Porsche ends works American Le Mans programme with Flying Lizard

The German manufacturer has announced that it is ending its works backing of the Flying Lizard Motorsports squad as it begins development of the next-generation, or 991-shape, 911 next year.

This means that there will be no further development of the existing 997-style 911 GT3-RSR, which has been led by the Lizard team in the US.

Hartmut Kristen, Porsche's motorsport boss, said: "Porsche will support the customer teams which continue to race that car, but the time has come and we now must focus our research and engineering development efforts on its successor."

Porsche Motorsport North America president Jens Walther thanked Flying Lizard for its involvement in the successes of the current 911 GT3-RSR.

"Team owner Seth Neiman and his entire Flying Lizard Motorsports organisation have helped both Porsche Motorsport and all our customer teams around the world by being our development partner in the US," said Walther. "We thank Seth and his team for that service, and hope their racing plans going forward continue to include Porsche."

A statement from Flying Lizard said that the squad would remain in sportscar racing, but did not specify the ALMS. That has raised the prospect of a switch by the team to Grand-Am (which will take over the ALMS in 2014) following its participation in the 2011 Daytona 24 Hours with a Porsche-powered Riley Daytona Prototype.

Flying Lizard was established ahead of the 2004 ALMS season. It became Porsche's factory team in 2007 and went on to notch up a hat-trick of titles in 2008-10 with the 911 GT3-RSR and a roster of drivers led by Jorg Bergmeister.

Porsche has yet to divulge on Flying Lizard's opposite number in Europe, the Felbermayr-Proton squad contesting the World Endurance Championship. The manufacturer said that a second announcement could follow some time next month.