The car, which debuted a year ago at Mid-Ohio after Pickett purchased it from Dyson Racing, has now finished on the podium all ten times it has entered a race, with a class win at Sebring (LMP2) and now an overall victory at Lime Rock. Graf now trails Brabham/Pagenaud by only seven points in the championship chase with four races remaining (Pickett did not participate in one race, putting him behind in the points).

In GT, Patrick Long (USA) and Joerg Bergmeister (Germany) bounced back from a disappointing fifth place two weeks ago in Salt Lake City to score their third win of the season in the Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. The victory also vaulted the pair back into the top spot in the driver standings by 14 points, and puts Porsche ahead of BMW in the manufacturers championship by one point.

Greg Pickett started in the Porsche RS Spyder, and drove for the first 45 minutes, avoiding the three accidents which brought out three early yellow flags, and ran fast enough to stay in contact with the leaders. Both the Dyson Mazda and the Intersport Lola were sidelined with mechanical problems, so Graf found himself in second place with fresh tires with two hours to go, and a Honda in front of him that seemed content to not change tires.

When David Brabham got into the Honda with fresh tires and an hour to go, he pushed Graf to the limited, cutting a 13-second lead down to a half-a-second with four minutes to go, when Graf was forced to the inside of the track at the same time Brabham was trying to pass on the inside, and the cars touched. Graf received a stop-and-go penalty for blocking, while Brabham suffered a flat tire. They both came into the pits, but Graf got back on the track before Brabham, clinching the victory.

“Greg Pickett did a great job keeping in touch with the leaders for the first 45 minutes, and I knew I would have to push for my entire two-hour stint to beat Pagenaud and Brabham. It was hot and traffic was bad, but the Muscle Milk crew came through with great green-flag pit stops. The team engineers from Porsche and Michelin were key to our win, and we are proud to be the first U.S. customer team to score an overall win for the Porsche RS Spyder – a great race car. We didn’t take tires near the end at Salt Lake City, and we decided to give ourselves better grip here late,” said Graf.

On the stop-and-go penalty at the end, Graf said he had nowhere to go.

“I was forced to the edge of the track– I did not even know Brabham was there. I didn’t mean to block him, but I understand the officials have to call what they see. I did not know he had a flat tire until afterwards, and my stop-and-go beat his flat tire change out of the pits,” said Graf.

ALMS GT Class

Patrick Long put the Lizard Porsche on the pole during a driving rain storm at the track on Friday, but pointed out that all the teams only had one dry warm-up session this morning to prepare the car for a dry race track for the two-hour, 45-minute event. Long, who finished the race at Laguna Seca in a similar fashion, edging out the BMW, thought this race topped that excitement.

“I thought nothing could top our dramatic win at Laguna Seca in May, but I am the first to admit I am wrong. We had to push 100 percent to the last lap to beat the BMWs, and Pierre Kaffer was not far behind in the Ferrari. While the Melo/Bruni Ferrari is our closest rival, relaxing when they dropped out early would have been a mistake, as we could have ended up fourth or fifth. Our pit stop strategy put us in the lead, and it was up to Joerg and me to bring the car home. Our Michelin tires worked well in both the wet for qualifying yesterday and in the dry for today’s race.”

Joerg Bergmeister, who has won the GT class five years in a row at Lime Rock – a series record, admitted that this was not his favorite track, but pointed out he has learned what it takes to win here.

“When someone asked me what it has taken for me to win five races in a row here at Lime Rock, I thought a bit, and realized it comes down to one work: patience. The track is so short and there are four classes of cars running together, so you have to pick your spots both to pass and to has move over for faster cars. The BMWs were more powerful in a straight line, but the straights here are very short, and we seemed to have better traction. With our extra pit stop on the early yellow, we had a bit more fuel at the end, and the stop did not cost us track position. Patrick did a great job holding off Auberlen at the end,” said Bergmeister.

