GRT Magnus Secures Podium at Rolex 24 At Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., (January 27, 2020) – In the first race under the new banner of GRT Magnus, the No. 44 Flex-Box Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO of John Potter, Andy Lally, Spencer Pumpelly, and Marco Mapelli began its 2020 race season with a strong second place finish at the Rolex 24 At Daytona. The team ran a perfect race for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season opener, completing 765 error-free laps on the 3.56 mile circuit.

The No. 44 Lamborghini showed strong speed all weekend, but a gearbox issue forced the team to skip Thursday’s qualifying session. Spencer Pumpelly would be forced to start from 16th, but he immediately set the best lap times in class, jumping up several positions in the first 20 minutes to run ninth. He made it as high as fourth before pitting, making way for John Potter to next command the stint. He ran a clean stint, maintaining ground until Andy Lally took over and turned his first laps with two hours and 30 minutes complete. Marco Mapelli completed the rotation, bringing the car up to first by the six hour mark.

The teamwork of the drivers and the strategy calls from pit lane continuously kept the No. 44 up front, able to fight the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini for the lead. Throughout the night hours, the race stayed clean, resulting in a spectacular battle between both machines. At midnight, the GRT Magnus team performed a brake change in chilly temperatures, and hunkered down to ride out the remaining five hours of night racing.

With 413 laps complete, the GRT Magnus Lamborghini came alive in the cold temperatures, and again led the GTD field. As each hour of competition was marked off, the GRT Magnus team showed they were to be a strong contender for the No. 48 for the remaining hours. The sun came up at 7:00AM, and teams immediately started calculating the best fuel usage and pit stop strategies. In no time, the No. 44 with Lally at the wheel was leading driver Madison Snow in the No. 48 by eight seconds. A full course caution brought the top five GTD cars back on the lead lap, and a nail-biting four car battle for the continued to the wave of the checker flag.

One pit stop in particular showed the caliber of the GRT Magnus crew, beating the Paul Miller Racing car out of pit lane. Cautions bred cautions, and every lap presented a battle on track and in pit lane. Each team fight for every tenth of a second, and with 40 minutes to go, the No. 44 gave up the lead to make a final stop. While the Paul Miller team also needed to make a final stop, in the end, the team rejoined in second, and maintained position until the checker flag, having led a total of 99 laps. While the team certainly had a program, car, and team worthy of a first place finish, the group had run a perfect race that resulted in a second place finish.

The team will have their next chance to pursue victory at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, March 18-21 at Sebring International Raceway. While only half of the distance of the Rolex 12, the Twelve Hours of Sebring brings its own challenges, with a track surface known for being aggressive to cars and drivers. Full time drivers John Potter and Andy Lally will be joined by Spencer Pumpelly, where the trio will try to best their 2019 second place finish.

Driver Quotes

John Potter

I say this with a bit of sadness because second place at the 24 Hours of Daytona is really kind of a sad thing when you've won it before. It was a great race, and I've got three great co-drivers. I knew them last year since we all drove together and it was great to have a much better result this year and prove what an awesome car we have, what an awesome team we have, and people we have. Even though there have been a few changes and it's now GRT Magnus, there's still a lot of the core elements there. And a lot of those new elements we brought in really shone well. It was a great race. Thank you to Gottfried Grasser and the whole crew.

Andy Lally

2004, 2006, 2010, and now 2020. I finished 2nd at the Rolex four times. I've won it five times, and I've got a third place finish here in 2008. So that’s a 10th podium. It's my ninth top two finish and these are my optimistic ways of suppressing the "how close we came to win another Rolex." But it's a good start to a season points wise, it's a great start to the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup. I'm not sure where we're at, but we're going to be first or second I think. Just massive thanks to GRT Magnus for putting together a strong car that lasted really well for 24 hours, and thank you to Flex-Box for continuing their support of this program.

