Porsche 2008 Annual Report Download - page 139

137
ing laps, the Porsche entered by Flying Lizard
Motorsports had made it to third place 70 min-
utes before the end of the race when a new
bump from a competitor cost them a place on
the podium. In fourth place, the team still ma-
naged to gain important points in the American
Le Mans Series, which began the new season
in Sebring.
At the 24-hour race in Le Mans, Jörg Bergmeis-
ter and Marc Lieb competed for pole position
in the GT2 class in their 911 GT3 RSR models.
Bergmeister came in just three hundredths of
a second faster. The bad luck of the previous
year stayed with them. Lieb’s Felbermayr-Proton
911 fell victim to a fault in the gasoline system.
Bergmeister had to take the Porsche of the Fly-
ing Lizard Motorsports Team out of the race
after a bump from a competitor, with the race
living up to its reputation for being one of the
most unpredictable endurance circuits in motor-
sports.
Porsche customers win championships
Porsche customers entered almost all major
Gran Turismo championships in the world. They
faced the stiffest competition since the renais-
sance in motor sports with GT racing cars at the
end of the nineties. The Porsche 911 excelled
in the GT class of the most important American
sports car championships. Company drivers
Jörg Bergmeister, Wolf Henzler and Patrick Long
entered the American Le Mans Series (ALMS)
on behalf of customer teams, with Bergmeis-
ter driving a 911 GT3 RSR for the Flying Lizard
Motorsports Team as defending champion
alongside Patrick Long.
With a series of victories from the second to
the sixth race, the duo initially set a record that
seemed unattainable. The tenth and last race,
which saw a struggle in the final bend against a
Corvette, ended with the sixth victory of the
season. This confirmed Bergmeister and Long
as the champions. Flying Lizard Motorsports
won the team competition, while Porsche was
once again able to claim the manufacturer’s title
and the “Michelin Green X Challenge”. This suc-
cess reinforced Porsche’s position as the most
successful car manufacturer in the ALMS, while
victory in the final race at Laguna Seca, Cali-
fornia marked its 100th triumph in total. Since
1999, Porsche drivers have won the drivers’
championship nine times. Customer teams have
been made team champions eight times, and
Porsche has come top among the manufacturers
in nine racing years.
Porsche teams and their 911 GT3 Cup Grand-Am
cars impressed in the GT class of the Grand-
Am Series held in the US and Canada with their
speed and constancy. Following a triple Porsche
victory at the 24-hour race in Daytona at the
beginning of the season, the German-American