Potter and Stanton come to Lime Rock full of confidence after Virginia result

Stanton in flight during the final hour at VIRMay 25, 2010 (Salt Lake City, Utah) – A few weeks ago, teammates John Potter and Craig Stanton drove the No.44 Magnus Racing Porsche GT3 Cup to fourth at the Bosch Engineering 250 at VIRginia International Raceway – the best result of their GRAND-AM Rolex Sportscar Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No.16 season. Under the radar, Stanton moved up several positions in the last hour to finish just off the podium in a thrilling GT race.

The two are now looking forward to another strong run at this Monday’s Memorial Day Classic at Lime Rock Park. This is the first the time the duo will drive together at Lime Rock, a track that will pose some challenges to the Porsche teams.

“Everybody tells us that we aren’t going to do well, and that this isn’t a good track for the Porsche,” said Potter, who will also drive in the weekend’s GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race in his team’s Porsche Cayman. “But we heard the same thing about VIR, and the Porsches did pretty well there. It’s not like we can keep up with most of the tube-frame cars on outright speed, but if we stay out of trouble and in a good spot at the end, anything could happen.”

While the nature of the Lime Rock circuit does not favor the street-derived, rear-engined Porsche, Craig Stanton, a former champion in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sportscar Series, knows there are other factors at work for he and Potter to have another top-five result.

“This is a short, tight track where half of the time, we will be trying to not get run into by the Daytona Prototypes,” said Stanton. “So I am expecting quite a few yellow flags. As long as we have good pitstops – and the Magnus Racing team has delivered all year long in the pits – and can stay on the lead lap, and keep the car in once piece, we should be set to have another great finish. These guys have worked their tail off to make the car fast and it is beginning to show.”

Magnus Racing currently sits fifth in the GRAND-AM GT Team championship, while Stanton and Potter are eleventh in the Driver’s championship. Potter also sits fourth in the Bob Akin GT-Class standings for sportsman drivers.

The Memorial Day Classic will be shown live on Speed Channel, Monday the 31^st, at 2:00 PM ET. Fans of Magnus Racing can follow the team’s progress throughout the weekend at magnusracing.com, facebook.com/magnusracing, and twitter.com/magnusracing (@magnusracing).

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 the Grand-American Rolex Sportscar Series can e-mail info@magnusracing.com. All press inquiries can be directed to press@magnusracing.com.



Magnus Racing records first top-10 result in Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge

The No.44 Magnus Racing Cayman finished 10th at VIR.April 27, 2010 (Salt Lake City, Utah) – In the third race of its GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge career, the No.44 Magnus Racing Porsche Cayman recorded its first top-10 result of the 2010 season at last weekend’s Bosch Engineering 200 at Virginia International Raceway.

Built by Magnus Racing throughout the 2009-2010 winter, the Cayman made its debut at Homestead-Miami and has done the bulk of its testing at each GRAND-AM event. The car showed speed straight out of the gate but has undergone continuous improvement at each weekend.

Team owner John Potter put his Cayman 14^th on the starting grid, holding the position at the start and picking up a couple of positions throughout the first hour of the race. Pitting for fuel and tires, Leh Keen jumped in the car and began to progress through the field. With some help from strategy calls from the pits as well as an extended yellow flag session, Keen got the Magnus Racing Cayman up to third place where he had a large battle for position that the Speed TV cameras covered – along with several shots of Keen catching air through the notorious esses of VIR.

The strategy was a gamble, which would have paid off if the race had another extended yellow-flag session – not an uncommon occurrence in a Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race. However, the yellow that the team needed never came, and the Cayman was brought into the pits for a splash of fuel.  The stop would drop the Cayman to 12^th overall, but he would make up two positions before the checkered to finish in tenth.

On the heels of finishing fourth earlier in the day in the GT class of the Rolex Sportscar Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No.16, the Cayman’s result marked the most successful day yet of the short history of Magnus Racing.

“It was a really good day, and I’m proud that the team was able to get the Cayman up to third place today,” said Potter following the race. “We’ve been working on the car and changing things each session since Homestead and continuing to make progress. There is still a ways to go but this is very encouraging. Perhaps if we had gone a different way on strategy we could have had an even better finishing position, but we have to always try different things since we can’t win on horsepower on these bigger tracks. I’m looking forward to Lime Rock at the end of next month.”

The Continental Tire Sports Car Series’ Bosch Engineering VIR 200 will be shown on May 1 at 1:00 PM EST on SPEED Channel. The next race on the GRAND-AM schedule is the weekend at Lime Rock Park, May 28-31. Magnus Racing fans can see photo galleries of the weekend at www.magnusracing.com, or facebook.com/magnusracing.

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 the Grand-American Rolex Sportscar Series can e-mail info@magnusracing.com. All press inquiries can be directed to press@magnusracing.com.



Stanton’s charge through the GT field nets a fourth-place finish for Magnus Racing

The Magnus Porsche flies on its way to 4th placeApril 26, 2010 (Alton, VA) – Throughout the first hour of his stint behind the wheel of the No.44 Magnus Racing Porsche GT3 Cup at the Bosch Engineering 250 at VIR, Craig Stanton had one objective on his mind – conserving his car. It was a move that paid off, because in the final hour Stanton used the car up as he marched from ninth in the GT class to a stunning result of fourth place.

Team owner and leader of Magnus Racing, John Potter, started the race in the No.44 Magnus Racing Porsche GT3 Cup. From the drop of the green, he battled throughout the opening stint with several other cars – keeping the car safe and intact but definitely putting pressure on everyone ahead. His stint at the helm was a clean one and served notice that the Porsche was going to go forward.

