Flying Lizard Motorsports Press Release
In the 5-week hiatus since the 2nd GT Daytona class race of the 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season, Flying Lizard Motorsports has focused its attention on prepping its two 2014 Audi R8 LMS race cars, including testing at its home track, Sonoma Raceway, and at the site of this weekend's Continental Tire Sports Car Festival race weekend, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
The tests prepared the team well for what will be a busy weekend including only two hours of practice on Saturday, May 3rd. The race itself will be a two hour event as well with the Lizards' GTD class sharing the track with the Prototype Challenge class on Sunday, May 4th, from 10:15am PT to 12:15pm PT, followed by the Prototype and GT Le Mans classes racing together that same afternoon in a separate two hour race necessitated by the number of entries which are part of the 2014 championship.
For the race weekend the No. 35 PR Newswire / UBM Tech / eSilicon R8 LMS will be driven by Seth Neiman (USA) and Dion von Moltke (South Africa), with the No. 45 Venezuela / eSilicon R8 LMS driven by Nelson Canache Jr. (Venezuela) and Spencer Pumpelly (USA). Nelson and Spencer sit 4th in the drivers' championship with Dion and Seth in 7th place amidst a very deep, 58 position driver championship for the GT Daytona class.
Steve Conover, Chief Engineer, talked about the team's recent test and preparation for the race, saying, "The Laguna test was very productive both in establishing an appropriate setup for the upcoming race as well as exploring setup options for future events. This is the first "typical" road course we've run our Audis on so there was much to learn prior to the race weekend and we should have an advantage going into Sunday thanks to our additional trip down to Monterey two weeks ago."
Live timing and scoring for the race and all practice sessions and qualifying can be found at www.imsa.com and on the IMSA mobile app. In the United States, the race will be televised live on Fox Sports 1 and also available on the Fox Sports Go mobile app. Outside of the United States, the full race broadcast will be available at www.imsa.com.
Flying Lizard is based on Sonoma, California, and has competed in the American Le Mans Series for ten consecutive seasons, from 2004 to 2012 in the GT class and in 2013 in GTC. The Lizards have won two ALMS GT team championships (2008 and 2009), one ALMS GTC team championship (2013), and have secured three ALMS GT Drivers' championships (2008, 2009, and 2010).
Flying Lizard has also competed in the 24 Heures du Mans from 2005 through 2012, finishing third in 2005, fourth in 2006, sixth in 2008, sixth in 2011, and fourth in 2012.
Please visit the team website at www.lizardms.com and the team store at www.flyinglizardstore.com.
About Audi of America and the Audi R8 LMS
Audi began a new chapter in 2009 with the introduction of the Audi Sport customer racing program. For the first time it was possible for motorsport customers to acquire a race car designed for customer racing events. Since its inception, the success of the R8 LMS has been significant throughout the GT3 racing format worldwide, including victory in the GT class in the 2013 edition of the Rolex 24 at Daytona. The Audi R8 LMS shares more than 50% of its parts with the Audi R8 street car including the naturally aspirated V10 5.2 Liter engine, the Audi Space Frame and a variety of other components
Audi of America, Inc. and its U.S. dealers offer a full line of German-engineered luxury vehicles. AUDI AG is among the most successful luxury automotive brands globally. Audi was a top-performing luxury brand in Europe during 2012, and broke all-time company sales records in the U.S. Through 2016, AUDI AG will invest about $17 billion on new products and technologies.
Visit www.audiusa.com or www.audiusanews.com for more information regarding Audi vehicle and business issues.
Photo credit: Flying Lizard Motorsports [2014 Bob Chapman, Autosport Image]
