Porsche's Hozler earn first series pole at Road America

Elkhart Lake, Wisc. -- August 17, 2012 – In his second full season of American Le Mans Series racing, Marco Holzer (Germany) has earned his first ALMS pole in the #44 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, the GT car he will share with team owner Seth Neiman for tomorrow’s Road America Road Race Showcase.

#44 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR: Seth Neiman, Marco Holzer

Photo by: Michael C. Johnson

In fact, with teammate Joerg Bergmeister (Germany) grabbing the second qualifying position in the #45 Flying Lizard Porsche , it is also the first time the team has achieved a one-two qualifying result in its ALMS history, which goes back to 2004.

Holzer, 24 years old and a Porsche factory driver, who has a first place finish in the Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid to his credit (Nuerburgring – 2011), was still a little stunned during the post-race interviews.

“This is amazing – I am so happy for the Flying Lizards and the #44 crew for this pole position. We had some balance issues yesterday during practice, but the crew worked hard to improve the car, and it was great to drive today. I heard on the radio that Joerg had the pole and set the track record, then I was P1, and then he was P1 again. On the last lap, I turned my best time. The Porsche was especially strong in and out of the second gear corners, and the areo package we added earlier in the year works great here at Road America,” said Holzer.

The only other time the #44 Flying Lizard Porsche was on the pole was in 2004, when Lonnie Pechnik took the pole at Mosport. “The race weekend began very well for Porsche with positions one-two in qualifying,” said Joerg Bergmeister, who has clinched three of his victories on this track with his current co-driver Patrick Long (USA).

“Already during free practice we were going very well so our good qualifying result actually comes as no great surprise,” said Bergmeister.

Wolf Henzler (Germany) qualified eighth in the Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 G3 RSR he will share with Bryan Sellers (USA), and Bryce Miller (USA) was tenth in the Paul Miller Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR which will be co-driven by Sascha Maassen (Germany).

In the ALMS GTC class for matched Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars, Jeroen Bleekemolen (The Netherlands) scored an impressive seventh pole position in 19 starts to put the #22 WeatherTech/Alex Job Racing Porsche he will share with points leader Cooper MacNeil (USA) first on tomorrow’s GTC grid. Bleekemolen had a third-to-first dash with two corners to go to win the event last year, and he pointed out the cooler temperatures have made the track very fast for 2012.

“It was a great qualifying session, and the weather helped the engine produce maximum power. We worked hard in the previous two practice sessions to improve the WeatherTech car, and it really paid off for the Alex Job team. There are four or five cars in our class that are very close and could win this event, but four hours is a long time and we have to run a smart race to finish first,” he said.

Damien Faulkner (Ireland) qualified second in the #33 Green Hornet Porsche, with Patrick Huisman (The Netherlands) third in the #34 Green Hornet Porsche, and Angel Andres Benitez fourth for NGT Porsche.

Source: Porsche Motorsport