ILMC - Krohn Racing Seeks Another Podium Finish At Spa ILMC

Spa, May 2, 2011: The American-based Krohn Racing team will challenge the 1000 Kilometers of Spa-Francorchamps this weekend with a win already under their belt this season. After the inaugural race of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup Series at the 12 Hours of Sebring in March, the Krohn Racing team is ready to return to the podium. Krohn Racing celebrated victory in the GTE-Am class at Sebring, and is currently the GTE-Am point leader. Team owner/driver Tracy W. Krohn will again take to the cockpit with long-time teammate, Swede Nic Jönsson. Tracy Krohn and Nic Jönsson will be driving at Spa after just having raced in the VLN Series at the Nurburgring this past weekend. The drivers competed at the four-hour race in Germany in preparation for running at the 24 Hours of Nurburgring in 2012, and traveled directly to Belgium afterwards to get ready for the 1000 Kilometers of Spa-Francorchamps. The Spa circuit is 14 kilometers in length, or 9 miles, and had its first race in 1922. It is a host of the popular Belgian Grand Prix.

TRACY W. KROHN, Krohn Racing Team Owner/Driver, No. 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari 430 GTE-Am: Spa-Francorchamps is a new circuit for you. How are you preparing for the race and to learn the track? “It’s always fun to learn a new track, especially one with as much history as Spa. We have a training session set up early this week with our good friend and my former teammate Eric van de Poele. As a five-time winner of the 24 Hours of Spa, no one is better to teach Nic and me the nuances of this circuit. I have European drivers who race it regularly but we’ll do our best to get up to speed as quickly as we can.”

You and your team won in class at the season opener at the 12 Hour of Sebring. At Spa the entry shows 11 GTE-Am competitors and 12 GTE-Pro competitors entered. How much more difficult is that going to make it? “Without a doubt this will be a difficult race. It will be my first time at Spa and only Nic’s second. Not only will there be a bigger field but we will be competing again some of Europe’s great GT drivers on their home track.”

You will be driving back-to-back four and six hour races two weekends in a row. Do you find that better for your driving skills or more difficult to do back-to-back endurance races? “Racing is not my day job so the more seat time I can get behind the wheel, the better for me. A four or six hour race shared between two drivers is not too physically challenging like a 24 hour race. I believe it will be a benefit for both Nic and I.”

NIC JONSSON, No. 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari 430 GTE-Am: It’s been quite a while since you drove at Spa, what is it going to be like for you to get back there? “I drove Spa back in the early ‘90’s, about 18 or 19 years ago. I am definitely returning knowing that I need to learn everything again. Krohn Racing has set up half a day for me and Tracy to do some training on the Spa circuit. Although we’ve had a couple of months of a break in the ILMC since Sebring, now we’re getting back into the swing of things. I am extremely excited; I think the competition is going to be very high. There are going to be a lot of cars there, more European teams that maybe don’t travel the full season. I feel that we have a very strong car and I want to keep the pack behind us. I have big hopes that we’re going to be the car to look out for the win.”

You and Tracy have not had a lot of experience at Spa like some of the other teams that will be running there in the ILMC. Share your thoughts on how Krohn Racing will stack up to the competition. “We know that GT racing is extremely strong over in Europe. There are several different championships over there and everybody who drives a GT car can enter into the ILMC Championship, which I think a lot of them do because we go to so many fantastic tracks like Spa. I think the competition will be very, very tough. Tracy has never been to Spa, and my last time there was a long time ago. The guys who race there more often and get to test there, like we do at Sebring or Road Atlanta, that’s their home turf. Therefore it’s going to be more difficult for us and will probably take the first few practice sessions to get up to somewhere decent and on pace with the guys who drive there more. The pace that I expect us to be at when we go into the race should be competitive with the rest of the field.”

You have just come off of a four-hour race at the Nurburgring. How will that affect your stamina and focus for Spa? “Four- and six-hour races don’t really make any difference the weekend before another important race like Spa. We still have to work on our reflexes and get into the racing environment after racing just the weekend before Spa, but I think it will actually be a benefit to race the weekend before in a four-hour race. If it were a 12- or 24-hour race before Spa, that would be completely different, because it really takes a while to mentally and physically recoup from such a long endurance race. In this case, though, I think it’s going to benefit us just coming off a four-hour race and hopefully we will have a good outcome.”

JEFF HAZELL, Krohn Racing Motorsports Manager: There is a lot of preparation and logistics that go in to an international race like Spa for a race team. Please share with us some of the things that are involved. “A week after Sebring we delivered our fully loaded transporter to the Newark dockside and shipped it to Liverpool. The racecar and 800 kilograms followed last week by air and met the transporter in the UK. Our oversize US transporter has special routes and permits to move to the European tracks.

“We have to work to different racing rules here and the strategy, pit and garage operations are very different to those in the USA. We are able to handle the challenges of freighting, insurances, customs, crew movement, and different regulations, power, radios, fuel and air supplies etc. because within the Krohn team we have extensive world championship racing and logistics experience. We research and plan to minimize the ‘can go wrong element’ and when the unexpected does occur the experience within the team usually pulls us through!”

Highlights from the 1000 Kilometers of Spa-Francorchamps will be broadcast on the SPEED TV channel at a date and time to be announced.