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Tuesday
Jan312012

Magnus Racing Takes Historic Rolex 24 Victory

Daytona Beach, Fl (January 30, 2012)- Following 24 of the most closely contested hours in race history, and with one of the deepest fields ever, Magnus Racing took their historic first victory in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series by taking the checkered flag at the 50th Anniversary of the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

As the signature event of the series, and featuring 45 cars in the GT category, the hype behind the 50th Anniversary was shaping the twice-around-the-clock classic to possibly be the best ever. As the event unfolded, the race definitely exceeded expectations, as the race saw three different cars finish on the lead lap in the DP category, and a narrow margin of victory in GT. Following an amazing three-way battle between the Brumos Racing no. 59 and TRG no. 67 Porsches, the Magnus Racing no. 44 of John Potter, Andy Lally, Richard Lietz and René Rast emerged victorious, as part of a three-way Porsche sweep of the podium.

“I’ve never been here, and I don’t know what to say,” stated a stunned John Potter. “We’ve come so close to winning, to do it here is just so unbelievable. René and Richard drove incredibly, and proved once again why Porsche brings such great drivers. What can I say about Andy? He drove incredibly, and I think he proved yet again why he’s got the reputation he does. Ultimately, however, I really need to thank everyone around me. The crew of men and women behind this team are what make it so special. They deserve to be on the podium with us, and it’s just amazing to be here.”

Qualifying in third place, Andy Lally was off to a great start in the no. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche GT3 Cup. Getting away cleanly as the field spread, it was clear that Porsche had the upper hand, as the Brumos no. 59 of Andrew Davis and no. 44 of Lally drove away from the rest of the field, establishing themeselves as the pace of the field.

As the next hours unfolded, it was clear that the Brumos Racing no. 59 was going to be a very strong competitor. Beyond winning the pole position for the race, the no. 59 featured a strong drive line-up, including reigning GT series champions Leh Keen and Andrew Davis, as well as multi-time Daytona 24 winner Hurley Haywood and Porsche ace Marc Lieb. Between off setting pit strategies and occasional caution periods, the lead would shift several times throughout the afternoon and early evening between the Magnus no. 44 and Brumos no. 59, and the TRG no. 67 Porsche eventually fitting themselves in to the mix as well.

With the midnight hour striking and the calendars officially moving to the 29th, the Magnus no. 44 encountered their first heavy challenge of the race, as Richard Lietz was served a stop and go penalty for passing on a re-start. Not happy with the decision, Lietz was cited for passing a car in front of him before crossing the start-finish line, though Lietz and the team contested that he made the pass prior to coming out of turn six, which was allowed by GRAND-AM rule.

Regardless, the team would fall towards the tail end of the lead lap as a result of the incident, thus settling in to a solid third place behind the no. 59 and 67. With Andy Lally taking the wheel followed by John Potter, the no. 44 would slowly gain ground on the cars in front as the night wore on. Then, at approximately 5AM, Daytona newbie René Rast got in the car… and that’s when things got interesting. Rast, the two-time reigning Porsche Supercup Champion, truly put in a blinding double-stint as the sun went up. Fighting with the no. 67 of old rival Jeroen Bleekemolen for second place, Rast would slowly gain on the Dutchman for lap after lap, making a bold pass on the outside in to turn one and pulling off the impossible.

Turning his attentions to the no. 59 ahead of him, Rast then put on a charge for Marc Lieb. Slowly chipping away on the gap, Rast would close tightly in on Lieb as his double-stint came to a close. Headed out of NASCAR turn 2, Rast would grab a draft on Lieb moving toward the bus-stop chicane, not only out-braking him to take the lead, but also causing Lieb to run wide and run straight across through the bus-stop chicane.

As the sun came up, the no. 44 was now the clear leader. With Rast out and Lietz in, the team would enjoy the lead for the next hour before being handed their second challenge of the day. As Lietz came in for his second stop of the stint, the team made a crucial error during re-fueling. By GRAND-AM rule, no team member may be do anything perceived as working “under the car”; and when a crew member reached under the car to remove debris, the team was penalized another stop and go for the action. However, for this particular violation, it wasn’t just a stop and go, but a stop and go requiring the car to be held for one minute while in the pit. Facing the most excruciating one minute of the race, the team fell back by a lap and a half as this all unfolded, putting the team in third.

This would start a four hour process of fighting back for top honors. With Lietz, Lally, and Rast all trading duties through the morning, the team would slowly gain ground on the 59 and 67 cars ahead of them, fighting to return to the lead lap by lunch-time, until an opportune yellow would finally bring the 44 right back in to contention.

