The Flying Lizard Motorsports group is a motorsport team from Sonoma, California, formed by Seth Neiman in early 2003. The team competed in the full American Le Mans Series season, as well as the 24 Hours of Daytona, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The team went on to win six driver and team championships in the American Le Mans Series, becoming a Porsche factory team and Porsche Motorsport North America's development partner from 2007 to 2012. The team helped develop the first- and second-generation 997 GT3 RSR as well as bring it to victory several times in its six-year run in the series. The team solely raced Porsche cars from 2004 to 2019, becoming a staple in the Porsche racing community.
After ten years of ownership, Seth Neiman sold the team during the 2014 offseason to longtime Crew Chief Tommy Sadler, Chief Strategist Thomas Blam, and former Lizard driver Darren Law. Sadler stepped up to become Technical Director, Blam became Team Manager and Law Program Manager. No longer factory-backed or privately funded, the team became a customer racing effort, expanding to a variety of series and manufacturers.
To date, the team holds 14 professional team and driver championship titles as Flying Lizard Motorsport, four additional team and two driver titles managing K-PAX Racing in GT World Challenge America, and one team and one driver title managing TKO Motorsports.
Racing history
Beginnings (2004-06) The 2004 American Le Mans Series season saw Flying Lizard Motorsports and drivers Darren Law and Johannes van Overbeek finish 2nd in the GT2 team and drivers championship.2004 Team Championship Results, 20042004 Drivers Championship Results, 2004
The livery was designed by Joseph Mikulas at Competition Graphics in Farmington Hills,MI. The designs were eventually taken over by Troy Lee Design once the team moved out of Michigan and to the west coast.
In 2005, the team finished 3rd in the ALMS GT2 Team Championship with drivers Johannes van Overbeek and Jon Fogarty finishing 5th in the GT2 drivers championship.2005 Team Championship Results, 20052005 Drivers Championship Results, 2005
In 2006, the team finished 3rd in the GT2 team championship and driver Johannes van Overbeek finished 2nd in the drivers championship while his teammate, Wolf Henzler finished 4th.2006 Team Championship Results, 20062006 Drivers Championship Results, 2006
ALMS Porsche Factory Support (2007-12) For the 2007 season, the team took delivery of two brand new 997 Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs. Team also became Porsche Motorsport North America's development partner and received factory support from Porsche. Drivers Johannes van Overbeek and Jörg Bergmeister and the new addition of Marc Lieb shared duties of driving the #45 car, while Darren Law, Seth Neiman, and Lonnie Pechnik shared the #44 car. After the #45 car won three times in 2007, including the prestigious Petit Le Mans,2007 Petit Le Mans Results, 2007 the team would finish second in the team standings to the Risi Competizione team.2007 Team Championship Results 2007 Drivers Jörg Bermeister and Johannes van Overbeek would also finish second in the series driver standings.2007 Drivers Championship Results 2007
For the 2008 season, the Flying Lizard team continued on in its fifth consecutive season in the GT2 class of the American Le Mans series. For this season, the team expanded into a three car operation with three Porsche 2008 911 GT3 RSRs. In the #45 car, previous season driver Jorg Bergmeister was joined by Wolf Henzler for the full season of competition with third driver Marc Lieb. Johannes van Overbeek and the new addition of Patrick Pilet piloted the team's #46 entry full-time with guest driver Richard Lietz. In the #44 entry, Darren Law and Seth Neiman with guest driver Alex Davison piloted the car. The #45 car of Bergmeister and Henzler was in tight contention with the Tafel Racing squad of Dominik Farnbacher and Dirk Müller, and at the end of the season emerged the overall points winners, giving Flying Lizard Motorsports their first-ever GT2 class championship.2008 Team Championship Results 2008
For 2009, Flying Lizard Motorsports back moved to a two-car squad with the returning GT2 class champion #45 car being piloted by Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long for the majority of the races with Marc Lieb as the reserve third driver for longer races. The #44 car will be piloted by Seth Neiman and Darren Law for the majority of the races with Johannes van Overbeek as the reserve driver. After coming in 4th at the season opener at Sebring2009 Sebring Results 2009 with a heavily damaged car, the #45 team took the class win in the following 5 races. At the following two races at Road America and Mosport they faced much tougher competition with a greatly improved Rahal Letterman Racing BMW team and a new Corvette Racing team. The #45 managed 3rd at Mosport and 4th at Road America but came back to claim first place in GT2 at the season finale in Monterey, California. Winning 6 out of 10 races, the #45 car won the GT2 team championship giving the team its second consecutive championship win.2009 Team Championship Results 2009 Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long also won the GT2 drivers championship.2009 Drivers Championship Results 2009
For 2010, Flying Lizard Motorsports continued running two cars. The two-time GT2 championship-winning #45 car, driven by Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long with Marc Lieb as the reserve third driver, competed alongside its sister car, the #44, driven by Seth Neiman and Darren Law with Richard Lietz as the reserve third driver. The Lizards faced fierce competition from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Risi Competizione. After finishing 4th at the 12 hours of Sebring,2010 Sebring Results the #45 car went on to take first place in its class at Long Beach, Laguna Seca, Lime Rock Park and Mosport. The Lizards placed second in the Team Championship2010 Team Championship Results and first in the Drivers Championship2010 Drivers Championship Results thanks to Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long. This gave Flying Lizard Motorsports and Bergmeister three consecutive Driver Championship titles.
