March 14, 2010 (Salt Lake City, Utah) – The expansion of Magnus Racing’s racing program into the American Le Mans Series begins this weekend as the team will take part for the first time in the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring.
Fresh off their first podium in the Rolex Sports Car Series at the Grand Prix of Miami, John Potter and Craig Stanton will be joined by Hong Kong’s Matthew Marsh in the competitive GT-C class. Under the banner of their new sponsor Flex Box, a supplier of shipping and reefer containers worldwide, the Magnus Racing team showed great speed at the recent ALMS series test at Sebring and have already demonstrated their technical prowess with the 2011 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. This will be the team’s second ALMS race after finishing third at the Petit Le Mans last year in GT-C.
Marsh, joining the team for the first time, will be making his debut at the 12 Hours of Sebring. However, his resume includes runs at the 24 Hours of LeMans, 24 Hours of Daytona, the Nurburging 24 Hours and Bathurst 24 Hours, as well as plenty of time spent at the wheel of Porsche machinery, including victories in the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia.
Also making his debut on the famed runways of the 3.7-mile Sebring road course will be Potter, as this will be his first run at the 12 Hours of Sebring. After a strong run at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and his team’s first Rolex Series podium at Homestead he enters Sebring feeling extremely positive about the team’s first run at the 12 Hours of Sebring.
“More than ever, I feel we have a team that will give us everything we need to do well,” said Potter. “The ALMS and Rolex cars are pretty different so we had a lot to learn about how to make the car go fast, but our guys got it figured out by the end of the test last month.”
Stanton, the team’s veteran of the event, has positive memories of the 12 Hours of Sebring, after finishing on the podium in the GT-2 class in 2004. Demonstrating his reputation as the fittest man in motorsports, Stanton was joined by only one other co-driver that year. This will be his first run at Sebring since a sixth-place finish in GT-2 in 2008.
“The days of being able to complete the entire 12 Hour with two drivers is long over!” said Stanton. “So lucky for me that I have John, who has been driving so well this year, and Matthew, who is an incredibly experienced endurance driver, to race with this year. With these guys and this team, I think we have a really good chance to challenge for the win in GT-C. It’s a tough class but I’m really excited to see how our guys are going to do this weekend.”
The Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring will be shown live on Saturday, March 19, on ESPN3.com and at americanlemans.com from 10:15 AM ET to 10:45 PM ET, while a live radio broadcast will be available at www.radiolemans.com Coverage of the race will also be shown on Sunday, March 20, on ABC from 12:30 PM ET to 2:00 PM ET. Fans of Magnus Racing can follow the team on Facebook (facebook.com/magnusracing) or on Twitter (@magnusracing).
Flex-Box is a leading worldwide supplier of new and used shipping, storage and reefer containers. An international company based in Hong Kong, Flex Box manufactures and ships containers to customers all over the world. Keeping a year round inventory of containers in China, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and North America, the Flex Box staff can help with container requirements whether a client needs one or one thousand containers in any location.For more information, visit www.flex-box.com
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.