With only three hours remaining, it was time to race. Putting Andy Lally behind the wheel, and having caught the 59 and 67 cars thanks to caution periods, it was time for Lally to go to work. Making easy work of Wolf Henzler in the 67, Lally would set his sights on Leh Keen in the Brumos no. 59 in the closing hours. With off-setting pit strategies starting to come to light, it was clear that every team would likely need to make at least two more stops, and as the laps continued, it was clear Lally would need to make work of Keen on the track.

With just under two and a half hours to go, Lally was able to make good use of the draft through NASCAR Turn Three, passing Keen down the front stretch and re-assuming the lead. Almost equally important, in his efforts to get back around Lally, Keen’s aggression would get the better of him as he made slight contact with Lally’s bumper in the International Horseshoe, slightly damaging his front splitter and effecting the car’s speed.

With under two hours to go, the leading Magnus no. 44 of Andy Lally would pit, with Richard Lietz taking the reigns until the end. With Wolf Henzler driving hard in the no. 67 and now Marc Lieb in the no. 59, Lietz needed to keep pace in order to keep everyone behind, and he did so with great aplomb. Making their final stop with 40 minutes remaining, Lietz never looked back and gave the team their first victory on the biggest of stages.

For Andy Lally, now a four-time Rolex 24 winner, a similar series of sentiments exists.

“Unreal.” Stated Lally. “John drove incredibly today, and was a huge part of our win. Richard was the professional you’d expect him to be, and René just really came on strong. We were lucky to have the line-up we did, and even luckier to have such an incredible crew. Magnus Racing is an incredible team, this is going to be a special year.”

For the no. 4 eBay Motors/Children’s Tumor Foundation/QuickenLoans/Racing4Research.org car, an early incident would lead to a compounding series of difficulties for the day.

Qualifying 17th, Ryan Eversley proved his mettle early on, climbing quickly through the field to get the no. 4 car in the top-10 by the end of his stint. Driving a double stint, the no. 4 car was an early contender, with lap-times on par with the leaders. Full of optimism, Eversley got out of the car, and in came former LeMans winner and SPEED in-race reporter Justin Bell.

Fast and on the pace, Bell was in the thick of the race when trouble would strike. Driving in to the International Horseshoe corner, Bell was fighting strong with the no. 94 of Boris Said when hard contact from Said would send the no. 4 car backwards, coming to a stall on the inside of the track.

With the contact not seeming too heavy, Bell tried to re-fire the car to resume on track, however the car failed to start. Following a number of interchanges over the radio, it became clear the problem was that the car’s starter motor took damage from the incident, meaning the car wouldn’t be able to start on its own. Receiving a bump-start from track workers, the no. 4 car resumed, and following a pit inspection, seemed OK.

With Bell out, Daniel Graeff would get in the car, and continued on. Now four laps down, it was early enough in the race that the team still had a good shot at top results, and in such the team continued at a steady pace. Driving consistently strong laps, Graeff would step out and hand the reigns over to Ron Yarab, who drove his usual consistent pace as well.

With all four of the team’s drivers continuing an incident free series of stints, one small nagging problem remained. With the starter motor’s damage, the team had to “bump start” the engine nearly every time they would pit. Every time the car needed to get rolling, the team would push the car down the pit road, drop the clutch, and force the engine to turn over and resume speed. As time wore on, this stress on the engine’s pully system eventually led it to fail, forcing the no. 4 car back to the garage.

Luckily, the pieces that failed on the engine were replaceable, and after a short visit to the Porsche Motorsport parts trailer, the engine was back up and running, and the no. 4 would manage to see the checkered flag, taking a final finish of 38th.

For Ryan Eversley, the race was a day of mixed fortunes.

“I’m very happy with opening stint, but obviously the finish is disappointing. The team did a great job of preparing the car, but you simply can’t do much about the problem they had. It’s most disappointing for the Children’s Tumor Foundation, but I think we still did a great job of raising awareness and bring donations to the cause.”

Jill Beck, Program Director for Racing4Research had similar feelings.

“We definitely hoped for better results, but what can you do?” stated Beck. “We still had a great experience with the Magnus Racing organization, and I believe very strongly we have a great foundation to move forward. Today’s result was tough, but we still worked hard to achieve our goal.”

Beyond the results of the no. 44 and 4 car, Magnus Racing had a number of other accomplishments to be proud of. After pushing very hard via web and social media, Magnus Racing launched a series of interactive fan contests leading up to the race, in which dozens of fans received everything from apparel to hero cards and more. Additionally, the team had a series of on-going videos and other content that, leading up to the race, had hit a cumulative 50,000+ hits between all videos and mediums.

During the race, the team launched a widely popular “Rolex Wars” poster, which aside from getting track-wide recognition for its ingenuity, also received several mentions on SPEED during broadcast.

Finally, the team launched a webcast from the pit, “Live at Daytona.” Interacting with fans for all 24 hours, the broadcast boasted an impressive 140,000 hits and even more impressive 105,000 unique viewers. These are numbers that compete with many cable TV shows!

