Krohn/TRG - Fontana preview

all in the family

 

Krohn Racing/TRG will have a new face behind the wheel for the April 3 Rolex
Sports Car Series race at California Speedway in Fontana, Calif. Brazilian
driver Christian Fittipaldi, now living in Key Biscayne, Fla., will join
Jörg Bergmeister of Langenfeld, Germany, in the No. 66 Krohn/TRG
Pontiac-powered Riley Mk XI car. Fittipaldi has extensive experience in many
forms of racing, including the Formula One World Championship, CART
Championship Series, NASCAR Winston Cup and international sports-car racing.

 

Ironically, his resume includes a victory in the 24 Hours of Spa in Belgium,
where he was a teammate to Bergmeister's father, Willi. "In 1993, my father
was still driving," Bergmeister recalled. "I remember Christian drove in the
24 hours of Spa in one of the sister cars to my dad. Now he is my
co-driver!"

 

double duty

 

Tracy Krohn of Houston and Nic Jönsson of Buford, Ga., are doing double
duty, driving the No. 67 Pontiac-Riley in the Rolex Series Daytona Prototype
class and the No. 69 Porsche 996 in the Grand-Am Cup GS class. Jönsson
believes the drivers benefit from both the extra track time and consistency
in driving partners.

 

"It's good to drive as much as possible, spend a lot of time on track and
stay sharp," he noted. "And it definitely helps to have the same co-driver
in both series. If you have the same guy driving with you all the time, it
makes it much easier because you don't have to readjust your driving or the
setup. We know what we both like, so we can get both cars set up to handle
the same way."

 

power play

 

The TRG East crew, which prepares the No. 69 Porsche for Nic Jönsson and
Tracy Krohn in Grand-Am Cup races, hopes to maximize performance through a
weight reduction allowed by a change in series rules.

 

"We've been allowed a 75-pound weight reduction to compete with the other
makes," TRG East owner Peter Baron explained. "There are 385 pounds of
ballast in the car, located in the passenger-seat area, which makes the
right side of the car overweight. Removing 75 pounds will bring the weight
closer to a 50-50 left-right distribution and allow for a much more even
platform and ride height. The reduction will have dramatic effects on
acceleration, braking and tire wear. In theory, the reduction increases the
power-to-weight ratio by 2.5 per cent."