Salt Lake City, Utah – Magnus Racing was founded by John Potter, joined by a few other like-minded individuals, who wanted to go racing and had the stated mantra that Magnus Racing would be a competitive sportscar team that wasn’t afraid of a little fun.
Halfway through the 2011 season, Magnus Racing has enjoyed a lot of success but they’ve had a lot of fun on the way – as anyone who regularly follows the team’s dialogue on its website (subscribe at magnusracing.com), Facebook (facebook.com/magnusracing), or twitter feed (@magnusracing) will tell you.
The team finds itself embroiled in a tight championship battle in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sportscar Series’ GT class. Coming out of the gate swinging, Magnus Racing led a large portion of the prestigious Rolex 24 at Daytona, and one month later scored its first Rolex Series podium at the Grand Prix of Miami.
The team, also running a limited schedule in the American Le Mans Series GT-C category, showed serious pace in two races thus far in the series. Qualifying second at the 12 Hours of Sebring, the team was leading the race comfortably before a prototype took them off course and sent the car behind the wall for repairs. One month later at the Long Beach Grand Prix, Potter and Stanton proved at the end of the race that they wouldn’t be intimidated when they finished on the podium, taking a third in GT-C, their second podium in only three ALMS races. This past weekend, John Potter brought the season’s podium count to three, finishing second in the IMSA GT3 Challenge race that ran in support of the Formula One Montreal Grand Prix.
Although unofficial, the team also earned the Most Popular award at the Long Beach Grand Prix when it entered a partnership with local restaurant chain Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘n Waffles and debuted the now infamous Roscoe’s livery on their Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. Serving chicken and waffles and with hospitality girls provided by Roscoe’s and Pit Bull Energy Drink, the Magnus Racing pit was packed throughout the Grand Prix weekend.
When GRAND-AM announced its $25,000 bounty on the Ganassi team to stop their dominance in Prototypes, Magnus Racing went a step further and announced its own $25 bounty on the Turner Motorsport team in the GT ranks, which was awarded to Autohaus Motorsports in the form of a $25 discount off a used racecar from Magnus Racing. Of course, not to be forgotten as well was the team’s new standard of umbrella girls at a GRAND-AM event by bringing out the hottest chicks seen thus far in the series this year, presented at the Sahlen’s Six Hours at the Glen, where the team finished 5th with help from Bryan Sellers.
All of this activity has led to an exponential growth in website traffic and social media presence, with fans of the team having unparalled access to team photos, stories, and insight to the team throughout race weekends. The team has also unveiled numerous groundbreaking twitter hashtags to the sports car community, including #GoJohnGo, #GoCraigGo, #PartyBarge, #tigerblood, #zeeGermansaremachines and #FeartheChicken. The Magnus Nation can now also register to receive press releases on the team’s website.
“It’s been a really fun year so far, and I can’t believe it’s halfway over,” said Potter. “Our goal was to contend for a championship, and we have been competitive all season. We’ve led Daytona and Sebring, we’ve challenged for podiums at almost every race, and we’ll get our first win soon. And we are having a lot of fun each time we hit the track – this is the most fun I’ve had with all of the teams I have driven with since I started racing sports cars. ”
Magnus Racing hits the track next at the Rolex Sports Car Series 250 Driven By Visit Florida. Not only is it the race with the longest name in the Rolex Series, but it will be the first time Magnus Racing competes at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. The race will be shown live on SPEED Channel on June 25 at 12:00 PM ET.
Source: Magnus Racing