ALMS GTC Class

In the GTC class for matched Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars, the departure from the series of the points-leading Gonzales/Leitzinger car has left the championship wide open. It was the TRG entry piloted by Andy Lally and Henri Richard that took the victory, edging the Jeroen Bleekemolen/Tim Pappas Black Swan Porsche, which Bleekemolen had put on the pole. Lally and Richard now lead the GTC points.

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With temperatures in the mid 90’s and humidity to match, the hot and steamy track pushed cars and drivers to perform in extreme conditions.

In the process of winning the two hour 45 minute event at the historic 1.53-mile circuit, the independent Benicia, Calif. based team and drivers Greg Pickett and Klaus Graf became the first to claim a second MICHELIN® GREEN X® Challenge victory in 2010.

The MICHELIN® GREEN X® Challenge victory was the fourth of the 2010 season for Porsche which earlier this week confirmed plans to enter its exciting new Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid at the final race of the 2010 season.

“We are very pleased to win the Michelin Green X Challenge at Lime Rock, especially since we have now won it twice in GT for the 911 GT3 RSR and twice in LMP for the Porsche RS Spyder. Our goal is performance with efficiency, and today, the Muscle Milk Porsche did both,” said Paul Ritchie, president of Porsche Motorsport North America, Inc.

Developed by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency and SAE International to accelerate the development of new technologies and fuels through competition, the MICHELIN® GREEN X® Challenge recognizes the prototype and GT car that go farthest, fastest and with the smallest environmental footprint at each ALMS event.

“Once again, we saw that the same type of efficiency that produces speed in the racecar also helps produce a cleaner more efficient car,” said Silvia Mammone, manager motorsports, Michelin North America.

ABOUT THE MICHELIN® GREEN X® CHALLENGE

The American Le Mans Series is the only series currently recognized as “Green Racing” by the U. S. Department of Energy; Environmental Protection Agency and SAE International.

All five energy sources identified as part of the United States government energy policy (E10 ethanol blended gasoline, E85R gasoline blended ethanol, GTL (natural gas to liquid) biodiesel, E10-electric hybrid power, and Iso-butanol gasoline) have been used in ALMS competition.

The MICHELIN® GREEN X® Challenge trophies are presented to the respective Prototype and GT winners. The bases for the unique MICHELIN® GREEN X® Challenge trophies are made of rubber recycled from MICHELIN® GREEN X® labeled consumer tires.

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Four Ferraris, two Corvettes, two BMWs and two Porsches, all running within ten seconds of each other during much of the six-hour American Le Mans Series Monterey race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca yesterday, continue to provide fans at the track and a national TV audience the finest sports car racing ever seen in North America.

With nine minutes and 20 seconds left in the endurance event, Patrick Long (USA), driving the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, overtook the factory BMW on the re-start after a late yellow flag to score a three-tenths of a second GT class win – the team’s second-straight victory.

Long, and co-driver and fellow Porsche factory pilot Joerg Bergmeister (Germany), overcame an eighth-place grid position after a troublesome qualifying session to gain the season points advantage over their rivals. The pair won five races in a row last year en route to the GT class championship.

CBS Television will broadcast a tape-delayed, edited version of the event next Saturday, May 29, at 1:30 PM Eastern time.

Referring to his battles with first the Ferraris, then the Corvettes, and final the BMWs in the closing 60 minutes of the race, the usually calm and articulate Long was almost speechless.

“I can’t even describe the last hour of this race. I was on everyone’s bumper, and they were on mine. We were fast enough to compete, but would have not been fast enough to win if the Flying Lizard crew didn’t put us in that position by minimizing our time in the pits and calling perfect strategy. The Porsche 911 GT3 RSR was perfect, and Joerg and I kept the mistakes to a minimum. I’ve never been in a race that was a pressure-cooker from green flag to checkered flag like this one,” said Long.

“We had back luck earlier in the week, including my mistake on a potential fast lap in qualifying, but we fought from an eighth-place start to the win over the best GT field I have ever seen. Our crew picked up time on the field for us on every pit stop, and our strategy was perfect. And Patrick had the best re-start ever to gain the lead and bring it home.”

