SONOMA – Flying Lizard Motorsports will return to Sebring Raceway for the season-opening Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring with an expanded, two car lineup. The team will race the No. 44 and 45 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars in the GTC class, with their week on track beginning with testing on Saturday, March 9th, and culminating on race day the following Saturday, March 16th.

Following the team's successful ALMS Winter Test at Sebring last month, Spencer Pumpelly (pictured above) (USA) and Nelson Canache Jr. (Venezuela) return in the No. 45 car with Brian Wong (USA) rounding out the driver lineup. Brian is a newcomer to Flying Lizard, bringing extensive Porsche and GTC as well as NASCAR experience. Spencer said of the race week, "We are headed to Sebring feeling very optimistic. We had a great car at the test, Nelson worked very hard and found good speed, and the team was able to adapt to the Cup car very quickly. My co-drivers are both experienced in GTC and have the pace to keep us in the hunt."

The No. 44 car will be piloted by Pierre Ehret (Germany), Brett Sandberg (USA), and Alexandre Imperatori (Switzerland), all newcomers to the team as well. Pierre has run worldwide in endurance sports car racing for the past ten years, including at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 24 Hours of Daytona, and in the ALMS and FIA WEC. Brett has been racing in professional series for four years, including three years in World Challenge. He will be running World Challenge again this year along with a full-season program in IMSA GT3 Cup, which, combined with his GTC effort, will make for a very busy Sebring race week between the two series. Alex came up through karting and open-wheel racing in Japanese F3 and A1 GP before switching over to programs in Super GT and Porsche Carrera Cup Asia for the last two years. He is the defending 2012 Carrera Cup Asia champion and has won 15 of the 21 races that he has run in in that series over the past two years. Alex spoke about racing at Sebring, "First of all, I would like to thank Flying Lizard for trusting me with this opportunity, which will be my first time racing in America. To be able to discover American racing at a classic event like Sebring is simply amazing! I know that it will be massively competitive and I will have plenty of things to learn as quickly as possible, but I'm sure that together with my teammates, who will be quite competitive, and the team's support, we can aim for a strong result. I really look forward to the experience firsthand and can't wait to get to Florida to get to work!"

Team owner Seth Neiman's recovery from shoulder surgery is coming along well and he will be with the team at Sebring although, unfortunately, not yet able to drive. Crew Chief Tommy Sadler said, "It will be nice to have Seth with the team at the track again. The last few weeks in the shop have been busy getting both cars ready for Sebring but we're looking forward to being back together at full strength as a two car team for the race week and into the season. Both driver lineups will be very competitive and either car should be able to race for the podium and even challenge for the win."

The 2013 12 Hours of Sebring gets the green flag at 10:30am ET on Saturday, March 16th. Qualifying will be broadcast live on ALMS.com on Friday, March 15th from 1:05pm to 2:25pm ET. The race will be broadcast live on Speed on Saturday, March 16th from 10:30am to 12:00pm ET and 1:00pm to 7:30pm ET, with tape delayed coverage of the finish from 10:30pm to 1:00am ET. Internationally the race will be broadcast on ALMS.com from 10:30am to 11:00pm ET.

Photos: Bob Chapman, autosportimage.com