Lizard Math: One car vs. three for LeMans

It’s not as easy as just one car at Le Mans compared to three in the American Le Mans Series for Flying Lizard Motorsports. No, we’re talking about the 76th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans – a twice-around-the-clock classic enduro on one of the most demanding circuits in the world against sports car racing’s best from all over the globe.

Flying Lizard Porsche

Jörg Bergmeister, Johannes van Overbeek and Seth Neiman will drive the Flying Lizard entry at Le Mans for the second straight year in GT2. Each also drives in separate Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs in the American Le Mans Series. To get a sense of scale, Le Mans is the equivalent of more than eight standard Series races at two hours, 45 minutes.

“Running a single car at Le Mans as compared to running three cars in the American Le Mans Series decreases the workload for some team members but doesn’t provide much relief for some others," said team manager Eric Ingraham. “For the mechanics working on the car, the workload changes minimally, and the added work of preparing a car for a race of this length replaces any let-up as compared to an American Le Mans Series race weekend schedule."

Then he gives a few examples.

“For the folks that manage pieces which spread across multiple cars in the Series, the amount of Le Mans-specific work replaces the decreased breadth of view which we must have with three cars in the American Le Mans Series," he said. “For Tommy Sadler, our crew chief, the special Le Mans-specific prep tasks he must deal with include building complete spares packages, scheduling engine and transmission changes during race week, and many other pieces. For Thomas Blam, our chief strategist, the additional focus is on planning pit work practice and improving our pit work in general including brake pad changes, etc. For me as the team manager, I must focus on the logistics of getting all of us, our tools, equipment, spares, and car to and from France, plus the details of our garage and paddock environment to provide an effective work space for our team."

In case anyone is wondering, Flying Lizard leads in both the GT2 team and driver standings in the American Le Mans Series and was second-quickest in Sunday’s annual Test Day.

The 76th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans runs from 9 a.m. ET (3 p.m. local time) from the Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, France. Forty-two drivers will represent the American Le Mans Series, whose teams have captured seven overall victories and 22 class championships since 1999. SPEED will televise the event live, and Radio Le Mans will have flag-to-flag coverage of the race as well as the June 1 test day, and practice and qualifying on June 11 and 12.