Magnus Racing is victorious in the Machismo 500
Wednesday, October 27, 2010 at 01:35PM 
October 27, 2010 (Salt Lake City, Utah) – Capping its inaugural season (for the third time), the Magnus Racing trio of real driver Craig Stanton and pseudo drivers Efrain Olivares and Mike Kai took a narrow victory at the Machismo 500, run in the parking lot of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Hotel from Saturday night at 8:45 PM until Sunday morning at 6:45 AM.
Competing in the faster of the two classes in the Machismo 500, the Pro class, the team qualified sixth and worked up to fourth in the opening stint of the race. As teams established their pit strategies early in the race, Magnus Racing elected to run several short sessions to burn up its required pit stops. Those stops dropped the team to sixth, but the team retook the lead in the race’s third hour.
As three drivers ran long stints throughout the middle portion of the race, it became established that the overall lead would come down to a battle between Magnus Racing and the GoShootingToday.com team. With the teams separated by less than a lap, the race lead was taken by the GoShootingToday.com team with two hours left while Stanton ran a conservative pace to conserve the front tires of his kart. In the final hour, the GoShootingToday.com team lost a lap in the pits when they ran out of fuel, putting Magnus Racing back in the lead. With Kai at the wheel to finish the race, he ran a strong stint over the final hour and put a lap on the GoShootingToday.com team to seal the victory.
Two hands in the air, Kai jubilantly took the checkered flag when it fell at 6:45 AM on Sunday morning, with a one lap advantage over the GoShootingToday.com team. The team completed 793 laps, or 555.1 miles, of the .7 mile circuit.
“What a great race,” said Stanton following the awards ceremony. “It was looking for a while there that we wouldn’t be able to run with those guys, but Mike and Efrain did a great job and Mike put in a great final stint to bring it home. It was a really hard-fought race – we were on the gas from the first lap – but we all stayed out of trouble and didn’t hurt the kart, which was a pretty tough thing to do with two classes of karts out there. We also had a great strategy and great calls in the pits thanks to Ken March and Stephen Chow. But what a fun event! I can’t wait till the next one.”
This really should be the last of Magnus Racing’s 2010 races, and the team will now gear up for its 2011 season, which will begin with January’s Roar Before the 24 at Daytona International Speedway, Grand-Am’s official test before the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
More information about Magnus Racing can be found at www.magnusracing.com. Any organization interested in learning more about how to be involved with one of the most unique and visible teams in sports car racing can e-mail info@magnusracing.com. All press inquiries can be directed to press@magnusracing.com.
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