Krohn/TRG - Watkins Glen 6h preview

third-plus

 

Krohn Racing/TRG is ready for a six-hour Rolex Sports Car Series race at
Watkins Glen International, after conducting a successful test on the
3.37-mile grand prix road course. Jörg Bergmeister of Langenfeld, Germany,
enjoyed his first laps on the New York track, driving the No. 66
Pontiac-powered Riley Mk XI he will share with Christian Fittipaldi of Key
Biscayne, Fla.

 

"We will see how fast we are compared to the others, but the car felt really
good. It was my first time at Watkins Glen, but it's definitely one of my
favorite tracks now. You have a lot of corners where you can carry in a lot
of speed, but you also need to have a really good exit, and they are all
pretty fast, which is what I always like," he said. "I like third-gear
corners and up; anything below I don't like that much."

 

new tires

 

Hoosier Racing Tire will introduce a new Daytona Prototype tire
specification at Watkins Glen. Nic Jönsson of Buford, Ga., who drives the
No. 67 Krohn/TRG Pontiac-Riley with Tracy Krohn of Houston, is anxious to
test it: "We're probably going to gain some front grip, which will be good
because we've been struggling with a mid-corner push [understeer]. As long
as the tire has the same performance and the same durability, I think it
will be very good."

 

Mike Kraemer, Hoosier product manager, agreed. "In the front tire, we
increased the lateral stiffness and in the rear, we softened up the
construction in some of the modes. The compound is different as well. The
change was directed at providing an all-purpose compound that could bridge
the gap from banked track to natural road courses. Nic's assesment that
mid-corner grip would improve should be accurate ... We have learned that if
we fix the beginning and the end, the middle part of the corner takes care
of itself."

 

Cup comparison

 

Christian Fittipaldi competed in a NASCAR Winston Cup race at Watkins Glen
in 2003. He is looking forward to lapping the track in the Rolex Series
Daytona Prototype class.

 

"The Cup car is definitely a lot slower, in general slower down the
straightaways and slower in the corners. It has a lot more movement because
it's a much heavier car, bigger, softer," he noted. "The DP is closer to
what a single-seater feels like – nimble, a lot quicker than the Cup car. If
both of them were running the same track, in my opinion, the DP would be
about eight to 10 seconds per lap quicker. There's not a lot of difference
on the straight, but there's a lot of difference cornering."

 

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Sylvia Proudfoot
HYPERLINK "mailto:sylvia@spurcom.ca"sylvia@spurcom.ca
403 287 3945