This is what Darren Law found out recently, when he returned to The Flying Lizards, a team which he spent the 2004 through 2012 seasons with. An original Lizard, Darren paired with Johannes van Overbeek in 2004 to finish second in the then GT class in the ALMS, in what was a very surprising and exciting inaugural season for the team.
While competing for the Lizards, he also campaigned in the Grand Am, first with Brumos, then Action Express, followed by a stint with Gainsco. Up until recently, Darren was the chief operations officer at the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance in Phoenix Arizona. But when the chance to return to the Lizards came up, he knew it was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.
“Seth Neiman and I were talking one day and he asked me if I’d be interested in coming back with the Lizards. That led to an interesting discussion and the next thing I know I was heading back home to the Flying Lizards.” In Darren’s new capacity, he will be involved in team management and operations, as well as in managing manufacturer, partner, sponsor and customer relationships. He’ll also be utilizing his years of racing and coaching experience to working on development of the team drivers.
“I enjoyed my years at Bondurant, but this was too good of an opportunity to pass up. I spoke with Bob at length about the decision and he fully supports the decision, agreeing that it was simply too good for me to pass up.”
2015 sees many major changes for Flying Lizards. First off, Seth likely won’t be driving for the team. “Seth has some business commitments for this season, which will mean time away from the team. We never really discussed it much, but maybe this is his way of stepping back and seeing the team take the next step of their evolution. He knows the value of the team, it’s known and liked the world over and I think he just wants to see that legacy continue and to even grow.”
“One of the things that make the team what it is, really are the members of the team. They make it what it is and when I came back, it was truly incredible to see that it is still pretty much the team that I remember.”
Another change is that they’ve decided to take a step away from their endurance roots and make a full commitment to running the K-Pax McLaren effort in the Pirelli World Challenge series. “We’re looking forward to the new challenge. It is a new series for us and one that looks to be very impressive for the upcoming season. I think I counted 35 GT cars that should be on the grid to start a race. That is impressive indeed.”
“I do think one of the reasons for their (World Challenge) success is their philosophy in sticking with the GT3 spec cars. These cars can be run anywhere in the world. This is not to knock IMSA, but they aren’t using those regulations currently. Plus it simply costs less to compete in World Challenge. Far less.”
Heading into World Challenge competition, it is known that Robert Thorne will be driving one of the two new McLaren 650S cars that are on hand, while a third car will be available, an older 12C GT3 that will be upgraded to full 650S specifications. While it hasn’t been announced, Darren did indicate that one of the new cars will be driven by a factory McLaren driver, giving some indication of the serious nature of this program.
Last season, Robert Thorne had a break out season driving one of the McLarens and Darren came away quite impressed, especially after working with him at the recent Roar Before the 24 test. “I’d not really worked with Robert before. I saw his drive at Miller in the season finale, where he held off Ryan Dalziel for the most of the race, under intense pressure, that was impressive. After seeing with him at the test, I have to say what he did there was also quite impressive. Considering he was new to driving an Audi, his times were not all that far off of what Marcus Winkelhock was turning and Marcus is a factory Audi driver.”
With the K-Pax McLaren program being the No. 1 priority, it is the IMSA program that takes a hit. But the team won’t be completely absent, they intend to continue to be competing in the series with their Audis in 2015. “We’ll start off with the long races, both Daytona and Sebring are races we’re planning on doing, as well as Petit. We may likely get in a local race as well, which would probably be Laguna. It is all dependent on the schedule for World Challenge and these might be the only races we can fit it.”
The Flying Lizards also recently announced that they were also returning to the Porsche fold for 2015, as they intend on also entering the Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy USA. This Porsche series comprises of a 8-race schedule, and it too, like World Challenge, will kick off at COTA in early March. “After looking at several race series, we felt the Pirelli Porsche GT3 Cup had something very unique to offer both teams and drivers. Our history with Porsche goes back to day one of our program, and our fans haven’t let us forget it. We enjoyed great success with Porsche and look forward to running them again. It’s a proven race machine, and perfect for all types of racers. Not only do we want to allow customers to race in a professional environment, but have a strong package for the best chance of development and success. Through this series, we hope to provide just that, and we’re excited to get started.”
First off though is Daytona, where the team hopes to be able to officially take the GTD class this year!
Gary Horrocks
