Grand Prix refugee Jan Magnussen would have giggled if you suggested a few months ago that he drive a Panoz in North America this season. The giggles would have turned to laughter if you had added that his mount was a front-engined open car.
But no sooner had the Dane tried the brand’s old front-engined GT racer at the beginning of December than the idea became deadly serious.
“He didn’t want to leave without signing a contract,” recalls Panoz Motorsport Director Tony Dowe. “We made the deal straight away.
“I was surprised I got it. I didn’t think he’d be interested in Panoz or sports car racing in North America.”
Magnussen was more than interested in driving the US brand’s unconventional new Spyder. He sees his contract for the new American Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans as the first step towards rebuilding his career after being fired from the Stewart Grand Prix mid-season last year. The 25-year-old makes no secret of the fact that he wants to compete in the CART Championship Series in 2000.
“I don’t see this as a step backwards, but as a step towards establishing myself in America,” he explains. “I really wanted to do Champ Cars this year. I’ve talked to a lot of teams but nothing came out. The Panoz ride is a great way to get my name out there in America, and it’ll help me get a CART drive . “
Jan Magnussen gives an interview in 1999
Photo by: Motorsport Images
He’s downplaying the prospects, but it’s likely that he’ll be testing a Champ Car before the end of next season. Panoz, like Stewart, is supported by Ford, and Dowe admits top Blue Oval officials have already contacted him to “loan Jan to help one of their teams at Champ Cars.” Expect the Dane to get a run out in one of the Newman-Haas team’s Swift chassis.
His comeback has picked up momentum, but initially it proved to be more difficult to get the ball rolling than could have been imagined for a rider who once called the next Ayrton Senna.
“If you want to know the truth,” says his manager David Sears, “the stigma of being fired by Stewart made it difficult to convince the people at Champ Cars that it was worth taking over Jan was still in single seaters. We scoured the world for other options. “
“Everyone at Panoz fully supported me when I took the test for them. I’ve missed that for a long time – the feeling that the whole team is behind you ”Jan Magnussen
An obvious alternative would have been to return to Mercedes. He had some moderately successful seasons with the Stuttgart brand in class 1 touring cars before moving to Stewart. There was contact between the Three-Pointed Star and its earlier attack.
“I should talk to them,” he says, “but I had to test the Panoz, so I never really spoke to them seriously. There have been a lot of rumors about me or something in the last few months, but most of them weren’t true . “
Speculation about the Panoz deal was kept to a minimum after his test with the team. The former F1 star put the sports car outfit on paper in December, but this was kept a secret until the US brand announced its program for 1999 at the Detroit Motor Show in early January.
It must have been difficult to hold the lid, because Magnussen’s calm personality can seldom have gotten closer to bubbly.
Jan Magnussen 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans
Photo by: Motorsport Images
“The Panoz is really fun to drive and Road Atlanta is a great track,” he says.
However, the reasons for his renewed enthusiasm go deeper than a car that is fun to drive. He has the full backing of his team.
“Everyone at Panoz fully supported me when I took the test for them,” he says. “I’ve missed that for a long time – the feeling that the whole team is behind you.”
Says Dowe, “We treated Jan the way he should be treated – with respect. He seemed to enjoy the way we worked and that came back in the lap times.”
It came back in an indefinite way. The driver posted the best Panoz time ever on his home track, Road Atlanta. This bodes well for the Dane’s ALMS campaign, in which he will likely meet with Frenchman Eric Bernard. The Sebring 12 Hours kick off on March 20th.
The attack on the ALMS is the first priority for the former GP pilot this season, despite his CART ambitions.
“I can wait for Champ Car, but it will come at some point. I’m pretty determined to do well in sports cars,” he says. “I know it won’t be easy, but this year will bring me some good experiences.
“I want to get used to winning races again. I want to get some momentum back into my career.”
Magnussen drove the last three races of the CART season in a Hogan Penske as a replacement for the injured Emerson Fittipaldi
Photo by: Motorsport Images
Strength test
Magnussen wants a quick CART graduation, but he may be held back by those who remember his four races at Penskes in 1996. Some claim that he was overwhelmed, unable to push himself to his limits. Others say he did well in difficult circumstances.
“Jan had problems because the cars are very difficult to drive,” says Nigel Beresford, who designed the Dane on his one-off appearance with the Penske works team in Mid-Ohio.
“It’s probably fair to say that we didn’t get the best out of him because we didn’t give him a good car. There were also reliability issues. We didn’t do a good job.”
“The [Penske] Deal was for a sub-program with lots of testing in its first season and a full year after that. We should have taken it, but Jan has always wanted to do F1 so we thought he should go see Stewart “David Sears
The driver contested the last three races for the privateer team Hogan Penske, which seemed rather encouraged by him. This is not surprising as he surpassed factory Penske star Al Unser JR at Elkhart Lake and overtook him at Laguna Seca.
“We were very encouraged by his ability to jump in the car and get a feel for it,” says former Hogan team manager Tom Wurtz. “He adapted well to everything.
“I disagree that he couldn’t physically cope with it. He was very excited, ready to take it with the world. In a short amount of time, he has shown a lot of potential.”
Magnussen had the option to stay with Penske in 1997, but turned it down in favor of Formula 1 with Stewart. from
Photo by: Motorsport Images
Magnussen wished he had stayed in the States after the few CART races he contested in late 1996.
“At that time, I had adjusted to F1,” he says, “so I didn’t really look at it. I regret that.”
According to Sears, there was an offer from the Penske team.
“The deal was for a sub-program with a lot of testing in its first season and a full year after,” he explains. “We should have taken it, but Jan always wanted to do Formula 1 so we thought he should go to Stewart.”
The Dane had his own answer to allegations of lack of physical strength.
“I went straight to the US from the hospital,” he explains. After a broken leg on a paddock bike, he had just missed two class 1 touring car meetings.
Seven races with Patrick in 1999 was a disappointing coda for his single-seater career
Photo by: Motorsport Images
What happened next?
Magnussen returned to the CART Indycar series in 1999, but only managed one top 10 finish in his seven outings in the late season with Patrick Racing – a team in transition that team boss Adrian Fernandez had lost due to injury and in between overturned Reynard and Swift chassis. It was the end of his single-seater endeavors, but he still had a bright future in sports cars.
Together with Johnny O’Connell, he had given Panoz his first win in 1999 at his only third start at Mosport, when the young brand led the power of BMW to the team title. That was the high point of the four years that Magnussen spent in the team, because Audi’s arrival at the ALMS in 2000 with the R8 brought the game further – although he won another five races, including the ALMS away day at the Nürburgring in 2000 As part of a well-coordinated partnership with David Brabham.
After a first foray into GT racing with Prodrives 550 Maranello in the ALMS 2003 and the opportunity to see at Le Mans what the all-conquering R8 is about, which took fourth place with the Goh team, he switched to in 2004 Corvette Racing and became an integral part of the program.
His four class wins in the GTS and GT1 divisions at Le Mans were supported by three GT1 victories at the Sebring 12 Hours and GTLM honors at the 2015 Daytona 24 Hours.
The ALMS class titles in 2008 and 2013 were followed by successive IMSA GTLM titles in 2017 and 2018, and he left the Corvette at the end of 2019.
The now 47-year-old Magnussen is a regular in LMP2 racing and will compete in Le Mans for the first time with his son Kevin in a High Class Racing ORECA 07 Gibson in August.
# 20 High Class Racing Oreca 07 – Gibson: Jan Magnussen
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
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