With 10 yellow flags for various incidents during the race, the green flag re-starts played as critical role in teams’ final finishing positions as efficient pit stops did. Long pointed out that when the green flag drops for the first car, it’s time to race for everyone – you don’t have to wait until your car gets to the starter stand.

“On that final re-start, Joey (Hand, the BMW driver) left a bit of a door open for me, and I took it three- wide through the last corner,” Long said. “Then it was all about running away because I knew Joey wouldn’t be happy. We came from eighth on the starting grid and worked our way through a very competitive field,” Long said.

The final standings in GT showed Porsche, BMW, Corvette, Ferrari, Corvette, Porsche, BMW and Ferrari – in that order. Porsche now leads the manufacturers’ championship points with 65, while Ferrari has 55 and BMW 50. In the drivers’ points chase, Bergmeister/Long enjoy a ten-point lead over the Ferrari drivers Melo/Bruni, while BMW drivers Mueller/Hand are third.

Seventh in GT was the Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 G3 RSR of Wolf Henzler (Germany) and Bryan Sellers (USA). The team had been fighting the set-up for the twisty 2.238 Laguna Seca track ever since the car came off the truck, and, according to Henzler, despite the team’s hard work, they never really found that sweet spot during the six-hour event.

“We just could get the car balanced to turn competitive times to keep up with the others,” he said.

Henzler had jumped into the lead at the start of both previous races.

The other Porsche in the GT field, the Flying Lizard Motorsports entry with Seth Neiman/Darren Law/Timo Bernhard was forced into the pits twice during the event to fix damage from on-track incidents, and finished 11th in class.

While this exciting battle was raging in the GT class, a smaller, but just as intriguing competition was taking place for the overall race win. The Muscle Milk Porsche RS Spyder, with Klaus Graf/Sascha Maassen/Memo Gidley aboard, led the race overall at several junctions, and looked like they would compete for the overall win when bad luck struck.

Memo Gidley, the last-minute substitution of car owner Greg Pickett, spun the car during his first lap out in the middle of the race, going through the gravel trap. A small piece of gravel had lodged itself behind the shift paddle, causing the car to stay stuck in gear. Once the American was towed back to pit lane, the crew immediately assessed the problem, but had unfortunately fallen seven laps down to the leaders, and to 18th place overall.

But Maassen and Graf peddled hard through the field, aided by attrition at the top of the standings, and earned a second place finish overall.

“It ‘ain’t’ over until it’s over! That’s what they say. I think these kinds of races are the sweetest, when there is a little bit of a setback and you have to recover. Fun is not a straight line and we were up and down and in the end to finish second is, I think, a great achievement,” said Maassen, who won the first race ever for the RS Spyder at Laguna Seca in 2005.

In the ALMS GT Challenge class for matched Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars, Black Swan Racing, in only their second race with their new 2010 race car, went flag-to-flag with Tim Pappas, and Dutch brothers Jeroen and Sebastiaan Bleekemolen to score an impressive win over some serious competition,

“We had a great start in Long Beach but some things went wrong; today it went really right,” said Jeroen Bleekemolen, the reigning world Porsche Supercup champion, who won the class pole and set the class’ fastest race lap. “It’s great to get the win and hopefully move up in the championship.”

Team owner Pappas couldn’t imagine much of a better start to the season.

“This is pretty cool. We came out for Long Beach without much preparation,” he said. “We had a difficult, frustrating race. We went home and worked hard and practiced. All the guys at Black Swan are great. The Bleekemolen brothers come over from Holland and it was a great race. We didn’t put a tire off and made zero mistakes in the pits so that turned out to a race win.”

The Black Swan Porsche led all six hours and ended up a lap ahead of TRG’s Porsche of Andy Lally, Rene Villeneuve and Henri Richard. The class points leaders, the Car Amigo/Mission Foods Porsche of Butch Leitzinger/Juan Gonzales/Rudy Junco, Jr. finished third.

The American Le Mans Series takes its tradition mid-season break for team who participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans (June 12 – 13), and returns on July 11 to Miller Motorsports Park in Salt Lake City for round #4.