Spencer Pumpelly

This is my 19th time doing this race, this is my third time finishing second, but what I really loved about it was that we were in contention the whole time. This used to be a race that if you finished the whole 24 hours without any mistakes that you'd win the race. Now it's gotten so competitive that you really need a lot of pace, you have attack the whole night, you need to have perfect strategy, you need to have no mistakes and more. We were right there. We finished 20 seconds back, but we slowed down significantly at the end when we knew it was out of reach. I think we were only about 10 seconds on the road when we finally decided to give up the fight with a couple minutes left. To be that close after that much racing, it says a lot for everyone who put this effort together. It says a lot for John, Andy, and Marco, all the Grasser guys and the Magnus guys that came together. This effort was pretty mashed together when we first got here, but the guys did such a phenomenal job in the pits and with the car I just can't say enough.

Marco Mapelli

I was upset when I jumped out of the car because I wanted to win, but the 48 had something more at the end of the race, so we finished second. The team did a good job because, this partnership with Grasser is brand new and everything was brand new. Especially the organization from the Roar. Building up from the Roar, I finished a 24 hour race with no damage and no mistakes. Everybody's happy so this is a good success and good points for the team for the next races.

Magnus Racing Readies for Daytona 24 Hours with Return of Posters and Webcast, but no Gearbox

 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla, (January 24, 2019) –  Ten years after making their debut as Magnus Racing at the Grand-Am Rolex 24 Hours, the team now known as GRT Magnus will kick off another season in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship beginning with the Rolex 24 at Daytona.  In celebration, the team is doing the same thing it has in past years, offering up special movie-themed hero cards and a new twist on 24 hours of GRT-Magnus web content.  

Fans should tune into live.magnusracing.com for a GRT Magnus-version of a “webcast” (Ding) and occasional live updates on social media.  Fans at the race should look forward to the continuation of Magnus’ traditional poster with special autograph session giveaways.  Some posters will also be distributed via social media for fans who just can’t do Florida.  All of which will be revealed by following the team’s Facebook, twitter, and Instagram.

 

Oh yeah, the event:

The No. 44 GRT Magnus Lamborghini Huracán GT3 came ready after the Roar with no BOP adjustments.  On track, practices have been strong, except for a mechanical issue with the transmission that caused them to miss qualifying.  Despite the setback, the drivers are holding onto their optimism with crossed fingers, and are fresh and ready to race their 11^th, 19^th, 20^th, and something-th Daytona 24.

Leading up to Saturday’s antics, practices have been fruitful for the team.   Drivers yielded solid times during practice, the main exception being the second session on Thursday.  While Marco Mapelli piloted the car, the gearbox decided to revolt, resulting in an early end to the session. The team had to miss qualifying in order to repair.   The gearbox rejoined the team after some coaxing, and night practice again garnered some top times for the team. 

The event brings long-time co-drivers Potter and Lally prepared for another season.  Here they can reminisce how together they celebrated the team’s first victory at the iconic Daytona 24 in 2012, beating out 28 other entries in the GT class, and came back to win again in 2016.  The 2016 victory marked the fifth Daytona 24 win for Lally, and his ninth podium.   Combined with Pumpelly’s two wins, the drivers have nine Rolexes between them.  In addition to all the bling and experience, the team is coming to the 2020 event with a striking new blue livery on their No. 44 GRT Magnus Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo and completely original optimism.  

 

Andy Lally comes to the 2020 race as the winningest active driver and third for all time wins at the Rolex 24. 

“After almost 20 years of racing at Daytona, this will be the first time I ever return with the exact driver line up and car as the previous year,” said Lally. “For our first outing together as the new GRT Magnus effort, I was happy with our speed at The Roar and cautiously optimistic returning for the race that we have a good car to do the job. I’m pretty stoked.”

For Pumpelly as well, this weekend’s run will make almost two decades of competing in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, with 18 already under his belt.

“This will be my 19th Daytona 24 but this will be the first time I have returned with the same driver line up and car as the previous year,” said Pumpelly. “The GRT Magnus team did a great job at the Roar and I’m cautiously optimistic that we’ll have a good car for the race. Let’s hope 19 is a charm.”

“I’m very grateful to be joining Magnus guys again this year,” said Rolex addition Marco Mapelli. “I’m learning many things every time from their experience, about this race, and U.S. races in particular. I believe, with the GRT partnership, we have a good package to do the job and hopefully we can still improve during the week. Can’t wait to start it.”

