Krohn Racing Captures Another Podium at Daytona
Krohn Racing Captures Another Podium at Daytona Brumos Porsche 250 Race The Krohn Racing team captured another podium finish, their second in a row, in the Brumos Porsche 250 race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida on Thursday night, July 5th. The No. 75 Krohn Racing Pontiac Riley of qualifying and starting driver Max Papis and co-driver Colin Braun finished in third place in the 70-lap, two and one-half hour sprint race, Round Eight of 14 in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. They started from the third position and Papis lead for two laps in the exciting night race which featured only one caution period. The No. 76 Krohn Racing Pontiac Riley of owner/driver Tracy Krohn and Nic Jönsson finished tenth, their fourth Top Ten finish this season, after starting from the 12th position on the grid. The polesitting No. 99 Gainsco Pontiac Riley of Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty took their fourth victory of the season, their third in a row. The No. 10 SunTrust Pontiac Riley of Max Angelelli and Jonathan Cochet finished second, making it a podium sweep for Pontiac. The No. 01 Ganassi Lexus Riley team of drivers Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas continue to hold onto the 2007 Daytona Prototype points championship lead (unofficially) with 237 points. The No. 10 SunTrust team remains second with 228 points and the No. 99 Gainsco Racing team climbs higher in third with 220 points. The No. 75 Krohn Racing entry maintains fourth place in the Prototype championship with 209 points. Tracy W. Krohn, team owner/driver, No. 76 Krohn Racing Pontiac Riley: “I think the car was pretty good throughout the race. With our car, we got hit a couple of times, including on the right rear wheel, which caused us to loose a little bit of time. Once we got that straightened out it was okay. I think Nic got overheated. He chose not to wear a cool suit this time and paid the price for it. I’m sure we’ll be fine when we go to Birmingham. I don’t think we’ll see that problem. In any case, he drove a really good race. We tried some early pit strategy and hoping for a yellow that just never came. Had it come, I think we would have finished much higher than 10th.I think the No. 76 car has quietly slipped into the Top 10 in the points ranking, so that’s pretty good. All in all, a Top 10 and a podium is a pretty good day! There was only one caution and it came very early. That was a surprise. I didn’t expect that at all. I figured it would be later on in the race when things got a little bit tighter. Last year we ran without any yellows. I was a little disappointed because I got out of the car at that time. I would have preferred to drive a little longer, but such is life. Sometimes I’m in the car for a couple of hours and sometimes I’m in the car for 15-20 minutes. Nic Jönsson, driver, No. 76 Krohn Racing Pontiac Riley: “I made a mistake not running a cooling suit. I totally ran out of steam with about 18 laps to go, so I had to slow way down. We should have been sixth or seventh for sure. The last 18 laps I made two big mistakes and basically started seeing stars and had to slow way down. I was in the car about two hours, 10 minutes or something and the last half hour I totally ran out of steam. We had a cooling suit in there so it was totally my mistake not running it. The guys did a great job and the car was actually pretty good. I was running some of the same lap times as the leaders, so I know we had a car that could have been in the top six or seven. I think we gained points in the championship and are 10th or 11th in the championship now. Overall it was a pretty good day.�?? (Nic departed Daytona Thursday night to go to LimeRockPark to compete in the Risi Competizione Ferrari 430 GT this weekend.) Max Papis, driver, No. 75 Krohn Racing Pontiac Riley: “We definitely gave them a run for their money -- both the 58 and 99 cars. We did everything we could today to show people we were there. We had a great race. We maximized what we had. We still are not at the level of the 99 car, but we are getting there. We are making improvements. If we keep finishing on the podium, as we are doing, then hopefully before the end of the season, we might have a way to challenge them. On my side, we had a pretty eventful race in terms of things happening around me and the battles I had with many of the guys around me. I was pleased to go into the pits and give the car to Colin in the lead. From there on Colin did a good job to do everything he could to finish third. I think we had a very good team effort. We started so-so at the beginning of the day and we finished on the podium so, we need to be pretty pleased for that. We are not satisfied, but pleased. We’re going to be satisfied only when we win.�?? Colin Braun, driver, No. 75 Krohn Racing Pontiac Riley: “I’m really proud of all the Krohn Racing guys. I think they did a really good job. We struggled this morning in practice and I think (Race Engineer) David Brown did a great job pulling everything together and giving us a good race car. Max obviously did a great job in his stint to keep the car in the top three the whole time. I’m just really proud of everybody and I think we’ve just got to be a little bit quicker and get some speed on the 99 car. It looks like they’ve got things very well figured out and I’m sure we can as well. We just need to keep working at it. If we keep finishing on the podium, we’ve got to win one of these soon enough. For us right now, we’ve got to look at keep finishing consistently. We keep having podium finishes and I think that’s something we can definitely do. We can’t control the luck of other teams. I think it’s going to take a little bit of luck for us to win the championship. I know if we keep working at it hard and everybody keeps putting the good effort in that they have been, I’m sure we’ll be able to finish pretty well in the championship. Jeff Hazell, Krohn Racing Team Manager: “I think Nic did an outstanding job. He didn’t have a cool suit, which he probably should have. It got pretty hot in the car, I have to say. They did well to get the car to that position. The race was very clean. The talking point of the race is obviously the speed of the 99 car. The second biggest talking point of this race was the penalty that was inflicted on the 99 car (a stop-and-go penalty for contact). Along with many team managers I have spoken to, we think that was a transparent penalty and we were shocked it. It was a nice, clean race, the 99 car was very quick and the penalty that was handed out was outrageous. Not much else to say frankly. Our car performed well, they were well driven. The results are probably what we deserved. The next race, Round 9 of 14, will be Grand-Am’s inaugural Iowa 400K at Iowa Speedway on July 11-14, 2007. The race will be televised tape delay on SPEED TV on Friday night, July 13 at 10:00 p.m. EDT. For more information, please see www.grand-am.com and www.krohnracing.net. # # # 7.05.07 If you wish to be removed from the list, please reply to this release and type “REMOVE�?? in all caps in the subject heading. Thank you. + + + Barbara J. Burns for Krohn RacingBurns Group Unlimited 833 Piedmont Avenue Suite B Atlanta, GA 30308 Ph: 404.873.0772 Fax: 404.873.0661 Cell: 770.329.7134 burnsgroup@aol.com