FULL REPORT: Magnus Racing Struggles at 12 Hours of Sebring

SEBRING, Fl. (March 19, 2018) – Following a long day that included seemingly endless contact from competitors, Magnus Racing would finish 13^th in class during Saturday’s 66^th Annual 12 Hours of Sebring, finishing the race two laps down. While the team would enjoy flawless pit stops and no self-induced mistakes by drivers John Potter, Andy Lally, and Andrew Davis, four separate incidents with other cars would malign the team’s efforts. 

“I knew it was a bad start to the day when I was hit by a pit vehicle while WALKING,” stated Magnus Racing team owner and co-driver John Potter. “It’s frustrating to have as much contact as we did, it seemed like we never stopped playing catch up and damage control, but that’s obviously one of the unique parts of Sebring. I was particularly frustrated by the 29 car and how often we seemed to get in to contact for no reason, but it’s something we have to put behind us and move forward.” 

While the 12-hour race is supposed to begin with the green flag, the race actually began for the team two hours earlier, after contact with a prototype in the morning warm up would already begin the repairs for the No. 44 Audi Tire Audi R8 LMS. With the crew making bodywork repairs on pit lane prior to the race start, the event would begin with a hope that the worst was behind them. 

Unfortunately by time the first round of pit stops would occur, damage to the right front was already incurred when the No. 93 would make a diving move in to Turn 17, making contact with the Magnus machine within the first hour. 

Two hours later, the No. 44 would have two separate incidents within a single stint. The first would occur when the No. 29 Audi would make a diving move in to Turn Seven on Andy Lally, with the opposing driver outbraking himself and running straight in to the door of the No. 44. A few laps later, Andy would run in to a prototype that was exiting pit lane.

However the ultimate challenge would occur one hour later, when the same No. 29 would make an aggressive move in the tricky Turn 17, sending the No. 44 spinning in to the tire barriers, with the car quickly diving in to pit-lane for repairs.

With the damage proving substantial, the compromised speed and time lost in the pits would ruin all hope of a top result.

From that point, it was simply a case of soldiering on, with the team refusing to quit and managing the time to the end in the hopes for attrition, which didn’t quite pan out.

For Andy Lally, a similar sentiment was shared.

“Meh.” stated Lally.

For Andrew Davis, no quotes were heard as he was playing Alice in Chains too loudly.

With the first two races of the season behind, all attention now turns to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s return to the scenic Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, where the team will compete at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Showdown from May 4-6.