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[Source: PCNA]

Long and Bergmeister, the defending ALMS GT champions, were determined to rebound from a disappointing fourth-place finish at Sebring, and outlasted both the BMWs and Ferraris at Long Beach to vault themselves into a share of first place driver points after two events.

“Because this was the second event of the two-race probation for me from Laguna last year, the team decided it would be better for me to drive the first stint,” said Bergmeister, “but it was the quick driver and tire change at our pit stop, plus Patrick’s amazing pressure on the BMW, that gave us the victory.”

“I was able to get right on the tail of the #92 BMW after the pit stop with my new tires because we almost beat the BMW out of the pits, even though they did not change tires,” explained Long, who rode the bumper of the BMW and passed Tommy Milner with only ten minutes to go in the race.

“I had a little trouble at first because we failed to adjust the seat during the driver change, and since Joerg is almost a foot taller than I am, I was barely reaching the pedals until the first yellow flag of my stint. After that, I realized that, with the better tires, that, when I made the pass, I could make it stick. Then I noticed the Ferrari and Corvette were closing, and I needed to get more aggressive. There were a couple points of contact, and I passed him with two wheels off in the dirt. What a race!” said Long.

The Magnussen/O’Connell Corvette was second, and the Auberlen/Milner BMW third.

As the green flag dropped, Wolf Henzler (Germany), the driver who had put the Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 GT3 RSR on the front row of the GT grid, did exactly what he did at Sebring – out-accelerate the pole-sitting Ferrari to take first place. He held onto the top spot for his entire stint, out-gunning the competition in the corners and keeping them behind him on the straight-aways. Traffic in the pits caused them to lose several positions during their driver change, and he and co-driver Bryan Sellers (USA) finished sixth.

“Our goal was to have a better finish than Sebring, where we knew the car was fast, but we did not have a great result. We definitely achieved that goal with our sixth-place finish, but we know we had a car that could have easily finished on the podium. We showed that we could run with the leaders in GT, and we look forward to a top finish in a few weeks at Laguna Seca,” said Henzler, the 2008 ALMS GT champion with Bergmeister.

In the overall battle among the newly-merged prototype class entries, Klaus Graf (Germany) and Greg Pickett (USA) ran in the top three in the overall event with the Muscle Milk Porsche RS Spyder for the whole race, finishing third behind two former LMP1 cars with their LMP2 racer. Further refinement of the LMP rules could result in an overall victory for the Porsche RS Spyder – owner of 11 such wins – before the end of the season.

Butch Leitzinger (USA) and Juan Gonzales (Mexico) won their second straight ALMS GT Challenge in the Alex Job Racing Mission Foods Porsche 911 GT3 RSR when the team Alex Job Porsche, the Battery Tender entry of Bill Sweedler/Romeo Kapudija, got slightly off line and spun while leading the class with four minutes to go. Leitzinger, a veteran of late-race drama, was pleased to take home the win.

“The combination of these strong Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars and Alex Job’s careful preparation and execution of a race plan make it fun to be with this team. I miss running the prototypes, but it is the team, not the car, that completes the experience. I have spent a lot of my career with a great team – Dyson Racing, and this experience with Alex Job is turning out great as well,” said Leitzinger.

To round out a successful weekend for Porsche Motorsport, both the #6 Muscle Milk Porsche RS Spyder (LMP) and the #45 Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT) earned the Michelin Green X Challenge award, the first time Porsche has swept that honor for both categories. Both cars earned Michelin’s best Green Achievement scores from a formula which measures performance efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, and petroleum displacement for both LMP and GT classes.

“It is unbelievable for us to not only win the Long Beach race but the Michelin Green X Challenge, as well, by being both efficient and green,” said Patrick Long, co-driver with Joerg Bergmeister of the GT category winning #45 Flying Lizard Porsche. “We are proud to be with a series, a manufacturer and a team that wants to lead the fight to show that it can be cool to be green and fast.”