Continuing with the trend of making the race difficult to follow for cable subscribers, fans can watch the first hour of the race live on NBC at 1:30PM Eastern, January 25^th, before the broadcast jumps between NBC, NBC Sports Network, and the NBC App. All 24 hours of coverage will be available with NBCSN authentication on the NBC Sports app or on TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold. Additionally, fans will be able to tune into unique GRT Magnus content online, throughout the race, at live.magnusracing.com.

“If you read this far into this release, I want you to know that you will find the webcast very disappointing” added Team Somebody, John Potter.

GRT Magnus Rings in New Decade with New Livery, Celebrating New and Old Relationships

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (December 31, 2019) – A new era for the team formerly known as Magnus Racing is set to begin this week at the Roar Before the 24 at Daytona International Speedway, following a new partnership with GRT Grasser Racing. In the first official test of the 2020 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season, the newly-minted GRT Magnus team will debut a striking new livery on the No. 44 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo and is happy to announce the return of longtime partner Flex-Box.

 

The familiar blue, orange, and white logo of Flex-Box will grace the new livery of the No. 44 Lamborghini. The livery will feature triangular shapes in various shades of blue adorning the body of the sports car, a big jump from the flowing lines of liveries past.

 

“I think the GRT Magnus team is doing great at putting something new together and I look forward to competing in this crazy blue machine,” stated Team Somebody John Potter. “I’m also glad we were able to have Flex-Box back again. This year, I wanted to do something different. With Magnus Racing broken up, I thought the car should reflect the new wedding that is GRT Magnus: something old (the drivers and Flex-Box), something new (GRT), something borrowed (the GRT crew), and something blue. 

 

“Our Flex-Box partnership began in 2011 at Sebring, and we haven’t scared them off yet. Flex-Box’s continued support of sports car racing as well as our team is something we don't take for granted, and we're thankful they're back for this new era. I want to remind all the fans of the discontinued webcast that the ‘DING’ in Flex-Box is silent.”

Same Drivers  

Magnus Racing veterans Andy Lally and Spencer Pumpelly will join Potter behind the wheel for the pre-season test as the team prepares for its 11 ^th season of competition. Lally, who first joined the team in 2012 and immediately went on to aid in the team’s first Rolex 24 of Daytona win, will return as Potter’s co-driver for the 2020 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. As a driver pairing, John and Andy have won the 24 hours of Daytona two times and many other big races.    As to Spencer, “We hear he is big in America,” stated Potter.   Marco Mapelli will again join the wolf pack as the forth driver for all January events. A native of Italy, Mapelli joins as a veteran of a number of international programs, including the Japanese Super GT Series, Blancpain GT, GT Masters, International GT Open, and specialty events including the Bathurst 12 Hour.   “We hear he is big in Europe,” stated Potter.   The Roar Before the 24 will begin Friday, January 3, 2020, and include seven practice sessions, and also a qualifying session, allowing the field to lock in garage and pit box positions for the Rolex 24. The 2020 Rolex 24 At Daytona. The 24 hour long endurance event will begin at 1:35PM on January 25, 2020. Various vantages of the race will be available for viewing at imsa.tv, and selected hours of the race will be available on NBC, NBC Sports and the NBC Sports app. For full broadcast information, visit imsa.com.   About Flex-Box Flex-Box, based out of Hong Kong, is a leading worldwide supplier of new and used shipping, storage and reefer containers. The company manufactures and ships to customers all over the world, keeping a year-round inventory of containers in China, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and North America.

Magnus Racing Protests, Pauses, and Pivots

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (December 18, 2019) – With the 2020 racing season quickly approaching, Magnus Racing team principals feel it’s important to deflect attention from future plans by dwelling on the past, and the problems that have always existed in racing.

“While I could be grateful for the excellent crew, operations, car and fun we’ve had at Magnus Racing, I’ve decided I’d rather complain about everything else,” stated Magnus Racing team principal John Potter. “Global warming, IMSA, the troops, Turn Seven, red flag endings, officials, copyrighted brick figures, you name it. Sure, we could be accountable to our own future and whether or not we want to continue, however, our 10 years of racing on our own terms have taught us that being responsible for our own actions is not on brand for many sportscar entrants, so we felt it best to follow suit.”

