GT racing veterans Flying Lizard Motorsports will step into unknown territory next year with an entry into the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona in the Daytona Prototype category.
Unsurprisingly, given the team's close connections to Porsche, it will be the Stuttgart based marque providing the power for the Riley chassis with a flat 6 engine based on the unit from a Porsche 911. The car's race number – 45 – will also provide continuity with Flying Lizard's more familiar home in the American Le Mans Series.
Both the team and car have previous in the race. In 2004 the team finished third overall and second in the GT class and class position they repeated in 2009 in a joint entry with TRG.
The Riley-Porsche car was previously run by Brumos Racing and won the race overall in 2009 for the Florida based outfit. Flying Lizard are also working closely with Action Express – the team that followed Brumos by winning the event last year.
“The Daytona 24 is such a great race,” said Flying Lizard principal Seth Neiman. “We’ve always enjoyed competing here and are looking forward to the new experience of running a DP. I really want to thank Porsche Motorsport for their engine support and Bill Riley for his help as we come up the learning curve in this class. One of our main areas of focus this year is the significant endurance races and this is a great place to start. After the race, we’ll head back to our American Le Mans Series program to get ready for the season opener at Sebring in March.”
Before the build up to the race itself – on January 29-30 – Flying Lizard will run at the official test session at Homestead on December 1-2. The driving line-up will be announced later this year.
