2009 ALMS Monterey Sports Car Championships at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

October 9th-10th, 2009 - "Racing Into The Darkness", a four-hour race into the sunset at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca....the final round of the 2009 American Le Mans Series.

My Gallery lots of pictures!!

or view as a slideshow
Enjoy!

Here are some Youtube links of the last lap for GT2 class
SPEED Last Laps, ALMS: Gil de Ferran wins his final ALMS race and the GT class finishes with a wild crash.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CBeuoJmZ7g"]YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.[/ame]

Flying Lizards Motorsports, Sonoma, California
Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long brought the Flying Lizard No. 45 Porsche in for a hard-fought win at Saturday's Monterey Sports Car Championships at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The team swept the 2009 ALMS GT2 titles: Bergmeister and Long won the Drivers' Championship, the Lizards won the Team Championship and the No. 44 Porsche, which finished fifth in GT2 in the race, won the Michelin GreenX Challenge Championship for the GT class. Going into the four-hour race, Bergmeister and Long had a 19 point lead over Jamie Melo and Pierre Kaffer of the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari; with 25 points at stake for the win, if they finished tenth or better, they would win the championship, regardless of the finishing position of the No. 62. If the No. 62 finished third or worse, the No. 45 would win, even if they did not finish the race.
By race start, the cold morning fog had lifted but temperatures remained cool and the track was still cold and slippery. Bergmeister started in the No. 45 fifth on the grid. In the No. 44 Porsche, Johannes van Overbeek started in thirteenth. The No. 3 Corvette was on the pole, and the No. 62 started second.
continue reading here......
http://www.lizardms.com/index.htm



Patrick Long and Joerg bergmeister do a driver change in the pit








The Flying Lizard nerve center, with Jennifer Hart, Joerg Bergmeister....in the pit....Porsche Motorsport North American official watching.....

I enjoyed looking at your gallery pics and the ones you posted on the site. Beautiful! Jeanne T

Dedes thanks for posting the photo's and the movie. I watched your slide show with morning coffee on this rainy day and it was a treat. Besides, how can you go wrong with a race sponsored by Tequila?

Glad you enjoyed the pictures, sorry for so many. Didn't have time to do editing, etc. It was a great race, very exciting!!
Porsche won the race and the Championship, unfortunately it ended with a crash with the Corvette.

http://www.americanlemans.com/index_news.php?n=14008

The GT2 finish was just as frantic as the overall result. Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long won in GT2 for Flying Lizard Motorsports in their Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, a victory enhanced by driver championships for the pair and the second straight team title for the Lizards. It also gave Porsche its 100th Series class victory, a first for any manufacturer.

Bergmeister finished 1.037 seconds ahead of Corvette Racing’s Jan Magnussen after the two cars banged side-to-side coming out of the final turn. As they beat on each other toward the finish, Magnussen went around hard into the outside wall just before the start-finish line.
Flying Lizard Motorsports' Patrick Long and Jörg Bergmeister won the GT2 race and championship Saturday.

“I’m definitely sorry Jan went into the wall,” Bergmeister said. “I didn’t want that to happen. But it was a banging game. I’m glad he’s OK. It was tough racing. The Corvette passed me the first time at the hairpin but he went in way too deep and I was able to get back around him. He was a little quicker I have to say. I wasn’t trying to figure out where he was gaining time on me. I was trying to stay on track and in front.”

It was the last in a number of moments between the two cars in the final hour. The two cars swapped positions numerous times and ran nose-to-tail for much of the final half-hour.

The championships – fourth for Bergmeister and second for Long – were assured when Risi Competizione’s Ferrari F430 GT retired prior to the two-hour mark. Pierre Kaffer made contact with Marc Goossens in the RSR Jaguar XKR, an incident that damaged the Ferrari’s front end including the radiator.

“There is a synergy between us,” said Long, who won his first championship in 2005 driving a Porsche with Bergmeister. “We complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We know each other and everyone knows us. The Flying Lizards complement us so well. The Risi guys have been a class act this year and given us a lot of challenge. The addition of the Corvettes and BMWs have been phenomenal, and that’s how this class grows. The Porsche’s record of reliability and success is obvious.”

Farnbacher Loles Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Wolf Henzler and Pierre Ehret was third in class.

The
2009 American Le Mans Series class driver champions.
JOERG bERGMEISTER AND PATRICK LONG, FLYING LIZARDS


The second Flying Lizard Porsche of Johannes van Overbeek and Seth Neiman won the GT trophy for the MICHELIN® GREEN X® Challenge and also claimed the season-long title.