Of course, when looking through the list of obvious areas to burn the series down, the imposed “driver ranking” rules that have been in place in GTD and LMP2 competition is an obvious one to get people riled up about. While driver rankings have been part of the series rules since IMSA’s reformation in 2014, it creates a very easy and visible target for people to divert attention toward.

“Driver rankings,” stated Potter. “I don’t have an opinion, I’m just saying ‘driver rankings.’ That seems to be all I need to do to sound like I have insight.”

Whenever a team considers its own future, however, the most viable and traditional complaint is that of the ever-present “balance of performance,” or BoP. Designed as a way to keep multiple manufacturers equal over the course of a year, the constant adjusting and re-adjusting of individual car specs to match performance with their competitors is a constant source of complaint, most notably for underperforming cars.

“The BoP is just out of control,” stated Potter. “I can name several races, like Daytona 2016, Lime Rock 2016, Sebring 2014, when the BoP was perfect. It should have stayed just like that. However, series officials felt it necessary to weigh multiple opinions and ‘data’ when it comes to trying to level the playing field. This is complete nonsense and out of line with my current agenda. The bottom line is, I’m out there racing, I know when it’s right and when it’s wrong, and it’s always wrong when we’re not on the podium. Always. The fact the series doesn’t exclusively listen to me and ignore all the other competitors, data, and some vein attempt at ‘objectivity,’ is simply inexcusable.”

Above all, Magnus Racing team principals cite the never-ending demands of the fans, the requirements to sign autographs, and generally talking to human beings as their greatest grievance. The final straw for the team was a signature request for a T-shirt from 2014.  As a result of these consistent problems in racing, and after careful consideration of 2020 and beyond, Magnus Racing will be on hiatus. 

“I am grateful for all the people that made Magnus Racing what it is, and all that we accomplished together, it was hard complaining that much, and I needed a break.  I guess, turns out racing is still fun, and I appreciate the opportunity I have to be in the paddock” stated Potter.

Potter will still continue to run in IMSA.  For 2020, he will be partnering with the GRT Grasser Racing, under the banner of “GRT Magnus”. They will run a Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO run as a joint venture for the full 10-race season in the IMSA Weathertech Sports Car Championship for 2020.

After a careful evaluation of drivers, team principal John Potter has selected John Potter as one of his drivers, with long-time teammate Andy Lally continuing in the role of “B driver.” Spencer Pumpelly will also return as the team’s third driver for endurance races.

Magnus Racing Set for Petit Le Mans Season Finale

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (October 9, 2019) – With the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship coming to a close during this Saturday’s Motul Petit Le Mans, Magnus Racing will look to end with one sole focus, victory.

“Everyone on this team wants to finish on a high,” stated Magnus Racing team owner and co-driver John Potter. “It’s been a long season and we’ve shown continued promise throughout the year, so to wrap everything out with a win would be the singular ambition. We’ve had some good tests recently and continued to uncover some speed, and with Andy and Spencer we have two really strong co-drivers, so the opportunity is definitely there.”

Driving the No. 44 Magnus Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO, drivers John Potter, Andy Lally and Spencer Pumpelly have enjoyed some strong showings throughout the 2019 endurance season. Taking a season-high third place during the 12 Hours of Sebring, this weekend’s 10-hour classic will once again provide a great forum for drivers and team to showcase the speed they know they’ve possessed all year.

While closing on a win remains the key target, there remains much to play for in season-long honors. Having enjoyed a remarkably consistent season, including top-10 finishes at every race, both the team and drivers John Potter and Andy Lally currently sit fourth in the season-long standings, and only six points shy of second place. With the 10 hours of competition at the scenic Road Atlanta circuit, the notorious pace and intensity of the race creates a number of possible scenarios, meaning a fight for runner-up honors presents a viable aim.

While victory has eluded the team at the famed Georgia circuit, Magnus Racing is no stranger to success at “Petit.” The team has enjoyed multiple podiums at the event, including their first-ever professional podium, and even crossed the line in first in 2016 before a penalty would compromise the effort. 

Practice begins tomorrow, October 10, with the 10-hour classic beginning at noon ET with live NBC coverage, with the final hours beginning at 5:30PM on NBCSN.