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Trouble started for the No. 44 crew in Darren's last stint as it quickly became clear that Darren could not hear the crew, although they could hear him. Because this was the last planned pit stop for the No. 44 Porsche and Darren was expected to finish out the race, the team hoped that he would continue without incident, even though they couldn't communicate.
Unfortunately, with just 45 minutes to go, Darren was hit on course by the No. 1 Audi but he was able to continue. The crew, unable to talk to Darren on the radio, attempted to communicate with a sign board. All was well until the single caution of the race, when the No. 73 Tafel Racing Porsche impacted the tire wall, suffered a suspension failure and stopped at the end of the front straight. Darren said, "My second stint was a little tough, because I took off out of the pits and realized I couldn't hear the team. Then the Audi went underneath me in a brake zone and hit me but thankfully I didn't hit anything. Then with the yellow, I didn't know if they wanted me to come in the pits or not which caused some confusion until I was able to see the sign board and pitted briefly to communicate with the crew. We had a great race car today and I'm very proud of the team. We were running in the top three for the first hour of the race, and all the guys on the No. 44 did another fantastic job."
Up next for the Lizards is the fifth race of the 12-race ALMS season, May 19 at Miller Motorsports Park in Salt Lake City, Utah.
About Flying Lizard Motorsports
Founded in 2003, the Sonoma, Calif-based Flying Lizard team is competing in its fourth season of sports car racing with the American Le Mans Series (ALMS). In 2007, the team again fields two Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs--the No. 44 and the No. 45--in the 12-race ALMS season.
The Flying Lizard squad has finished in the top three in the ALMS drivers' and team championships in every season to date. In 2006, Johannes van Overbeek was second in the ALMS GT2 drivers' championship and the team finished third. In 2005, van Overbeek was third in the ALMS GT2 drivers' championship and the team finished in third. In 2004, in their inaugural year, Johannes and the team finished in second place. Flying Lizard has completed two contests at the historic 24 Heures du Mans, finishing fourth in GT2 in 2006 and third in 2005.
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