DETROIT (June 3, 2013)- Heading to the streets of Belle Isle in Detroit, everyone at Magnus Racing knew that the theme of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series weekend would be to make the most of the event. With the steady platform of the Camaro considered by many insiders to be "too big to fail," the rest of the competition came in with muted expectations.
With the tight and bumpy confines of the 2.1-mile temporary street circuit favoring other types of vehicles, the team’s main goal was to simply stay out of trouble and earn as many Rolex GT championship points as they could, which they managed with a fourth place finish during Saturday’s race. The team not only managed to maintain their second place hold on the series championship, but it was also the fourth time in five races that they’d finish as top Porsche.
“We knew that the only way to have a shot at this weekend would be to hope for rain, or hope that our car rolled out as a Camaro,” stated team owner and driver John Potter. “Since neither of those things happened, fourth was actually a great finish for us. We walked away with minimal damage to our points gap, and it’s always great to be the top Porsche.”
With John Potter out-qualifying all other Porsche entrants to start the race on the third row, the opening stint for the Utah resident went flawless, managing to drive through several incidents in front of him. Maintaining the gap to the lead pack throughout the first hour, John brought his No. 44 Flex-Box Porsche 911 GT3 Cup in for their lone round of pit stops in seventh.
While in the pits, the real heroes of the day became the Magnus Racing pit crew. With the entire Rolex GT field pitting at the same time during an opportune caution, everyone was forced to refuel and change tires, as well as drivers. Realizing the fruits of their routine pit practices, the No. 44 would exit the pits in fourth, the car having advanced three positions during pit stops.
With 50 minutes remaining, it was now up to driver Andy Lally to navigate his machine home. As the green flag fell, it became immediately evident that the leading Camaro and Ferraris had a pace that his Porsche couldn’t match, and throughout much of his stint the real battle came in defending his position from a hard-charging Eric Curran in the No. 31 Whelen Corvette. However, a hard crash between prototypes would bring out an extended yellow that would mute much of the remaining race. With track repairs and clean up lasting nearly 30 minutes, the race would only return to green flag conditions in the final minutes, enough time for Lally to fend off the competition and take fourth.
“Excellent, excellent work by all the Magnus boys today,” stated Lally. “They’re really the reason we got up to fourth, and my job was just to hold on. I was hoping we would have something for the guys in front of us, but this just isn’t a Porsche track. Fourth place points are good, but unfortunately the point leader was two spots in front, so we have our work cut out for us the rest of the year. We’ll keep pushing, everyone is very hungry to win this championship.”
Celebrating his wife’s birthday on the same day, Potter had extra incentive to make the most of his race.
“The most important part of the day was to make sure I was in a good mood for dinner, my wife was pretty clear about that” stated Potter. “Luckily, the guys did such a great job with pit stops that we had as good a day as we could have asked for, so we’re definitely not disappointed. Unfortunately with the No. 63 (the point leader) finishing in second we lost some ground, but we also did the best we could at a track we knew would be a challenge.”
Now part of a very tight three-way championship battle, the remaining 2013 championship season will be very closely fought. Luckily for fans of the Rolex Series, you won’t have to wait long for the next round taking place in two weeks at the Diamond Cellar Classic at the famed Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The race will be held on Saturday, June 15, with live SPEED coverage at 4:30 PM ET.