Krohn Racing Continues to Lead the Distance Heading into New Jersey GRAND-AM Race

New Jersey, July 14, 2010: The No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford Proto-Auto Lola of Tracy W. Krohn and Nic Jönsson continues to lead the most laps completed list in the Daytona Prototype class of the 2010 GRAND-Am Rolex Sports Car Series with 1,583 of 1,631 laps. The Krohn team is returning to the site of their first victory last year in the Proto-Auto Lola at New Jersey Motorsports Park on July 17-18 for the 2010 NJMP 250 presented by Crown Royal race.

Coming off a sixth place finish in the recent Brumos Porsche 250 at Daytona the Krohn Racing team hopes to make it two-in-a-row at the 2.25-mile Millville, New Jersey road course. Last year Nic Jönsson and teammate Ricardo Zonta led 37 of the 74 rain-soaked laps in the No. 76 Krohn Racing entry, including the most important final lap.

QUOTES: TRACY W. KROHN, Team Owner/Driver No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford Lola: Krohn Racing is returning to the site of the first victory for the Proto-Auto Lola last year. Does it give you a lot of pride to return to the New Jersey race? Any time that you can return as defending champion you have to feel good about it! Nic and Ricardo did a great job in the rain last year and Nic and I look forward to defending this title. Who knows, maybe we will get another rain day as the car does quite well in the rain!

How did you celebrate the victory last year? Well, I was watching the race on Speed Channel and there was a lot of hooting and hollering going on. Later, Laurie and I celebrated with a bit of champagne and as I recall we went out to one of our favorite restaurants!

You had a great drive at Daytona earlier this month. Are you ready to get back in the cockpit and complete some unfinished business? Absolutely! We felt we had a pretty good car at Daytona, but we definitely had it trimmed back to minimum drag, and it was a real handful through the infield and the bus stop at Daytona. At New Jersey, we should be able to get better handling characteristics and we expect to have a better result. Let me put that another way, we intend to win!!

You didn’t drive at New Jersey last year. What do you think will be the most challenging here this year? Actually, it should be a little less challenging than the first time I drove there in 2008 as there wasn’t any grass since the track was brand new and it was hard to see through some of the dust clouds. Plus, the car was just about getting airborne over one of the bumps on the longest back straight, but I understand that has been corrected with the addition of an additional chicane, so the track should be a bit safer now. In watching the re-broadcast on TV from two years ago, one of the Brumos cars was getting airborne, so I am glad this has been changed!

You are planning on doing a promotion at the Ocean City Boardwalk Thursday night prior to the NJ race. What do you enjoy most about talking to the fans? We really enjoy talking to the fans for multiple reasons. First, it’s fun to talk about racing with the fans because I think they will most often come away with different perspectives about racing, such as what it is really like in the cockpit and finding out it is not anything like your passenger car! Second, one of the things that Grand-Am provides is the opportunity to be in the paddock and very accessible to the teams and drivers. We are entertainers and we should always bear that in mind. It is a very charismatic sport in that once you are able to spend a little time with that fan(s), next time they will bring a friend and that friend will become a fan and that is how you build a fan base. Finally, I just like meeting people that have a passion for the sport because I can fully relate to that!

NIC JONSSON, Driver, No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford Lola: Krohn Racing is returning to the site of the first victory for the Proto-Auto Lola last year. Does it give you a lot of pride to return to the New Jersey race? There is likely going to be a lot of the same fans there this year. It’s always nice to come back as the defending race winner, of course. I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of media and attention around that. To have the first victory for the Proto-Auto Lola is obviously very special both for me and the team, and especially for Tracy, who has been investing in this project. I was very proud to deliver that first victory to Tracy and Krohn Racing, together with Ricardo last year. Hopefully Tracy and I can come back this year and carry that momentum and stand on top of the podium this year again.

How did you celebrate the victory last year? The celebration wasn’t wild actually because we all had flights right after the race. We all had to rush leaving the track. But we definitely had a celebration dinner at the next race where Tracy flew in and took the whole team out for a dinner. We had a great time. It was a big day for the Proto-Auto project and for Krohn Racing because we hadn’t won a race since 2007, until we won last year, so that was a long time coming. We had all been very involved with working hard on the new project, of which we were a part of since day one, and finally achieving success was a great feeling. Everybody felt very proud of that first win.

You and Tracy had a great drive at Daytona earlier this month. Are you ready to get back in the cockpit and complete some unfinished business? Absolutely! We’ve had several really good runs this year. We have been lacking a little bit of luck though. We’ve had a lot of bad luck actually. I think we have proven the car is very quick. We had a pole at Lime Rock. We have been one of the top three or four quickest cars everywhere we’ve been this year but not really had that little luck you need to win races or be on the podium. At Daytona we had a good run. Tracy did a fantastic job and handed the car over to me on the first stint very solid and we were able to carry on from there. We had a strategy that I think worked out quite nice. Hopefully we can balance that strategy again this weekend.

What do you think will be the most challenging thing at NJMP this year? I think the weather conditions there are always a little iffy. If you are going to have conditions that go from dry to wet to back to dry, it’s going to be a lot about when you decide to take rain tires or slicks. You are going to gain or lose so much time if you’re not the first one to gamble pretty much, or at least be among the first. Last year there was also obviously rain in the race. We had a fantastic car and actually were quick in the dry conditions as well. I do believe the car is even better now.

The challenge will be to get the car set-up to suit Tracy and me as a pairing. Last year it was Ricardo and I. I think Tracy and I have a little different mindset when it comes to set-up. I believe we are going to have to get the car as good as possible to suit both of us so we can go out there and get after it.

DAVID BROWN, Krohn Racing Team Manager and Engineer: Last year the team saw a lot of rain at this event and obviously fared very well. Rain or shine, how do the prospects look for Krohn Racing at NJMP this year? Our car should go well in New Jersey. We will do everything we can to win the race. Whatever the weather we have the resource and abilities in the team to do a good job.

How did you celebrate the victory at New Jersey Motorsports Park last year? I had a mouthful of warm champagne from the podium bottle, and I was probably the tenth person to do so…..

What is it about the NJMP track that works so well with the Proto-Auto Lola? The characteristics of our package suit these types of tracks better. We like plenty of corners, the more the better. We like adversity and we thrive in a changing environment, so plenty of rain showers and action and we will be in our element.

Tracy and Nic had a great drive at Daytona earlier this month. Is the team ready to go back to competition and complete some unfinished business? We compete every day, across the whole breadth of our organization, we are ready to go, ready to put all our efforts into winning at New Jersey. We are a racing team and that’s what we do.