Porsche Road America qualifying report

Bergmeister/Long to Start Fifth on GT Grid in Lizard Porsche; Supercup Teammates Edwards and Bleeekemolen Earn One-Two Slots in GTC for Their Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Teams

#45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR: Jorg Bergmeister, Patrick Long

Photo by: Adriano Manocchia

Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin – August 19 – Two red flags, one of them ending the early afternoon practice session, cut into the qualifying preparation time for the #45 Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, and hindered the team’s final grid position for tomorrow’s American Le Mans Series Time Warner Cable Road America Road Race Showcase, according to factory driver Joerg Bergmeister (Germany).

Bergmeister, who qualified the car and shares the seat with works driver Patrick Long (USA), said the Lizards were trying different setup options when the final red flag came.

“We really didn’t know what we had going into qualifying, and while I was able to get in a decent lap, the car had a little too much oversteer. We will address that tomorrow in warm-up, and concentrate on getting ready for the race. I am still upbeat about the car’s performance, and know that the Lizard’s strategy planning give us a good chance to win tomorrow,” said Bergmeister.

The four cars ahead of the Porsche on the grid include the #56 BMW (Mueller/Hand), #4 Corvette (Magnussen/Gavin), #62 Ferrari (Vilander/Melo), and #55 BMW (Auberlen/Werner). The other Porsche 911 GT3 RSR qualifying results included the second Flying Lizard car - Marco Holzer/Seth Neiman – ninth; Mid-Ohio GT winner – Team Falken Tire – in tenth with Wolf Henzler and Bryan Sellers at the helm; and the Paul Miller Racing Porsche driven by Bryce Miller and Sascha Maassen – 13th.

In the ALMS GT Challenge class, Porsche Supercup worldwide point leader Sean Edwards (England) grabbed the pole in the NGT Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car he will share with Carlos Kauffman and Henrique Cisneros for the four-hour event. Edwards edged Supercup teammate Jeroen Bleekemolen (Netherlands) by less than one-tenth of a second to capture the top spot. Bleekemolen is driving with GTC points leader Tim Pappas in the Black Swan Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. Third is the winner from the last event at Mid-Ohio – the TRG Porsche of Spencer Pumpelly and Duncan Ende.