Quick Facts
Biography
Seth Neiman (born June 27, 1954) is an American computer industry businessperson and venture capitalist in California, and a professional racing driver.
He is the team principal of Flying Lizard Motorsports, which participates in the United SportsCar Championship and the Pirelli World Challenge in partnership with K-Pax Racing. He currently resides in San Francisco, California.
Youth
Neiman was born in East Liverpool and grew up in Dayton, both in Ohio. His mother was Judith Klapper Neiman and father was Ralph Bernard Neiman. The second child of four, he had two sisters and a younger brother.
He graduated from Ohio State University with a Bachelor's degree in philosophy and did graduate work in computer science.
Business career
Neiman was a system architect at Maxitron Corporation in Marin County during the mid-1980s, and then Vice President of Product Development at Dahlgren Control Systems in San Francisco. In 1988 he became Vice President of Product Development for the TOPS Division of Sun Microsystems, that was developing the TOPS network file server system.
In 1994 he joined the venture capital firm Crosspoint Venture Partners, and becoming a general partner before departing. In 1995 was as a founder of Brocade Communications Systems. Neiman served as a lead investor and board member of various broadband computer networking companies, including Foundry Networks, Avanex, iPass, Shoreline, Juniper Networks, and NexPrise.
He has been Chairman of the Board of eSilicon Corporation since 2011, and a Director at AlephCloud Systems Inc. since 2013. He is also a Director at the facial expression recognition system company Emotient, Inc.
Racing career
Neiman formed Flying Lizard Motorsports team in 2003. In 2005 he competed in the ALMS GT2 class for the Porsche team as well as finishing third in GT2 class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He finished 4th at Le Mans the following year and finished 9th in ALMS GT2 points for the same team in 2006. He also drove in four SCCA World Challenge races in the Touring Car class.
In 2007, he finished 10th in ALMS and the car failed to finish at Le Mans. In 2008 he captured a career best 5th place in ALMS GT2 points and finished 6th at Le Mans. In 2009 he again failed to finish at Le Mans and finished 7th in ALMS points.
He returned to the Flying Lizards team he owns in 2010, and competed in his first 24 Hours of Daytona, finishing 9th overall and 2nd in GT.
24 Hours of Le Mans results
| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 |  Flying Lizard Motorsports | Johannes van Overbeek Lonnie Pechnik | Porsche 911 GT3-RSR | GT2 | 323 | 13th | 3rd |
| 2006 | Flying Lizard Motorsports | Johannes van Overbeek Patrick Long | Porsche 911 GT3-RSR | GT2 | 309 | 18th | 4th |
| 2007 | Flying Lizard Motorsports |  Jörg Bergmeister Johannes van Overbeek | Porsche 997 GT3-RSR | GT2 | 124 | DNF | DNF |
| 2008 | Flying Lizard Motorsports | Jörg Bergmeister Johannes van Overbeek | Porsche 997 GT3-RSR | GT2 | 289 | 32nd | 6th |
| 2009 | Flying Lizard Motorsports | Jörg Bergmeister Darren Law | Porsche 997 GT3-RSR | GT2 | 194 | DNF | DNF |
| 2010 | Flying Lizard Motorsports | Jörg Bergmeister Darren Law | Porsche 997 GT3-RSR | GT2 | 61 | DNF | DNF |
| 2011 | Flying Lizard Motorsports | Darren Law Spencer Pumpelly | Porsche 997 GT3-RSR | GTE Am | 211 | DNF | DNF |
| 2012 | Flying Lizard Motorsports |  Patrick Pilet Spencer Pumpelly | Porsche 997 GT3-RSR | GTE Am | 313 | 27th | 4th |
| 2014 |  JMW Motorsport |  Abdulaziz Al-Faisal Spencer Pumpelly | Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 | GTE Am | 327 | 27th | 7th |