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St. Pete: Flying Lizard race report
Flying Lizard 2nd and 4th at St. Pete in Second Consecutive Podium Finish March 31, 2007 -- St. Petersburg, Florida -- In a chaotic race with five yellow flags in two hours, the Lizards came through unscathed to finish second and fourth in GT2 ...
Published: Apr 2, 2007, 5:21 AM
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Flying Lizard 2nd and 4th at St. Pete in Second Consecutive Podium Finish
March 31, 2007 -- St. Petersburg, Florida -- In a chaotic race with five yellow flags in two hours, the Lizards came through unscathed to finish second and fourth in GT2 out of the 10-car field at today's Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg. The walls of the downtown street course claimed more than a few cars during today's two hour and 45 minute race, with two of the leading GT2 cars being taken out late in the race. In one serious incident, the No. 31 Petersen/White Lightning Ferrari made heavy contact with the driver's side wall, catching fire in the aftermath. Driver Thomas Enge was removed from the car and quickly transported to the local medical center, where he was reported to be recovering.
In the No. 45 Porsche, although Jorg Bergmeister and Johannes van Overbeek reported very low track grip and the crew had to make multiple in-race adjustments to the roll-bar to improve handling, a combination of solid pit strategy and luck helped deliver the team's second consecutive second place finish.
In the No. 44 Porsche, Darren Law and Lonnie Pechnik narrowly missed a podium, finishing in fourth place just behind the No. 21 Panoz. Law drove nearly two hours of the race, enduring brutally hot cockpit conditions and a tense, busy racetrack, before handing over to Pechnik to finish out the race.
Chief strategist Thomas Blam commented on the No. 45: "We had problems with the setup of our front roll bar from the beginning. It got worse and worse but we were finally able to get it under control late in the race. We didn't have the fastest car today but we kept out of trouble and are happy with the finish. We feel badly for Petersen and Rahal Letterman - they both were quick all weekend and had a chance to win the race today."
Jorg Bergmeister, driver of the No. 45 Porsche, said, "We had more than our share of luck today. The race didn't start well for us: we got caught up by one of the Audis at the beginning and then pitted so late in the first yellow that we lost some time, coming out of the pits under green. On the next yellow, we got caught up by the Audi again right before the yellow and it cost us a lap. We were not able to fully recover, but given all that happened, we were happy with the result."
Flying Lizard is up next on April 14 at the Grand Prix of Long Beach.
-credit: flm
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