Race! Long Beach Grand Prix

Lizards are second and ninth in GT2 at the Long Beach Grand Prix. Patrick Long and Darren Law brought the No. 44 into its first podium finish of the 2007 ALMS season, and Joerg Bergmeister and Johannes van Overbeek finished ninth. It was a challenging race for the No. 45 Porsche, which sustained radiator damage after Joerg collided with a protype on course earlier in the race.

Congratulations to the team for another podium finish. We are signing off now and look forward to seeing you all at Houston.

** Jennifer and Shane


5:40 pm - With just a few minutes left in the race, Patrick is too far behind the No. 62 Ferrari to catch him, although Patrick is running 3 seconds faster per lap.

5:35 pm - 12 minutes left in the race. Patrick in P 2; Joerg in P 9.

5:34 - patrick passes the No. 61 Ferrari and moves into P 2. The No. 62 Risi Ferrari is in P 1. Joerg continues in P 9.

5:32 pm - Patrick continues to fight to close the gap with the No. 61 Ferrari and is less than 1 second behind.

5:29 pm - With just 20 minutes left in the ra e, No. 62 Risi Ferrari is in P1; No 61 Ferrari is in P 2; No 44 is in P 3; No. 21 is P 4; No 71 is p5. No. 45 is still P 9. Patrick is 5 seconds behind the No. 61 Ferrari, and is running 1 second faster per lap.

5:16 pm - The No. 71 Tafel Porsche put some pressure on Pat Long in the No. 44, but was unable to pass him prior to pit in, and then pitted for tires, fuel and driver change. With this pit stop, the No. 62 Risi Ferrari moves into the lead, followed by the No. 61 Ferrari, then No. 21 Panoz and the No. 44 Porsche with Patrick Long at the wheel. The No. 45 Porsche with Joerg Bergmeister behind the wheel is in P 9.

5:14 pm - Joerg has served his penalty and is out again, now in P 9 after the lengthy pit stop to repair the radiator. Darren pits for driver change to Patrick, tires and fuel.The No. 71 Tafel Porsche, still in the lead, has yet to pit. The No. 62 Risi Ferrari, now in P 3, has already pitted, so it will take the lead once both the No. 44 and the No. 71 pit.

5:10 pm - the No. 45 repairs are complete and Joerg leaves the pits but needs to return for a stop and go penalty assessed by the stewards for "avoidable contact." The No. 44 is getting ready for their pit stop which should happen in a few minutes.

5:07 pm - No. 44 strategist Eric Ingraham alerts the No. 44 crew to get ready for their pit stop and Patrick Long gets ready to take over from Darren Law.

5:04 pm - No 8 Mazda has stopped on course at pit in. the No. 45 is still in the pits as the crew sorks frantically on the radiator repairs. Positions: P 1 No. 71; P 2 No. 44; P 3 No. 31; P 4 No 62; P 5 No. 61; P 6 No. 21;

5:02 pm - Joerg made contact with the back end of the Audi after it spun on track - breaking a front radiator. He pits for repairs.

4:54 - No. 71 Tafel car passes Darren for P 1. No. 44 now in P2.

4:51 pm - The No. 44 with Darren Law at the wheel is still in the lead, with the No. 71 Porsche in hot pursuit in P 2. Joerg is in P 5, closely followed by the No. 62 Ferrari, which has also already pitted.

4:40 pm - Postions are: P 1 No. 44; P 2 No 71; P 3 No 22; P 4 No. 31; P 5 No 73; P 6 No. 45. The No. 44 has not yet pitted for its driver change and fuel.

4:39 pm - No. 9 Acura spun on course but is off and running again. So far, no full course yellow.

4:37 pm - Thomas Blam makes the decision for the No. 45 to pit for driver change to Joerg and a short fuel. The course is still yellow. The Porsche is in and out quickly in a clean pit stop. Barring any problems, they should be able to complete the race with no additional pit stops.

4:32 pm - GT2 top 3 positions are: P 1 No 52; P 2 No 44; P 3 No 45. - staying constant since race start just after 4 pm.

4:30 pm - Good afternoon everyone - apologies for the delay in getting our blog and radio going - we are having a few connection problems here this afternoon. We are live now - you can listen in at www.lizardms.com.

We are under yellow right now - just 22 minutes into the 1 hour and 40 minute race, the first yellow of the race to clear out the Rahal Porsche which impacted the wall in turn 8.

Darren Law is in the No. 44 and Johannes is in the No. 45.

The crew is considering strategies right now -they will need to do one pit stop during the race for fuel and driver change, but this yellow was just a bit too early for the cars to do a single pit stop now under yellow. If they pit now, they could still need to pit again for fuel later in the race.