For the 2011 season the team utilized the brand new second-generation 997 GT3 RSR. Both the #44 and #45 car were piloted by the same team as the year before, with the exception of Marco Holzer replacing Richard Lietz as reserve third driver in the #45 car. After finishing second in GT2 Championship the year before, Rahal Letterman Racing came back to fight even harder against the Flying Lizard Motorsports group. The #45 car managed a 2nd in class at Lime Rock,2011 Lime Rock Results 1st in class at Laguna Seca2011 Laguna Seca Results and a 2nd in class finish at Petit Le Mans.2011 Petit Le Mans Results The team managed a 3rd-place finish in the GT Season Championship2011 Team Championship Results while Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long finished 4th in the GT Drivers' Championship.2011 Drivers Championship Results
In 2012 the team took delivery of two brand new second-generation GT3 RSRs. This year's car has a front and rear track that has been widened by 1.9 inchesPorsche 911 GT3 RSR race car ready for 2012, "Autoweek", November 4, 2011 allowing for much wider tires giving more grip. The Flying Lizard Motorsports team struggled to find speed and consistency with the new car. The #45 car managed a win at Lime Rock Park after a fierce battle with Corvette Racing and Extreme Speed Motorsports. The team also managed a win at Mosport but was disqualified after failing a stall test at the end of the race.Flying Lizard Porsche of Long Bergmeister Finishes First at Mosport GT, But Disqualified by IMSA, "American Le Mans Series", July 22, 2012 The team finished 4th in the GT championship2012 Team Championship Results with Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long finishing 5th in the Drivers Championship points.2012 Drivers Championship Results
2013 (ALMS Porsche GTC) With the development of the 997 GT3 RSR ending, the team's relationship with Porsche Motorsport North America was discontinued. On November 15, 2012, Flying Lizard Motorsports announced that they would transition to competing in the GT Challenge category. The team fielded a two-car team for what would be the final season of the American Le Mans Series before it merged with the Rolex Sports Car Series to form the Tudor United SportsCar Championship in 2014. With the team winning four races of the ten-round season, including a victory at the season finale, Petit Le Mans, drivers of the #45 car, Spencer Pumpelly and Nelson Canache Jr, would finish second in the GTC drivers' championship behind the Alex Job Racing's Jeroen Bleekemolen and Cooper MacNeil and the team would claim its third ALMS Teams' Championship and their first in the GTC class.2013 ALMS Drivers' Championship Results 20132013 ALMS Teams' Championship Results 2013
IMSA Customer Program (2014-2015)
After competing with Porsches since its inception, the Flying Lizard team announced on November 11, 2013 that it would partner with Audi Sport Customer Racing to campaign a two car Audi R8 LMS effort in the newly formed Tudor United SportsCar Championship GT Daytona Class.Flying Lizard Announces 2014 Program 2013 Seth Neiman and Dion von Moltke would team in the #35 car Nelson Canache Jr. and Spencer Pumpelly sharing the #45 car. The season began with a last lap battle at the 24 Hours of Daytona, resulting in the first-place finishing car to receive a penalty for intent for avoidable contact, awarding Flying Lizard as the winners. Five hours later, the penalty was revoked, moving the Lizard squad to second place. The team finished out the season with four top-five finishes.
For 2015, the team announced they would run a partial season in United SportsCar, in addition to running a full season in Pirelli World Challenge and Porsche Cup of America. The team ran five races with the Audi R8 LMS throughout the season: the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Monterey Grand Prix, Lone Star Le Mans and Petit Le Mans. The 2015 drivers included: Tomonobu Fujii, Satoshi Hoshino, Robert Thorne, Markus Winkelhock, Colin Thompson, Marco Holzer, Guy Cosmo, Patrick Byrne, Mike Vess and Jason Hart. The team's highlight of the season included a top-5 finish at Petit Le Mans, which was canceled with only 7 hours and 51 minutes of the 10-hour race completed.
Pirelli World Challenge (since 2015) GT: K-PAX Racing (since 2015)
Flying Lizard partnered with championship winning team K-PAX Racing in 2015 to enter two McLaren 650S GT3s for a full season in the Pirelli World Challenge GT championship. With McLaren GT factory driver Kevin Estre and K-PAX veteran Robert Thorne, the unified effort had a successful first season, earning four wins and 8 podiums. Estre proved to be a front runner, winning Round 2 at Circuit of the Americas by over 30 seconds in torrential downpour, establishing himself early as a championship contender.
Flying Lizard returned to manage the K-PAX program, solely under the K-PAX Racing banner, in 2016 with Alvaro Parente, Austin Cindric, and Colin Thompson, racing three McLarens. Parente clinched the driver championship, while young Austin Cindric earned three podiums and three pole positions. In all, the full-season program clinched the team, driver (Alvaro Parente), and manufacturer (McLaren GT) championships, with 16 top five finishes, 12 podiums, seven pole positions, and six wins. The team closed out the season with a return to endurance racing, a first for K-PAX Racing, running the 12 Hours of Sepang with Shane van Gisbergen, Côme Ledogar, and Álvaro Parente. The #9 650S GT3 finished tenth overall, seventh in class.