  The MAGIC telescope is an imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope, designed
to observe very high energy gamma-rays while achieving a low energy threshold.
One of the key science goals is fast follow-up of the enigmatic and short lived
gamma-ray bursts. The drive system for the telescope has to meet two basic
demands: (1) During normal observations, the 72-ton telescope has to be
positioned accurately, and has to track a given sky position with high
precision at a typical rotational speed in the order of one revolution per day.
(2) For successfully observing GRB prompt emission and afterglows, it has to be
powerful enough to position to an arbitrary point on the sky within a few ten
seconds and commence normal tracking immediately thereafter. To meet these
requirements, the implementation and realization of the drive system relies
strongly on standard industry components to ensure robustness and reliability.
In this paper, we describe the mechanical setup, the drive control and the
calibration of the pointing, as well as present measurements of the accuracy of
the system. We show that the drive system is mechanically able to operate the
motors with an accuracy even better than the feedback values from the axes. In
the context of future projects, envisaging telescope arrays comprising about
100 individual instruments, the robustness and scalability of the concept is
emphasized.
