Krohn Racing Post-Race Report

Krohn Racing looked to potentially have a Top Five and Top Ten finish in hand for their two-car team at the two-hour mark and end of the Montreal Grand-Am race. Instead they could only celebrate a Top Ten for owner/driver Tracy Krohn and Montreal race co-driver Oliver Gavin in the No. 75 Krohn Racing Pontiac Lola.

Brake problems on Ricardo Zonta and Nic Jönsson’s No. 76 Krohn Racing Pontiac Lola caused Zonta to slide into the No. 99 Gainsco Pontiac of Alex Gurney on Lap 60 of 69. A drive-thru penalty was assessed by Grand-Am for ‘avoidable contact’, relegating the car to a 12th place finish after being in sixth place at the time of the incident and for most of the race.

The No. 61 AIM Autosport Ford Riley team of Brian Frisselle and Mark Wilkins were the winners in their first ever Grand-Am victory. Tracy W. Krohn, team owner/driver, No. 75 Krohn Racing Pontiac Lola: “It was sure nice to have a Top 10. Ollie did a great job! The car was a little bit tentative at first because of the brake situation we’ve had. But after awhile the car settled down. I started running some quicker laps. I turned it over to Ollie on the lead lap and he took it from there and improved it several positions and ended up in the Top 10. So it was a really good day for us. Of course, this was not the ideal track for this car at this point of the development. But it’s getting better all the time so we’re catching up.”

Oliver Gavin, driver, No. 75 Krohn Racing Pontiac Lola: “That was a lot of fun! It’s great to be racing again –you know really battling with people and people trying to battle with you, and a little banging here and there. It was really a great amount of fun. I really enjoyed working with the team this whole week. Everybody is going about the same speed. It’s very tough to get that little break and to try and get that jump on somebody. I think we’re lacking a little bit of straight line speed in places. We still need to work on the car, but I think the team has done a fantastic job this week. I really enjoyed driving with Tracy. He’s a great guy. It’s also been great with Nic and Ricardo. They are great characters and both very fast. I’ve been learning a lot from both of them. It’s great to come and have another challenge. It’s been a very refreshing weekend for me!”

Nic Jönsson, driver, No. 76 Krohn Racing Pontiac Lola: “My stint was more about taking care of the car and the brakes basically. That was kind of what the game plan was. The car was pretty good. The brakes started giving out pretty early, especially running too close to guys. Unfortunately I also picked up debris on the very first lap, coming out of the hairpin and got a lot of smoke off the right front. I was very concerned so I kind of had to back off. I had a very good start. I got off third from sixth place and was third coming on the back straightaway. But I picked up the debris, so I tried to take it off the car. You have to brake a little earlier and kind of shake the car. In the meantime, I had three guys get by me because I was concerned about getting a puncture again like we had at Barber. I was being a little conservative. As soon as I got that off, we ran at the same pace as the third, fourth, fifth place. I think the top two guys were a little quicker. It was more about taking care of the brakes and handing the car over to Ricardo.

Ricardo unfortunately had a little bad luck and got a penalty. We gave up a fifth or sixth place today. We need to start to get those points. But bad luck this race. Next we’ll go to Watkins Glen and I think we’re going to have a good car there, so we’ll try to win that one.”

Ricardo Zonta, driver, No. 76 Krohn Racing Pontiac Lola: “We had a difficult race I’d say, especially because of the brake conditions. Also, we had so much pushing. It was even worse than the brakes because you had to stop the car to turn the car. So the big problem was to stop the car. The brakes were not stable. One time it would lock the front up or another time it would lock the rear brakes. And that made me to hit the 99 car…just because of the instability on braking. I am really sorry and want to apologize to those guys for that.”

David Brown, Team Manager, Krohn Racing: “We survived Montreal, more or less intact. The 75 car crew is quite happy. This is their best result of the year since Daytona and best for them in the Lola. It’s good to see Tracy looking so happy at the end of the race. He and Ollie did a bloody good job in the race. The 76 was in the Top 6 but was having brake problems and, unfortunately, ran into the 99 car, which resulted in him getting a drive through penalty that put us down to a 12th-place finish. It was too bad for the brake issues because we potentially could have ended up in the Top 4. We’ll go on to Watkins Glen with the expectations of a better result.”