Flying Lizard Motorsports enjoyed a trouble free debut of their new Porsche-powered Daytona Prototype at the 'Roar Before The 24' test at Daytona International Speedway.
The California based team are veterans of the GT class – both in Grand-Am competition and the American Le Mans Series – are stepping into the premier class of the former series for the first time at the season opening Rolex 24 at Daytona.
“There is a lot that’s new,” said the team's Chief Engineer Craig Wilkins on the change. “It took some time at the beginning for us to get to know the car and to integrate the new crew that we have for this race. We got off to a slow start, but once we got our arms around the car, we progressed steadily over the sessions. We’re thrilled to be here.”
The no.45 car will be shared but Flying Lizard regulars Johannes van Overbeek, Seth Neiman, Patrick Long and Joerg Bergmeister – the same team that drove to second place in the GT class in the 2010 race.
“We had a good three days and saw the car get better and better in each session,” Bergmeister comments “We also worked a lot on driver comfort and driver changes, getting everything sorted out so we’ll have one less thing to worry about during race week. By the last few sessions, we were fairly competitive – it’s definitely going to be an interesting race.”
The team improved over the course of the test – running their best time of the event in the last of the eight sessions spread over the three day event.
