Series news on Porsche factory drivers

HENZLER JOINS FALKEN PORSCHE LINEUP FOR 2010
Factory driver lineup also confirms Bergmeister, Long to Lizards

Factory driver Wolf Henzler will team with Bryan Sellers in the American Le Mans Series' 2010 GT class, Porsche announced today. The German, who shared the 2008 GT2 title with Jorg Bergmeister, will drive Team Falken Tire's Porsche 911 GT3 RSR with his new American teammate for all nine rounds of the championship.

The news was part of Porsche's unveiling of its driver assignments for the 2010 season. Eight factory drivers will support Porsche customer teams around the world and on endurance racing's biggest stages.

The 34-year-old Henzler is a five-time winner in the Series. All of his 49 starts have come in Porsches, and that will continue into the new season. He has never driven in the Series with Sellers, and the two will make their first start together at the season-opening 58th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida in March.

Sellers and Dominic Cicero entered three races in the first-year Falken program with a Porsche. They closed 2009 with an eighth-place GT2 finish at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Two other Porsche works pilots - Germany's Bergmeister and American Patrick Long - will try to defend their GT2 championship with Flying Lizard Motorsports, which has won the last two class team titles. Long has two championships and Bergmeister four.

"I'm proud to have eight world-class works drivers in our lineup for the 2010 season," says Hartmut Kristen, Head of Motorsport at Porsche. "We know all of them very well and our customer teams can totally rely on their driving skills. In the development and optimization of our race vehicles, these pilots also play an important role and our teams around the world profit from this."

The American Le Mans Series will open its 12th season with America's greatest sports car race, the 58th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida from March 17-20. The green flag will fall at 10:35 a.m. on Saturday, March 20 with live coverage on SPEED.

The annual American Le Mans Series Winter Test is scheduled for February 22- 23, also at Sebring International Raceway.

-source: alms