Rahal, Lieb Among Latest Sebring Additions

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The grid for the 55th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring continues to grow stronger as the opening race for the 2007 American Le Mans Series approaches. Graham Rahal and Marc Lieb were some of the additions announced Monday, seven days before the start of race week at Sebring International Raceway.

Rahal, one of the hottest young prospects in all of motorsports, will make his second straight appearance at Sebring as he fills out the roster for Rahal Letterman Racing, co-owned by his father and 1987 Sebring race-winner Bobby Rahal. Eighteen-year-old Graham will join full-time team drivers Ralf Kelleners and Tom Milner in the team’s Porsche 911 GT3 RSR in the highly competitive GT2 class. Last season the younger Rahal made his Series debut with Alex Job Racing in a GT2-class Porsche. He, Mike Rockenfeller and Klaus Graf recorded a sixth-place class finish in a day of ups and downs.

“I may be young, but everyone in racing understands the significance of Sebring and what winning this event means on a driver’s resume,” Graham Rahal said. “One thing my Dad and I have tried to do over the last couple of seasons is to get as much practical experience as possible driving in different cars and series. This isn’t the first time I have raced for my dad (Formula BMW USA in 2004), but it is the first time I have raced for his team at this level and hopefully I can help make RLR’s American Le Mans Series debut successful.”

Lieb will try to add a Sebring win to an impressive record that already includes a class win at Le Mans in 2005 and two Le Mans Series and FIA GT championships. As in 2006, the Porsche factory driver will help pilot the No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche (a new Type 997), this time with Johannes van Overbeek and two-time and class champion Jorg Bergmeister. Lieb, van Overbeek and Jon Fogarty finished just 5.2 seconds behind the GT2-winning Panoz Esperante GTLM in the closest finish in the race’s 54-year history.

“It will be great to have Marc back with us at Sebring,” van Overbeek said. “Jorg, Marc and I all know one another’s styles fairly well by now and we like driving together. Starting the season at Sebring is always an eye-opener. This race is a tough one on drivers, cars and crew; add a new car to the mix and it’s going to be quite a weekend!”

In addition, Jaime Melo and Johnny Mowlem officially were added to the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 GT with Mika Salo. Emmanuel Collard will drive one of Penske Racing’s Porsche RS Spyders in LMP2 with Sascha Maassen and Ryan Briscoe. Helio Castroneves will join Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas in the other Penske entry.


 
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