Motorsport : American Le Mans Series 2009: Porsche backs GT teams with works drivers

Stuttgart. In the 2009 season, three Porsche factory drivers will support the GT teams in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS). With this, Porsche underlines its ongoing involvement in the racing series with the world’s fastest sports cars. Joerg Bergmeister (Germany) and Patrick Long (USA) share the cockpit of a Flying Lizard Motorsports GT3 RSR. Wolf Henzler (Germany) backs up the Farnbacher Loles team with its GT3 RSR.

“For Porsche, the American Le Mans Series continues to be very important,” emphasized Porsche head of motorsport Hartmut Kristen. “For this reason we are providing our Flying Lizard Motorsports and Farnbacher Loles teams with three of our best GT drivers. Moreover, we will continue to support the teams with Porsche engineers at the track.”

With three championship titles to his credit, Joerg Bergmeister (32) is one of the most successful pilots in the American Le Mans Series. His new team mate, Patrick Long (27), is no stranger to him and the GT3 RSR. In 2005 the pair claimed the ALMS title in the GT2 class. Recently, Long drove a Porsche RS Spyder for the Penske Racing team and claimed third in the fiercely-contested LMP2 class. “I’m looking forward to having such a world class pilot like Patrick as a team mate in 2009. We will do our best to defend the ALMS title for Porsche,” said Bergmeister.

Wolf Henzler (33), who secured his first title victory in the ALMS with Bergmeister in 2008, will drive for the Farnbacher Loles squad in 2009, after having already raced for the team in the 2005 season. “I’m absolutely thrilled to have extended my contract as a works driver and that Porsche has again put me with a top team,” said Henzler. “It’ll be strange in the beginning to race against Joerg. In 2008 we got really close as a team. But when I was faster than Joerg, I was surely very close to the maximum.”

Porsche has contested the American Le Mans Series with the racing versions of the Porsche 911 without a break since its inaugural year of 1999 and in this time won nine drivers’ and nine manufacturers’ championships. Furthermore, Porsche claimed three drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles in the years 2006 to 2008 with the Porsche RS Spyder in the LMP2 class. With this, Porsche is by far the most successful manufacturer in the ALMS.