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[Source: PCNA Motorsport]

Instead, we want to let you know about three events (Hurley Haywood’s induction into the Sebring Hall of Fame, Hans Herrmann recounting his (and Porsche’s) first win at Sebring and PorschePurist’s “behind the scenes” tour of the Flying Lizard Paddock) that took place this past weekend as part of Porsche’s overall racing experience.

Hurley Haywood Inducted to the Sebring Hall of Fame

Hurley Haywood has plenty of great memories to choose from over a career spanning 28 starts (more than any other driver) and 2 wins at the Mobil1 12 Hours of Sebring. However, it’s possible his fondest memory might be this past weekend as he was inducted into the prestigious Sebring Hall of Fame in a luncheon ceremony held on Friday the 19th at the Sheraton Chateau Elan hotel overlooking the famous Hairpin at the track.

Racing legend Derek Bell acted as MC for the event where former Sebring winning drivers Phil Walters, John Morton, and Derek Daly were among the other inductees as were former official and promoter Reginald S. Smith and tire manufacturer Michelin.

Hurley was his normal gracious self during his acceptance speech where he told us, “I have so many great memories from Sebring – it will always be such a special place for me.” Stealing the show however was Derek Daly and his memorable acceptance speech. Seemingly distracted, as he was called to the podium, it turns out that Daly’s son was on the track racing at that very moment, and in the lead. Understandably, Derek was acutely focused on watching his son as he came through the hairpin turn, just outside the banquet hall’s window, at the precise moment he was being introduced to the room. We hope to have more video of the lunch for you soon. Derek’s acceptance speech was memorable, to say the least.

A Conversation with Hans Herman

Porsche invited Hans Herrmann to this weekend’s race to relive his historic Sebring victory and share his stories with a lucky few. PorschePurist had the opportunity to visit with Hans both at the Hall of Fame luncheon and during a question and answer session in the PCA tent at the Porsche Platz.

For those of you unfamiliar with him, Hans is one of racing’s most accomplished drivers and known to Porsche motosport fans the world over as the driver to deliver Porsche’s first overall win in the 24 Hours of Le Mans as well as Porsche’s very first major overall international endurance victory 50 years ago here at Sebring.

Besides Hans’ storied history with Porsche he is perhaps best known for his accident in the 1959 German Grand Prix where he flipped his race car in a horribly spectacular accident that he surprisingly and amazingly walked away from unscathed (see the video above).

Touring the Flying Lizard Paddock

You may remember that we recently held a contest that offered 10 PorschePurist.com readers the opportunity for a “behind-the-scenes” tour of the Flying Lizard Paddock. Taking place this past Thursday evening (at the same time Porsche was filming the video below) the Flying Lizard team accommodated 11 lucky readers who not only took the tour but had the opportunity to meet a few of the Porsche factory drivers as well.

Guided by Eric Ingraham, the tour started in the trailer for the #44 car, moved its way amongst and through the cars and paddock and concluded inside the trailer for the #45 car. Very generous with his time, Eric provided insight into what makes the Flying Lizard team tick, answered questions and pointed out how the whole Flying Lizard team worked together to create a winning mobile work environment over the course of 50 + minutes.

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The Lizard Porsche started third on the grid behind the winning BMWs, and turned competitive lap times during the entire event, but lost a lap to the leaders in the first part of the race when the pace car picked up the BMWs ahead of the overall race leaders, and were given a lap advantage via the controversial pace car regulations. After that, the team had to refocus on their overall goal – winning the championship.

“The crew did phenomenal work in the pits. In a race with so many cautions, strategy and pit work can make a critical difference and we saw that today. When there were situations to take a chance or play it safe, we were able to keep our championship goal in mind,” said Bergmeister.

Patrick Long, who passed the Ferrari on the next-to-last lap to achieve his fourth-place finish (the Ferrari finished fifth), credited the crew for his achievement.

“We achieved our objectives today and extended our championship lead. Our chief strategist Thomas Blam made a great call for new tires on the last yellow that helped me get by the Ferrari for position and extend our championship point lead,” said Long.

