Porsche factory drivers Bernhard, Dumas, Maassen and Long will all join Penske Racing for the 2008 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) season in the Porsche RS Spyder LMP2 prototypes, while Bergmeister, Henzler and Pilet will run for the year with Flying Lizard Motorsports with the ALMS GT2 class in Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs.  Collard will join the Penske group as an additional driver for the upcoming Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
 
The twelve Porsche pilots trained seven hours a day in a fitness studio and outside. In addition to power and endurance training the fitness schedule also included various exercises to improve their speed, flexibility and coordination.
 
“The drivers have stuck to the individual training schedules that I put together for them in December 2007. They turned up here at our fitness camp well prepared. Even the newer Porsche works pilots were at an excellent fitness level,” said Prof. Dr. Mayer about his protégés.
 
“For this reason we were able to again increase the intensity of the programme compared to last year,” added the sport medicine specialist.
 
“The combination of power training, various forms of endurance training and team building exercises has given my fitness level a noticeable boost,” says Timo Bernhard (Germany), the reigning LMP2 co-champion of the American Le
Mans Series.
 
“At the same time the first race in Sebring is the most physically demanding of the season. The fast corners put a huge strain on the neck and the bumps put an extra stress on the head and back,” adds his teammate and co-champion Romain Dumas (France).
 
American Patrick Long, who contests his first full ALMS season in the Porsche RS Spyder this year, also feels optimally prepared.
 
“Even now I notice a big improvement in my fitness. Apart from that I’ve got a lot of ideas for my personal fitness schedule during the coming season.”
 
Long’s teammate Sascha Maassen (Germany) underlines another positive aspect of their training.
 
“The new works drivers Richard Westbrook, Wolf Henzler and Patrick Pilet have integrated well into our squad. The many team-building games we’ve played have helped tremendously with this.”