Krohn Racing - Rolex 24 At Daytona - Saturday Race Report - 6 Hour

Daytona January 24, 2009: The Krohn Racing team suffered a major disappointment just after the six hour mark, when the No. 76 Krohn Racing Ford Lola withdrew after mechanical problems sent them to the garage. The crank sensor was not receiving a signal from the trigger inside the engine. After changing the sensor, the car was still unable to crank the engine, thus the deduction that there was a mechanical issue inside the engine. After spending over an hour in the garage, the Krohn team decided to withdraw when no resolve was quickly imminent. Darren Turner was at the wheel and in the third position at the time, 8:45 p.m. ET, when he experienced a sudden loss of power.

Meanwhile, the No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford Lola of Tracy W. Krohn, Eric van der Poele and Oliver Gavin were climbing the lap charts. After starting in 15th position, they were in 13th place and had completed double stints with each of the three drivers without facing any issues.

DAVID BROWN, Team Manager, Race Engineer of No. 76 Krohn Racing Ford Lola:

“We are very disappointed. We really thought we had a good chance to have a very good result here. Up to that point, things were going reasonably well. We were belting around, knocking off the laps. We had a few minor handling issues, which we got to the bottom of and the drivers were doing what they were supposed to be doing. We were on the lead lap in a good position and now we have a problem which we cannot resolve. So we’re going to park it.”

JEFF HAZELL, CEO Proto-Auto Lola:

“The crank sensor was not receiving the signal from the trigger inside the engine. We changed the sensor, but still no signal. We believe it was a mechanical issue inside the engine. We’re not going to play with it anymore because we’ve lost so much time. It’s not worth trying to fix it and run at this point. We’ll have to take a closer look at it next week.

If you have a bad race here (at Daytona 24 Hours), because of the way the points table is, it’s almost impossible to win the championship. If you have even one bad race, you have to be really, in the minimum, in the top 7 or 8 to win this championship. As you’ll remember, the Gainsco car had to win 6 or 7 races in 2007. I think we are just going to be flat out trying to win races for the rest of the year. The points table doesn’t really allow you to narrow a championship challenge after a bad race.”

NIC JONSSON, Driver, No. 76 Krohn Racing Ford Lola:

“Obviously we’re very disappointed to have to drop out of the race after five or six hours. We had a very strong car. The guys have done a tremendous job to prepare the car for the 24 hours. We had not a great car in the beginning of the race but we were working on it with tire pressures and stuff. The last couple of stints the car started to come alive for us. Darren was running in third place very strongly and he said the car felt good. It’s one of those things that happens -- a crank sensor trigger that nobody can control. Engines are put together properly, the cars are prepped properly and you have one of those small things go bad on you. What can you do? It’s a small electronic part. There are millions of them out there and they work every day, but unfortunately this failed on us and we have to pull out. It’s very disappointing but we have to come back. We have a total of 12 races in the championship this year. We have to go back home and regroup. I think we have a very strong package, a very strong team and this championship is still alive for us and we’re going to go out and do everything we can to win as many races as possible this year and go for the championship.”

DARREN TURNER, Driver, No. 76 Krohn Racing Ford Lola:

“It’s obviously devastating for the team. We’ve done so much preparation, three very good tests, and just all the preparation for the race. To be knocked out with a technical problem very early in the event is a big blow for everyone. We were going up and down a bit but the race could have come to us. We had some good speed at times. With Nic in the car and Ricardo in the car and me, you’ve got three guys that work well over a 2-hour race. It’s just unfortunate that we’ve had a problem that seems to me like a small problem but one that can’t be fixed easily. It’s devastating really.”

RICARDO ZONTA, Driver, No. 76 Krohn Racing Ford Lola:

“It’s so difficult to say. We were keeping with the leaders. The car had the patience to fight for a victory here. I think we have to think about the championship now and try to win races. There’s a lot to come. Of course, it’s not only this race, it’s also the championship also.”

QUOTES AFTER FIRST STINTS:

TRACY KROHN, Owner/driver, No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford Lola:

“It was a little bit wild because there was a whole lot of oversteer in the rear and as a result it made it more difficult to turn than we thought it would be. Going into the heavy braking zones the car was very nervous. I would move the brake bias on the front and the car would lock up and I’d move it to the back and I couldn’t get it to stop. So it was really hard to control. The start of the race went really, really well. No problems. It was not much different than what I would have anticipated.”

ERIC VAN DE POELE, Driver, No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford Lola:

“For me, my first stint was good. The car was very consistent, not 100% perfect but it’s quite ok. I had a good restart. I let Nic by and stayed behind him for a few laps until we stopped so it was very nice. I didn’t have any big moment or anything. I had a little case with the Gainsco car, I think; I’m not sure which car it was at the restart, but nothing special. I’m looking forward to be back to try to see the car going up on the position chart because we are a little far down at the moment (15th).”

RICARDO ZONTA, Driver, No. 76 Krohn Racing Ford Lola:

“The start of the race was a little bit difficult because of the tires were a little bit cold. I lost one position. I don’t know which lap but the No. 40 GT car spun and Scott Pruett and I had to stop to avoid driving into him. We had to go outside and then had to wait for everybody to pass to start again. But it was the safe move to do.”