On the last lap, Patrick got by the O’Connell/Magnussen Corvette to move into third place, but could not hold off the V8 Corvette, finishing four-hundreths of a second from a podium position.

The #87 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, which qualified sixth, but within a second of the pole, ran as high as fourth place during the race, with Wolf Henzler turning the second-fastest GT2 lap of the race after Bryce Miller had run a strong opening stint. But a problem with the right rear suspension with only eight laps to go put an end to their efforts.

In the LMP2 class, Greg Pickett and Klaus Graf again showed everyone why the Porsche RS Spyder has been the American Le Mans Series class champion since 2006 by finishing a strong third place – and fifth overall – only 1.3-seconds out of second. And in the ALMS Challenge class, Martin and Melanie Snow survived that dreaded pace car wave-by for their nearest competitor – Nick Parker and Don Pickering – to score another win, their third in four events, to close in on that championship in their Snow Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car.

Martin Snow had a comfortable lead when Pickering got the wave-by, gaining a full lap on the leaders without making up the time on the track. Still, Martin and Melanie won by a full lap over their rivals.

The next race for the American Le Mans Series will be at Mosport International Raceway in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada on Sunday, August 30.

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From left to right: Darren Law, Seth Neiman and Jörg Bergmeister prepare for the start of the race

His confidence is especially impressive in light of the fact that the team was informed late this week that the number 45 car was being assessed a 25 kilogram (55 pound) penalty weight due to judges’ suspicions regarding the legality of their motor. Bergmeister and Long were still pleased with the car’s performance during practice and qualifying sessions in spite of this additional weight.

Bergmeister gaining ground away from the Corvettes as he enters Thunder Valley

Also entered in the race was Flying Lizard’s number 44 car, driven by Flying Lizard founder Seth Neiman and Darren Law. Law raced at Watkins Glen Friday and was not present for the qualifying session at Mid-Ohio, forcing him to start from the back of the grid. It was a penalty they struggled to overcome the entire race.

Flying Lizard’s number 44 Porsche battling to pass the number 40 Ford in Thunder Valley

The weather let up just before the race, prompting teams to replace their rain tires with race slicks. As the race began, Ohio weather, in an effort to maintain its reputation for being anything but consistent, rolled gray clouds overhead once more. Aside from a drop or two, teams and fans alike did not see rain the rest of the day.

The number 08 Patron 911 GT3 from the challenge class saw an early end to the race, running off the track at the entry to madness before completing one lap. Ed Brown, the car’s driver, was rushed to a local hospital but was released after finding no serious injuries. The car was not so lucky, hitting a guardrail during the crash.

The Patron car being towed from the gravel pit. Driver Ed Brown sustained no serious injuries in the crash

Muscle Milk’s number 6 RS Spyder driven by Greg Pickett placed second in the P2 class. Pickett was given an avoidable contact penalty early on for hitting the number 90 BMW. This effectively took number 90 off the lead pace for the remainder of the race,

This race marked the debut of the Corvettes in the GT2 class, with the new C6.R Corvettes. The number 3 and 4 Corvettes were in second and third place consistently throughout the race, but the number 92 Rahal Letterman BMW passed the number 4 C6.R on the last lap to take third place.

Some fans speculated this could have been a strategic move to avoid having two cars on the podium on their debut. The Corvette team brushed aside this accusation, saying it was an effort to conserve fuel near the end of the race. However you view this strategic move, the Corvettes made themselves known as a force to be reckoned with in the series.

By the race’s end, the number 45 car took first place with Patrick Long behind the wheel. Long ended the race 21 seconds ahead of the number 3 Corvette. This broke the record for consecutive wins in the series. How did it feel? “Unbelievable!!” Long exclaimed. “The level of professionalism and cooperation exhibited by the team was amazing. I am very excited and we want to keep this positive momentum going.”

The next race in the American LeMans Series will be at Road America Road Course.

Today’s post was written by frequent contributor Andrew Granieri. Andrew is graduating from Miami University in August with a degree in Technical & Scientific Communications and Entrepreneurship. He is eagerly searching for a job that will allow him to keep his performance driving hobby going.

