Salt Lake City, UT (March 13, 2013)- On the eve of tomorrow’s big announcement regarding the future name of the merged GRAND-AM/American Le Mans Series, Magnus Racing’s team personnel would like to weigh in on their respective opinions regarding the series’ name.
While the team anxiously awaits the reveal itself, like most, we’re both excited and supportive of the new endeavor. It’s still difficult to imagine driving in a new series, as Team Owner John Potter strictly became involved due to his allegiance to the Pontiac Grand-Am.
“The Grand-Am was driving excitement,” stated Potter. “It’s going to be tough to simply dissolve ourselves of that name.”
The most exciting part of any announcement, however, is the flurry of team press releases to follow. As we at Magnus Racing have learned, we are simply not a real racing team unless we issue some sort of vague release endorsing what the series just announced, because we know the world was dying for our particular opinion.
With this in mind, Magnus Racing would actually like to issue our thoughts before the reveal. In fact, we even have a few suggestions on a series name!
John Potter, Team Owner/Driver:
“Personally, I’m a big fan of renaming it to ‘Aztek.’ The series is developing a new empire in sportscar, and it might even get Mel Gibson interested in making a movie about it.”
Andy Lally, Driver:
“I’d actually like to see everything renamed to ‘Star Chief.’ It makes sense. The series is a new “all star” series, and we’re the “chief’s” of sportscar. Plus, it sounds a lot like starfish. I like starfish.”
John Bedell, Crew Chief:
“I think if we want to resonate with our US base, we should rename it to ‘Fiero.’ Living in Long Island, we see a lot of these, and what better way to get everyone’s attention than with the most recognizable of the Pontiac brands.”
Shannon Davis, Team Manager:
“The most sensible name is the ‘Bonneville.’ Bonneville is the pinnacle of speed, and the desert is almost limitless, sort of like our budget.”
Lars Giersing, Team Engineer:
“I would lean more toward naming the series ‘G6.’ It’s simple, it’s elegant, and then we could have ‘Far East Movement’ do our theme song. I love that group. That’s my jam.”
Lorie Bedell, Team Hospitality and Logistics:
“I think everyone has it wrong, we should be renaming it to ‘Firebird.’ People love fire, people love birds, and hopefully with that sort of brand option, sleeves would no longer be mandatory in the hot pit.”
Tucker Merten, Technician:
“Coming from Louisiana, I have to voice my desire for ‘Sunfire.’ We know a thing or two at the team about setting things on fire, and the ‘sun’ always sounds cool. It makes me think of lighting things up.”
While we know not to recommend the name “Le Mans,” we do hope series’ officials consider anyone of these former Pontiac brands to follow-up from GRAND-AM.
“Whatever name they choose for the series,” continued Potter, “it’s sure to be available at a used car dealer near you!”
Whatever the new series adopts, everyone at Magnus Racing looks forward to reading every team's "response" release over the next seven days, as does much of the motorsport media we're sure.
To watch #thereveal live, be sure to tune in tomorrow, March 14, at 2:30PM. A live stream can be seen on grand-am.com, alms.com, or speed.com.
For a complete list of former Pontiac brands, including Grand-Am, click here.