lizard and John Wright’s team we worked through all of our objectives.”
Long added, “It’s a huge GT field this year. I’m confident that the Porsche will be competitive, but of course we won’t really know how things stack up until the race. Over the last few days, we stayed focused on our own program; I think we’re well on our way to having a solid car that drives well through the entire stint.”
Mike Rockenfeller:“It’s great to be back at Daytona. It’s been a while since I’ve driven a Cup car so it was important to have the time to get used to it again. We had time this week to try a lot of things on the car. We’ve still got some work to do to get to race setup, but overall I’m happy with what we accomplished. GT competition is really strong: both internally with all of the other Porsches and the other manufacturers. It’s going to be a wild race. We need to have an easy car to drive and find our rhythm early on. I’m happy to be back here and with the Lizards again.”
Joerg Bergmeister:“We are still learning the car and the tires but we made a lot of progress over the test. The competition in GT is going to be tough: there are over 20 Porsches alone and a lot of other manufacturers with good cars and lineups. All signs point to GT being even more challenging than the DP class was in 2011.”
Rolex 24 At Daytona Details
The Rolex 24 At Daytona gets the green flag on Saturday, January 28 at 3:30 pm ET. The race will be broadcast live in the U.S. on SpeedTV (select broadcast hours – see your local listings) and also in Europe on MotorsTV. Flying Lizard will broadcast the team radio live and offer a real time race blog: for details see www.lizardms.com.
Flying Lizard at Daytona
2012 will be Flying Lizard’s fourth year at the Rolex 24 At Daytona. In 2011, the GT team fielded their first prototype: the No. 45 Porsche-powered Riley DP. After a promising start from the pole (Bergmeister) and having set the fastest race lap, the No. 45 was retired at hour 23 after a challenging race. In 2010, the No. 67 Flying Lizard/TRG Porsche GT3 Cup finished second in GT. In 2005 the No. 75 Porsche finished thirteenth, and in 2004, the No. 74 Flying Lizard Porsche GT3 Cup was second in GT and third overall.
Bergmeister has won three times here: in GT in 2009 (with Patrick Long), in GT and overall in 2003, and in GT in 2002. Rockenfeller won overall in 2010.
Source: Flying Lizard Motorsports
Photo: Chapman Autosport