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The apparently unstoppable and dynamic duo of Patrick Long and Joerg Borgmeister won again, for the fourth time in a row, making it look easy as they continue to extend their lead in the race for the GT2 Championship.

If you just look at the final results from the last four races, it looks like we are running away with the GT2 championship, but the reality is that each race has been a struggle, and today was no exception. We ran as fast as we could during qualifying, yet the Ferrari grabbed the pole, and the BMWs were strong. We made a differential adjustment after qualifying, and it didn’t feel better during the final warm-up, but it was the right move as our Flying Lizard Porsche was perfect. The pass I made on Kaffer (62 Ferrari) was the result of hard, clean racing by both of us. I knew my car was faster, but, at this track, you have to pick your spots,” said Long, who, along with Bergmeister, lead the GT2 championship points with 100, while the Kaffer/Melo Ferrari combo has 75 points. great wins and disappointing losses.

Porsche’s results in Grand-Am, unfortunately, were not quite as positive. Despite capturing pole position on Saturday in the GT class, Leh Keen led for only the first 11 laps before falling back to a more conservative pace. In the end, Keen’s driving partner Dirk Werner brought the #87 Farnbacher Loles Porsche 911 GT3 Cup home in fifth. While the points-leading Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup had its three-race GT win streak snapped, they lost only four points off their Acxiom GT championship lead.

The Porsche racing Rileys of customer teams Penske and Brumos faired much worse in Sunday’s race. The #58 Brumos Porsche Riley team was the most disappointing. Overall race leader David Donohue fell to 10th position after contact on lap 37. A forced pit stop to repair tire and body damage from the unintended contact allowed teammate Darren Law his chance to takeover for a stint in the driver’s seat. Unfortunately, bad-luck continued to plague the pair (including more tire trouble) and 10th was the best finish they could muster.

“I went off at turn 11 and it blew a tire and I had to complete a whole ‘nother lap (before he could reach the pits). We had a top five car, and we were leading when David (Donohue) got hit from behind and punctured a tire.”

“We just can’t seem to get a break. We blew a tire four laps from the end. It’s freaky. We just can’t get a break.”

Porsche works drivers Timo Bernhard (Germany) and Romain Dumas (France), fared the worst of all the Porsche DP cars. After Romain Dumas had an accident during Friday’s practice, the mechanics at Penske Racing put in a night shift to repair the badly damaged Porsche Riley in time for the qualifying. Spare parts were even transported in from the Penske workshop in Mooresville/North Carolina. To no avail: their bad luck streak continued in the race. While trying to avoid a competitor in the first corner, Romain Dumas, who was determined to compete despite a badly swollen left ankle, had an off track excursion and damaged the front of his car. The extra pit stop relegated him to last position.

Buddy Rice (USA) and Antonio Garcia (Spain) narrowly missed out on a podium result with the Porsche Coyote fielded by Spirit of Daytona Racing. The overall winners of the 24 Hours at Daytona (with David Donohue and Darren Law in the Porsche Riley of Brumos Racing) secured fourth place. Joao Barbosa (Portugal) and JC France (USA) brought their Brumos Porsche home in ninth position.

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[Source: PCNA]

The Northeast Grand Prix, round five of the American Le Mans Series, takes the checkered flag on Saturday at 2:05 PM EDT, and will last two hours, 45 minutes. SPEED TV will begin its live coverage at 2:00 PM EDT, and will stay on the air until 5:00 PM EDT.

At the wheel of their #45 Flying Lizard Motorsports 911 GT3 RSR, Porsche factory drivers Joerg Bergmeister (Germany) and Patrick Long (USA) will be striving for their fourth straight GT2 win. The last time the pair secured four wins in a row was in 2005 – before going on to claim the GT2 championship title in the Petersen/White Lightning Porsche 911 GT3 RSR.

Bergmeister has a good record at Lime Rock of the short 1.53-mile track, having won the GT2 class there each of the last three years in a Porsche. This year, with Patrick Long with whom he pursues his third American Le Mans title this year after wins in St. Petersburg, Long Beach and Salt Lake City, Joerg is not over-confident.

