PitJournal.com

Through the first eight rounds of the 2006 season, the competition in the GT2 class has produced the tightest team championship battle within the American Le Mans Series. Two points is all that separates the top two teams, Flying Lizard Motorsports and Risi Competizione, while third-place Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Racing stands only 16 points out of first.

As the teams prepare to do battle in Round Nine, the 10-hour/1,000-mile endurance classic Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta next Saturday (September 30), front-running Flying Lizard Motorsports knows that its pair of Porsche 911 GT3s will be the hunted.“Petit is a tough race - lots of cars in a long race on a narrow track,” said Flying Lizard Motorsports driver Johannes van Overbeek. “All we can do is focus on what we can control and deliver our program the best we can.”Although his team will attempt to hold on to its first-place status, van Overbeek could clinch the GT2 driver championship at Petit Le Mans. “It’s great to have a 16-point lead in the drivers’ championship going into Petit, but this is a crucial race,” said van Overbeek, who leads Jorg Bergmeister in the individual GT2 points race, 118-102.On the strength of its first 1-2 GT2 finish in the American Le Mans Series, Risi Competizione has won three of the last four rounds and is closing strong in the GT2 team championship race. Risi Competizione’s pair of Ferrari 430s took the top two GT2 podium spots at Round Eight (the Grand Prix of Mosport), thus becoming the first team to post a 1-2 GT2 finish since Alex Job Racing accomplished the feat at the end of the 2004 season.After earning the class pole position, the duo of Stephane Ortelli and Johnny Mowlem finished first at Mosport with a 116-lap effort. In second place was the Risi tandem of Toni Villander and Maurizio Mediani.“On balance, the season thus far has been memorable,” said Risi Competizione team manager David Sims. “Three wins, the first one-two in Ferrari history in ALMS, and lots of podium finishes.”For the third time in as many races, Risi Competizione will feature a new driver lineup. Only two holdovers from Mosport, Ortelli and Mediani, will be a part of the team’s six-driver roster for Petit Le Mans. In the top entry for Flying Lizard Motorsports, van Overbeek will be joined by Wolf Henzler and Marc Lieb.

Both entries for Flying Lizard Motorsports and Risi Competizione will be challenged by the Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning team of Bergmeister and Patrick Long — the defending Petit Le Mans GT2 champions.Bergmeister has a history of performing well at Petit Le Mans, for he has won the GT2 class in each of the last three years (2003-2005). “It would be nice to keep that streak running,” Bergmeister commented.Rounding out the GT2 field will be the pair of entries for BMW Team PTG, which has finished on the podium in three of the last five races, and Multimatic Motorsports Team Panoz, the winner of the year’s only previous endurance race – the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.“This year, Petit Le Mans is even more important for those in GT2 because the championship is so tight,” said Risi Competizione Managing Director Giuseppe Risi. “It will be a magnificent show for everyone: fans, teams, the TV audience.”

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