 A quick pitstop by the crew of the No.44 car for fuel, tires, and a driver changed helped the Porsche gain track position. With Stanton now behind the wheel, things stayed relatively trouble-free and unexciting for the team until the final hour of the race, but Stanton remained within striking distance of the rest of the GT-field.  

“We had taken really good care of the car – the tires and brakes were in great shape, and I could tell that most of the other cars around us were in trouble,” said Stanton. “The crew did a phenomenal job of preparing the car, and we knew that after practice and qualifying that it was going to be a really fast car. We also knew, however, that if we were trying to race everyone else too soon, we would run into tire problems later on. With the rules changes that GRAND-AM gave the Porsches, it helps us with speed but hasn’t quite helped our tire wear, so we still had to look after that.”

With a couple of well-executed passes on restarts, and a gutsy last-lap pass in the Rollercoaster, Stanton brought the car home in fourth place – a season-best result for Magnus Racing in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sportscar Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No.16. The team’s previous best was a fifth, at the season opening Rolex 24 at Daytona.

“I am really glad that we were able to get a great result for our team this weekend,” said Potter. “I had a really fun stint behind the wheel, and had a really fun time watching Craig go through the field and pick off the Mazdas one by one. I never thought I would see that this season, but he found a way to do it. The Porsches are more competitive now and we are looking forward to the next few races, which will help play to the strengths of our car and our team.”

The result moved Potter and Stanton to 11^th overall in the driver’s championship, and moves Magnus Racing to fifth in the Team Championship.

The Continental Tire Sports Car Series’ Bosch Engineering VIR 200 will be shown on May 1 at 1:00 PM EST on SPEED Channel. The next race on the GRAND-AM schedule is the weekend at Lime Rock Park, May 28-31. The Rolex Sportscar Series race from Lime Rock will be shown live on SPEED Channel at 2:00PM EST. Magnus Racing fans can see photo galleries of the weekend at www.magnusracing.com, or facebook.com/magnusracing.

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 the Grand-American Rolex Sportscar Series can e-mail info@magnusracing.com. All press inquiries can be directed to press@magnusracing.com.



VIRginia - Saturday Report

We didn't get the Grand-Am lucky dog award, but we finished 4th!This was a long day, but as it turned out, it was the best day yet in the short history of Magnus Racing. The Team in Green had both the Porsche GT3 Cup and Porsche Cayman looking their best for the thousands of fans that walked through the pits in the morning and during the autograph session. It was somewhat surprising to see how many of the fans took a big interest in our Cayman. The car seems to have become a crowd favorite already – but there were a lot of Porsche owners in attendance at VIR.

One that was wrapped up, the Jolly Green Giant and the Little Sprout (what Lorie calls John and Craig when they are in their racing suits) were ready for the Rolex race. John started the car and from the word go, was in a huge battle with several other cars, including the No. 97 Camaro, No. 66 Porsche, No.28 Corvette.

Right at the 45 minute mark, John came in and got out, with Craig getting in. The next hour or so was fairly uneventful, but things got really interesting in the latter stages as a pair of yellow flag sessions allowed Craig to get into striking distance of the lead group. Suddenly, Craig was passing Mazdas left and right and was up to fifth on the last lap, when he dove under the No. 57 Camaro in the Rollercoaster. The Camaro took a dead aim at the Porsche but missed, and Craig crossed the line in fourth place for the best result yet for Magnus Racing.

The Cayman battled to a 10th place finishWith the excitement from that barely over, the Cayman was wheeled onto the track for the Continental race. John again took the green and moved up two spots during his stint, pitting during the first yellow to put Leh in the car. The team stretched his fuel mileage as long as possible, getting him as high as third where he battled with the No. 83 Porsche – a battle that will get good airtime when the Continental race eventually airs. As time wound down, however, Leh had to do a splash for fuel and brought the Cayman home tenth for its best result in its short three-race career.

Another weekend with two races in one day, but this was a good one. The team is off to clean up and discover more of the fine dining of South Boston, VA.

VIRginia – Friday Report

If you haven’t ever been to VIR in Middle of Nowhere, Virginia, it is one of those places that you must put on your list of places to watch a race. The drivers love it, and watching the cars streak up the esses, bouncing off the curbs and hardly cracking the throttle is simply amazing. The drop down the Rollercoaster is a lot bigger than it looks on TV, and a lot faster as well. A wonderful racetrack.

This was also the first time our GT car would be on track with its newest spec from Grand-Am, which would surely mean the Porsches would now run away from the lightweight, tube-chassis, purpose built cars in GT. Our day started with two rounds of practice in both Rolex and the Continental series. All the drivers – Leh and John in the Cayman in GS, and Craig and John in the GT3 in GT – reported steady improvement from session to session, with the GT car particularly finding a lot of speed in the second session with Craig behind the wheel. After some setup changes, we were third on the timesheets in GT, while the Cayman hovered just outside the top-10. Things looked good for qualifying.

Qualifying  for Rolex and Continental were scheduled back to back. This weekend, John will be starting both cars so he qualified the GT car, parked it, hopped in the Cayman, and qualified that one as well.  John qualified ninth in GT, the fastest Porsche, and then qualified the Cayman 15^th in GS – again, the fastest Porsche. He told us afterward that he was happy but felt there was more time in the car – but at the same time, felt that both cars were in really good shape for the race. And – surprise! – the lightweight, tube-chassis, purpose-built cars (especially those with rotary engines) still dominate the head of the timesheets.

It will be a long day tomorrow – after morning practice, the Rolex race begins at 12:00PM EST, and the Continental race starting immediately after at 3:30PM EST.