All in all, Magnus Racing had a near-perfect weekend, and looks forward to the challenge of the coming season.

“This was definitely a great start,” stated Potter. “Now our focus is on the championship. We’re now the points leaders, so we’re headed in the right direction!”

The second round of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series will take place on Saturday, March 31 as the Rolex Sports Car Series joins the Indy Racing Leage at the scenic Barber Motorsorts Park near Birmingham, Alabama.

For more information, be sure to visit www.magnusracing.com, as well as check in all week via Facebook and Twitter (@magnusracing) to take part in an on-going series of contests and giveaways.

Developed by the Children’s Tumor Foundation, the Racing4Research (R4R) program utilizes competitive, professional auto racing as a vehicle to increase awareness of neurofibromatosis and raise funds for research through corporate sponsorship, personal donations, and individual fundraising by NF Heroes: children and adults from around the country who live with neurofibromatosis. NF affects one in every 3,000 children, more than cystic fibrosis, Duchenne muscular dystrophy and Huntington’s disease combined, and can lead to a wide variety of complications, including blindness, bone abnormalities, cancer, deafness, disfigurement, learning disabilities and excruciating and disabling pain. The Racing4Research program offers children and families living with the disorder a uniquely empowering weekend, and has raised over $1.5 million dollars since its inception five years ago. Donations can be made at www.racing4research.org.

Ustream, Inc. is the leader in live and interactive video streaming. The interactive platform connects broadcasters and viewers of unlimited size through innovative technology including co-hosting video features, IRC chat, Facebook, and Twitter. Ustream’s free and premium solutions allow any broadcaster to create their own customizable channel with robust social and notification features to enhance visibility and virality across multiple platforms. In addition to activating the embeddable features on external websites, users are able to broadcast and view content while interacting in real-time directly from mobile phone devices, tablets, streaming players, smart TVs, and more. The company attracts millions of users ranging from music artists, celebrities, politicians, athletes, corporate executives, animal enthusiasts, and gamers which has contributed to Ustream’s Guinness World Record for the “Most Content Ingested by An Online Video Service”. For more information about Ustream, visit www.ustream.com and follow us on our socials: Twitter (@Ustream); Facebook facebook.com/Ustream).

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.

Saturday
Jan282012

The Friday Report

Today was a short day and the last practices before the big event. A transient thunderstorm welcomed us this morning and the day was a bit soggy, but things weren’t so bad. During the first practice, a strange occurrence happened. Apparently when it rains before a 24-hour race, and there’s no prediction of rain during the race, no one wants to be on track. So, the 44 car went out to bed in a few things, but otherwise stayed dry. Our no. 4 car, they didn’t even bother doing that! There was simply no point to go on track and risk anything.

During the second practice session we had minor technical difficulties with the webcast, but it was the rain that really affected everyone. The bulk of the morning storm had passed, but the downpour was heavy enough to switch to rain tires and even cause a bit of a damper on the moods of a few drivers, though not on their performance. Since the rain was clearly not letting up, both cars put in a few laps in anger in the wet just to get used to it. Playing it safe, both cars stayed in the mix and finished the second practice with ridiculously close top ten times.

We continued our live Ustream webcast of the practice session; and worked out last minute kinks so that we can bring you the only full 24 hour coverage of the race.

After practice, we grabbed an umbrella and caught up with Porsche Factory driver Richard Lietz to keep him dry on his way back to the hauler. A really mellow, young man, he was nice enough to give a candid look at his feelings about the events of the day and the big event tomorrow. The rain didn’t bother him a bit.

“The practice was fine. We’re still driving and that’s what matters. It isn’t supposed to rain tomorrow; and even if it does, today’s rain has nothing to do with tomorrow. This is an endurance race and in a race such as this, the ability to adapt is very important. There can be sunshine every day of practice; but that won’t help you if it rains the day of the race, and vice versa. Practices are for making sure the cars work properly and that everyone is acclimated to the track and each other. During a 24 hour race, drivers must be able to go with the flow and take whatever may come their way.”

In regard to how he felt about his newest teammates he was all smiles when he said, “I’ve never had a teammate with [Magnus] that I didn’t like. I’ve just met Rene Rast and he is a great guy and fast! However, while speed is important to an extent; it is the way we treat each other that matters most. I’d rather have a teammate who isn’t as fast, but is a great person than 10 of the fastest who are [awful people]. Fortunately we have the best of both worlds with this team.”

Mentally, physically, mechanically, and spiritually, the team and crew are ready for the challenge of the Rolex 24. As a cohesive unit with their eye on the prize, Magnus Racing intends to race smart and give their supportive fans a great show.

