Magnus Racing's No.44 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup is fixed and will be back in action this weekend at DaytonaJune 29, 2010 (Salt Lake City, Utah) – The summer schedule of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 is a busy one. The schedule also gets a bit more compressed when a team has less than two weeks to rebuild a destroyed race car.
Magnus Racing left the EMCO Gears Classic at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course with one very damaged Porsche 911 GT3 Cup after John Potter made contact with the concrete wall in turn one after he was hit by a Daytona Prototype. Quickly loaded up, the car traveled from Lexington, Ohio to Long Island where crew chief John Bedell and the staff of Magnus Racing stripped the car and performed the necessary repairs to the green and white Porsche.
Eight days and 175 man-hours after the damaged car was pushed out of the Magnus Racing trailer, the No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup was put back in the trailer for the trek from Long Island to Daytona Beach after receiving extensive repairs to the chassis, suspension, and bodywork of the rear end of the car.
With their race cut short at Mid-Ohio, both Potter and Stanton are looking forward to their return trip to Daytona International Speedway, a high-speed track that favors the characteristics of the Porsche. Despite some early delays and repairs, John Potter and Craig Stanton – partnered with Austria’s Richard Lietz and the Netherlands’ Jeroen Bleekemolen – finished the Rolex 24 at Daytona in a strong fifth position this past January in the team’s GRAND-AM debut.
“Mid-Ohio was really disappointing, since we were fast in practice and we knew we had a car that would be strong at the end of the race,” said Potter. “I know Craig was also really unhappy about not getting the chance to drive. But after the crash we had an even bigger race – getting the car fixed in time for Daytona! We had to ask the guys to work another miracle and get the car ready in time – no small job, considering the first job was to pull all of the concrete out of the engine…”
The tough finish at Mid-Ohio dropped Potter and Stanton to seventeenth in the GT driver’s championship and Magnus Racing to ninth in the GT team championship. Potter sits fourth in the Bob Akin championship for sportsman drivers in GT Class, after seven rounds of the Rolex Sports Car Series championship.
This weekend’s Brumos Porsche 250 at Daytona will be broadcast on Saturday at 1:00 PM ET on SPEED Channel. Fans of Magnus Racing can follow the team on www.magnusracing.com, at facebook.com/magnusracing, and on twitter at 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-AM Rolex Sports Car Series can e-mail info@magnusracing.com. All press inquiries can be directed to press@magnusracing.com.