Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long fought a long battle with Corvette, Ferrari and BMW today to bring home the second win in a row at today’s Grand Prix of Mosport. The No. 44 of Seth Neiman and Andy Lally was seventh in class. Unfortunately, at the standard post-race inspection, the No. 45 did not pass the engine stall test. As a result, the car will not be scored in the race or receive any championship points for this race. The Lizards appealed the decision with a formal protest, but the appeal was denied by the race stewards.

It was a seamless race for the Lizards today at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Patrick Long started fifth on the GT grid in the No. 45 and Seth Neiman 11th in the No. 44. The No. 3 and 4 Corvettes started P1 and P2 respectively, the No. 55 BMW P3 and the No. 01 ESM Ferrari P4. At the start, Long overtook the No. 01 Ferrari to move into P4. Fifteen minutes into the race, Long moved to P3 when the No. 4 Corvette stopped on course, resulting in the first full-course caution of the day.

Long described his stint: “The start is always tricky at Mosport because the GT field is still in Turn 9 and 10 when the prototypes get the green, but I was able to time it just right and slip by the No. 01. I knew that we had a fast car, especially on colder tires; early in the race I decided to work together with the car in front of me [the No. 55] to close the gap to the Corvettes. We were starting to make some headway when the No. 4 Corvette dropped out and we had the first full course caution.”

Several GT cars pitted in the first caution, including the No. 55 BMW, but the No. 3 Corvette, the No. 45 Porsche, the No. 02 ESM Ferrari, and No. 56 BMW all stayed out. At the first restart, Long was now P2, with the No. 3 Corvette P1, the No. 56 P3 and the No. 02 P4. A little more than 10 minutes after the restart, a second full course caution sent both Lizard Porsches into the pits, along with the No. 3 Corvette. The GT field was now split in their pit stops: half the field had pitted in the first caution, half in the second. During the second caution, near the 1 hour mark, Long handed the wheel over to Joerg Bergmeister, who headed back out in P6. Meanwhile, in the No. 44, Andy Lally had taken over the wheel; once the field settled down after the second restart he was now P7.

Source : Flying Lizard Motorsports