Ustream, Inc. is the leader in live and interactive video streaming. The interactive platform connects broadcasters and viewers of unlimited size through innovative technology including co-hosting video features, IRC chat, Facebook, and Twitter. Ustream’s free and premium solutions allow any broadcaster to create their own customizable channel with robust social and notification features to enhance visibility and virality across multiple platforms. In addition to activating the embeddable features on external websites, users are able to broadcast and view content while interacting in real-time directly from mobile phone devices, tablets, streaming players, smart TVs, and more. The company attracts millions of users ranging from music artists, celebrities, politicians, athletes, corporate executives, animal enthusiasts, and gamers which has contributed to Ustream’s Guinness World Record for the “Most Content Ingested by An Online Video Service”. For more information about Ustream, visit www.ustream.com and follow us on our socials: Twitter (@Ustream); Facebook facebook.com/Ustream).

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.

Friday
Jan272012

Meet Lorie!

Spare a thought for the most important job during the Rolex 24...

Magnus Racing- Meet Lorie! from Magnus Racing on Vimeo.

Friday
Jan272012

The Thursday Report

Today was the first official day of on-track activity at the 50th Anniversary of the Rolex 24 at Daytona. With one of the most competitive GT fields in the history of the event, it was an eventful day of a neck and neck competition, leading to an incredibly close top three finish in GT qualifying. The energy in the atmosphere was palpable as the day started off warm and only got hotter. The weatherman will tell you that it was a warm front moving in that will lead to an eventual thunderstorm. We at Daytona International Speedway know that the real storm is from within the track.

The first practice session ended with the No.44 Magnus Racing Porsche GT3 Cup car finishing less than a second off the top times, yet in such a closely matched field, the team found themselves barely cracking the top-10. The No. 4 eBay Motors/Children’s Tumor Foundation/Racing4Research Porsche GT3 Cup would find themselves in a similar position, just a few places behind.

With the day’s fortunes improving, and the last opportunity to get on track before qualifying, the second practice ended with a Magnus at the top of the charts, Andy Lally having set a lap time of 1:49.7 to take top honors, leaving the no. 44 team brimming with confidence heading in to qualifying.

During an intense qualifying session, Andy Lally proved, yet again, he is a beast behind the wheel (seriously there’s a pool going around about whether or not he has gasoline running through his veins). From the middle of the pack he shot up to the leading position on the board and fought an epic battle with Brumos Racing’s Porsche GT3 and AIM Autosport’s Ferrari. We finished strong with a number three spot only tenths of a second away from the top. Ultimately everyone was satisfied with third, however it was a tough pill to swallow, with Lally having been at the top of the charts for half the session before Brumos Racing’s Andrew Davis pipped him with only minutes to spare.

The team went out in the two-hour night session to see what kind of trouble we could cause once the sun went down. As it turned out, the men in gray shine even in moonlight, as the no. 44 finished in the number five slot. In a class as competitive as this one that wasn’t a bad place to be, as the top five finished so close together they could smell the sweat off of each others’ brows.

We finished the day not only knowing that the cars are fast, but that the team is mentally prepared for this race; and that we have the best crew any team can ask for.

Developed by the Children’s Tumor Foundation, the Racing4Research (R4R) program utilizes competitive, professional auto racing as a vehicle to increase awareness of neurofibromatosis and raise funds for research through corporate sponsorship, personal donations, and individual fundraising by NF Heroes: children and adults from around the country who live with neurofibromatosis. NF affects one in every 3,000 children, more than cystic fibrosis, Duchenne muscular dystrophy and Huntington’s disease combined, and can lead to a wide variety of complications, including blindness, bone abnormalities, cancer, deafness, disfigurement, learning disabilities and excruciating and disabling pain. The Racing4Research program offers children and families living with the disorder a uniquely empowering weekend, and has raised over $1.5 million dollars since its inception five years ago. Donations can be made at www.racing4research.org.

Ustream, Inc. is the leader in live and interactive video streaming. The interactive platform connects broadcasters and viewers of unlimited size through innovative technology including co-hosting video features, IRC chat, Facebook, and Twitter. Ustream’s free and premium solutions allow any broadcaster to create their own customizable channel with robust social and notification features to enhance visibility and virality across multiple platforms. In addition to activating the embeddable features on external websites, users are able to broadcast and view content while interacting in real-time directly from mobile phone devices, tablets, streaming players, smart TVs, and more. The company attracts millions of users ranging from music artists, celebrities, politicians, athletes, corporate executives, animal enthusiasts, and gamers which has contributed to Ustream’s Guinness World Record for the “Most Content Ingested by An Online Video Service”. For more information about Ustream, visit www.ustream.com and follow us on our socials: Twitter (@Ustream); Facebook facebook.com/Ustream).

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.

Wednesday
Jan252012

Welcome Andy Lally!