March 3, 2013 (Austin, TX)- Following a wild inaugural race at the brand-new Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, Magnus Racing took their first podium of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series season with a hard-earned second place.
“We did a lot of testing at the circuit to come as well prepared as possible, and it definitely paid off,” claimed Team Owner and Driver John Potter. “The nature of the circuit seemed to favor other marques, so to find ourselves leading for a while, finish on the podium as the top Porsche, and take the point lead in the process is really satisfying. I’m happy we were able to deliver a podium for Flex-Box as well, they’ve been a great partner for us and I look forward to even better results for them.”
As an entirely new facility, built specifically to host the Formula One World Championship, the entire GRAND-AM series rolled in to the Austin circuit with rave reviews on the venue. Featuring a challenging layout, surrounded by impressive architecture and great facilities for crew, anticipation was high. With a strong crowd on hand, including over 600 guests from the Porsche Club of America who toured the Magnus trailer and garage, the entire Magnus organization was intent on delivering results.
Starting the no. 44 Flex-Box / Boardwalk Porsche 911 GT3 Cup from the seventh position, one of Potter’s strongest starting spots to date, the Salt Lake City resident showed impressive form during the opening minutes. Knowing the hard-braking and constantly swerving nature of the course would strongly favor the Ferraris, Potter's job was to keep the car clean and preserved for teammate Andy Lally, with strategy being of key importance for the team to show well. Doing his job perfectly, Potter not only kept the car clear of any incident, but advanced several positions in the process.
Following an opportune caution early in the race, it was up to Andy Lally to get in and push his Porsche as hard as he could, and with that the race was set for a wild final two hours.
With Lally setting repeated personal bests, combined with attrition in the field, Andy was as high as fourth during the middle of the race. Most notably, the team was the highest ranked non-Ferrari in the GT field.
Despite several aggressive passes from some of his competitors (see video here), Lally held his own through the second round of pit stops, with strategy becoming the clear way for the no. 44 team to advance in to a podium spot. With the entire field still having to make one more splash for fuel, a rare opportunity presented itself with 50 minutes remaining. As the no. 90 Daytona Prototype rolled to a stop on track, quick thinking by the team led to Lally pitting for a quick splash of fuel as GRAND-AM officials debated on whether or not to throw a yellow flag. Within a lap of Lally’s stop, the field would be brought under caution for the errant Prototype, meaning Lally would catch the field as his GT competitors would all stop for additional fuel. As the field resumed, Lally was now leading a very aggressive contingent of cars behind him.
Maintaining the lead for much of his final stint, the team had gone from being unsure if they could contend for a podium, to all of a sudden smelling victory. With less than 15 minutes to go, however, the no. 63 Ferrari of Allesandro Pier Guidi, from Italy, was hot on the rear bumper of the no. 44. With the no. 63 having led a majority of the race, Lally knew that it would be tough to keep him behind, and the two would embark on an intense battle for the next three laps. While the Ferrari showed demonstrable pace through the esses and under braking, Lally’s ability to get the power down coming out of the corners made him difficult to pass. Finally, Pier Guidi would make a daring move in to turn six, with the two cars racing side-by-side through the next series of corners in to turn nine. Making contact in the process, the no. 63 would make strong contact inside of the no. 44 headed in to turn nine, sending Lally wide in to the outside of the course. The Long Island native would manage the no. 44 back on to the track with a minimum of time lost and still in second, however any hope to fight for the lead had disappeared.
With the team protesting the move, Lally had hoped to simply hold on to his second place until the checkered flag. Unfortunately, the no. 94 Turner Motorsports BMW of Bill Auberlen would approach the no. 44 quickly, and with only three minutes remaining Lally once again found himself in the defensive position.
With Auberlen and Lally no strangers to on-track action, contact would ensue as the duo headed first in to Turn 15, and then ultimately in Turn 19. Lally would be forced wide in both incidents, with Auberlen taking the lead as the pair headed in to the final laps. Ironically, at nearly the same time, series officials issued a stop-and-go plus sixty-second penalty to the no. 63 for the earlier incident, meaning the no. 94 BMW was now the leader.
As the field came to the checkered flag, the no. 94 would take the GT-class victory, with the no. 44 Flex-Box / Boardwalk Porsche taking second.
While Lally was frustrated to lose the lead, a solid second place combined with the GT series point lead offered some solace.
“The guys put together a really fast Porsche today,” stated Lally. “We weren't sure how today was going to go, so to be leading with just a few laps left, get knocked off the road three times, and still take second shows just how good our car was. I really wanted to show well for Flex-Box and our new partners at Boardwalk Porsche, so I’m glad we were at least on the podium. I’m frustrated with how aggressive some of the attempted passing has been, but if that’s how it’s going to go this year, we’ll just have to drive the same way. We clearly have an amazing group of people at this team, we just need to keep doing exactly what we’re doing.”
With the third round of the championship several weeks away, the Porsche 250 at Barber Motorsports Park, the team will go back to work getting everything in order to maintain their championship run. The Porsche 250 will take place on Saturday, March 6, with television coverage on SPEED one day later, Sunday, March 7, at 5:30 PM ET.