Salt Lake City, UT – April 4, 2011 – You could say that there is a little bit of extra pressure on the Magnus Racing team this week.
As the leading Porsche in the GRAND- AM Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask no.16, the driving duo of team owner John Potter and Craig Stanton are keen to put in a good showing at the Porsche 250 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama on April 8-9. In addition to sponsoring the event, Porsche bases its Porsche Sport Driving School at the facility, and there will no doubt be a large contingent of Porsche owners at the race.
Hitting closer to home, however, is the fact that the no.44 Magnus Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup enters the weekend as the leaders in the GT class points standings. Potter and Stanton teamed with Richard Lietz and Marco Holzer to finish fourth at the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona before finishing third at last month’s Grand Prix of Miami. The team also competed at 12 Hours of Sebring two weeks ago – joined by Hong Kong’s Matthew Marsh, the team’s Porsche was leading the GT-C class in the eighth hour until losing several laps in the pits when it was hit by a prototype.
With three strong performances to start the year, the team is riding a wave of momentum that they hope extends to the fourth round of the Rolex Sports Car Series.
“It has been a really good start to the season for the team,” said Potter. “We entered the year with the plan to contend for the championship and get the best results possible on any given day. If we can win, we’ll win, if we can’t, we’ll finish second, and so on. Since we received our new Porsche the guys have been really focused on developing it, and I think we’ll have a competitive car at Barber.”
Teammate Stanton, who visited a Rolex Sports Car Series podium for the first time in six seasons in Homestead, is more than excited about getting back behind the wheel of the no.44 Magnus Racing Porsche.
“We had a great run going in Sebring, but ever since I got out of our Rolex Series car in Homestead I’ve been waiting to get back in it,” said Stanton. “The series is so competitive right now and all the other teams have been raising their game, but Lars, John, and the rest of the guys have done a great job with our Porsches all year. It’s great to be in a position of contending for a championship, even though it is still really early in the year. We’re going to take it one race at a time and just do everything we can to get good results.”
The Rolex Sports Car Series can still be found on live television, and will be shown live on Saturday, April 9, on SPEED Channel at 12:00 ET.
More information about Magnus Racing can be found at www.magnusracing.com
Source: Magnus Racing