“The track certainly has its appeal, but it’s still not one of my favorites,” said Bergmeister.

“The traffic is often quite chaotic and you need a little bit of luck to get through safely. With the many caution phases, which occur quite often, smooth pit stops are imperative. But we don’t have to worry about that because Flying Lizard is a team that can do pit stops with their eyes closed.”

This weekend, Bergmeister/Long will compete with a new chassis. The old one got a battering in a collision at Sebring, but after the season-opening event, there was not enough time to immediately construct a completely new car. This was only possible during the Le Mans break, but, as far as far as Patrick Long is concerned, nothing will change with the new tub.

“Our car was fast during the whole season and I’m assuming this will continue to be the case,” said Long

In Farnbacher Loles Racing’s #87 911 GT3 RSR, Porsche works driver Wolf Henzler (Germany) – who won at Lime Rock last year with Joerg Bergmeister and went on the claim the title – hopes to finally make the breakthrough. Henzler has started two races from pole position so far this season with Dirk Werner (Germany), and with his works driver colleague Marc Lieb he recently pocketed second place in Salt Lake City – but he is still waiting for his first win of the season. Because Werner will be at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama this weekend, where he leads the Rolex Grand-Am GT class with Leh Keen in a Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche, the team has invited Bryce Miller (Summit, NJ) to drive with Henzler.

“I am excited to get back behind the wheel of an RSR – it is an impressive machine and a fun car to drive. I am really happy team owner Greg Loles has given me the opportunity to drive his car again and to do it with Wolf Henzler leaves little up for discussion. Wolf has been a good friend and mentor going back to 2006. Working with him has always been a pleasure and a success, so I am ready to do it again. It is always nice to come back to my home track, Lime Rock. I have not driven the reconfigured circuit yet, but I can look to Wolf to help accelerate the learning of that new segment for me,” said Miller, son of 1980’s IMSA racer Paul Miller.

For Lime Rock, the Flying Lizard Motorsports team will field a second 911 GT3 RSR driven by Johannes van Overbeek (San Francisco, Calif.) and Seth Neiman (Hillsborough, Calif.), while the VIICI Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR will be driven by Johannes Stuck (Austria) and Richard Westbrook (Great Britain).

Also, after the successful premiere in Salt Lake City, the ALMS Challenge Class will feature Porsche 911 GT3 Cup entries – including Salt Lake winners Martin and Melanie Snow (Sandy, UT) – who will take part in this new class, which runs as a fifth class below GT2.

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[Source: PCNA]

The duo led pretty much the entire way and finished 74.559 seconds ahead of Farnbacher Loles Racing’s Porsche of Marc Lieb and Wolf Henzler.

The only time the Lizard car fell out of the lead was the first half of the opening lap when Pierre Kaffer in the Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 GT and Tommy Milner in one of BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team’s BMW M3s spun at the start, impeding Bergmeister slightly while Lieb charged past. Bergmeister made the pass back into the lead later in the lap.

“The biggest thing is the test we had here after Long Beach for two days,” Bergmeister said. “We only had to make minor changes to the car for qualifying and we only did one lap to save the tires. At the beginning, Marc was very good but I was able to keep him behind me after the first lap.”

Long said Sunday was a matter of turning consistent lap times that were similar to the pursuing Farnbacher Loles entry.

“My stint was relatively uneventful although it was tight among the prototypes in the first three turns,” he said. “It was like a game of chess in my stint getting the Farnbacher Loles car within the gap Jörg had. He could try to get close but as soon as I could tell they used their tires, I could attack and really build up and establish the lead.”

ALMS action returns in mid July for the Northeast Grand Prix at scenic LimeRock Park in Lakeville, CT. Be sure to check back later this week for PorschePurist.com’s interview with Porsche factory driver Wolf Henzler.

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PorschePurist.com’s Great Driver Series: Interview with Joerg Bergmeister

[Source: 993C4S, ALMS]