Pat Flanagan races for Aasco Motorsports
By COCO SALAZAR
4/12/2005

One of the nation's largest subprime lenders has not only put its money behind a sport-related branding deal, it has put its president in the front seat of a GT class Porsche race car.

Pat Flanagan, president of New Century Mortgage, is also a racer for Aasco Motorsports. In the recent Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series in Fontana, Calif., he and a teammate raced the No. 26 New Century Mortgage Porsche 911 GT3 Cup to finish fourth -- up one spot from the previous year, according to an Aasco press release.

"We didn't catch all the breaks we would have wanted but it was a good debut," Flanagan said in the prepared statement. "We'll pack it up, head on to Laguna Seca and try to get on the podium up there."

The race marks the first of GT class races in which Aasco will participate with the white, green and gold New Century machine with Flanagan and Porsche factory driver Patrick Long behind the wheel. The next stop is at the U.S. Sports Car Invitational at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on May 1. The duo will close their 2005 season Oct. 9 at the VIR 400 on the Virginia International Raceway, according to the announcement.

Flanagan, a lifelong racer and three-time Rolex Series competitor, left the sport for a while to "run several highly successful businesses," Aasco stated. He returned to the driver's seat at the Skip Barber Racing School driving open wheel, formula cars before moving to sports cars in Porsche club competition. Last year's participation in the Rolex Series marked the first of his professional races, which include the United States Grand Prix Porsche Supercup round.

Flanagan's company, Irvine, Calif.-based New Century, was recently named the largest subprime originator by the Mortgage Bankers Association, which said the lender closed over 146,000 single-family loans for a total of $23.9 billion, or 8.7% of the U.S. subprime market share.

"I am thrilled to be part of this effort," Flanagan said in a separate announcement. "With a co-driver who might be the fastest Porsche driver on the planet and a car prepared by Dennis [Aase] and the Aasco team, I'm looking forward to trying to fight our way onto a podium or two."

The New Century logo sports car joins the list of methods used by industry players to gain exposure such as CitiFinancial with its name on a NASCAR race car, Ameriquest with the sponsorship of the Superbowl half-time show and First Horizon with two baseball stadiums carrying its name.

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