ALMS: Flying Lizard heads to Lime Rock for Round 3

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 01:47 PM PDT

No. 44 Porsche, Darren Law and Seth Neiman

Back from the 24 Heures du Mans and a sixth place GTE Pro class finish for the No. 80 Porsche, Flying Lizard returns to their North American racing season at the Northeast Grand Prix on July 9. The driver lineup is Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long in the No. 45 Porsche and Seth Neiman and Marco Holzer in the No. 44. (Holzer will trade-off with Darren Law as Neiman’s co-driver for the remainder of the ALMS season in the No. 44.)

It has been a challenging start to the ALMS season for the Lizards. At Sebring, the No. 45 finished sixth and the No. 44 seventh. At Long Beach, the No. 44 finished eighth but the No. 45 was retired following an early-race accident (the No. 45 was in the lead at the time). Heading into the third of nine ALMS races, Bergmeister and Long are tenth in the drivers’ championship; Law and Neiman are ninth and Holzer is eleventh. Flying Lizard is fourth in the team championship.

Patrick Long and Joerg Bergmeister

Flying Lizard chief strategist Thomas Blam gave his perspective, “We aren’t where we’d like to be in the standings, but we’ve been through rough season starts like this in the past; we have to keep focused on the big picture and create our own momentum at this point.”

He explained, “We’ve had our one DNF for the season; we can’t afford anything outside of a top five GT finish from here on out. BMW has won the first two races and has a large points lead. Historically we’ve been very strong at Lime Rock: Joerg has won here with the Lizards four years in a row, the last two with Patrick, who was on the pole in 2010. We need to keep the Lime Rock streak going and build from there. There are six races to go, including three long races (Road America, Laguna Seca, and Petit) – a lot can still happen.”

- Flying Lizard Motorsport

ALMS: Patrick Long Qualifies Flying Lizard Porsche 8th in GT, No. 44 13th for Mid-Ohio

ALMS: Flying Lizard heads to Lime Rock for Round 3

Volkswagen given the green light for two plants in China

Posted: 28 Jun 2011 08:24 PM PDT

ONEIGHTURBO

As planned, the Volkswagen Group can build two further automobile plants in China, continuing its long-term growth strategy in the world’s largest market for passenger cars. During the German-Chinese government consultations in Berlin, final approval was granted today for the plants to be built at Foshan and Yizheng. Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, today signed appropriate declarations together with the Presidents of the Chinese partner organizations.

Chinese government approves plans for Foshan and Yizheng
Planned annual capacity of 300,000 vehicles for each plant

The factory at Yizheng, in Jiangsu Province in eastern China, is to be developed together with partner Shanghai Volkswagen, and the plant at Foshan, in Guangdong Province in southern China, will be built together with the FAW-Volkswagen joint venture. The first documents for the development of the two sites were signed in the summer of 2010. “China is already the world’s largest sales market for automobiles and further substantial growth is expected in the future,” Winterkorn said on the occasion of signing the contracts at the Federal Chancellor’s Office in Berlin. “The Volkswagen Group intends to play a major role in shaping this growth with new environmentally compatible models and the expansion of local production capacity. Our new plants show that Volkswagen remains a strong motor for the Chinese automobile industry.”

Each of the two plants will be designed for an annual capacity of 300,000 vehicles and production is due to start in 2013. “The new factories are a key element in our plans to increase annual production capacity in China to three million vehicles in the medium term together with local partners,” said Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann, President and CEO of Volkswagen Group China in Berlin.

In view of the dynamic development of the Chinese automobile market, Volkswagen had boosted its investment program for China to 10.6 billion euros for the period from 2011 to 2015. In addition to the two new plants, plans have already been announced to expand production capacity at each of the existing Nanjing and Chengdu plants to between 300,000 and 350,000 vehicles per year.