No Repeat Victory for Krohn At New Jersey

Millville, July 19, 2010: The No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford Proto-Auto Lola of team owner/driver Tracy W. Krohn and Nic Jönsson was not able to follow up last year’s victory with a desired repeat this year at the NJMP 250 presented by Crown Royal race at New Jersey Motorsports Park, July 18.

Although the duo in the familiar lime green and blue car with the Roush Engines supplied Ford 5 litre V8 power plant ran as high as third, a problem with the left front sidelined the car on Lap 65.

Nic started the No. 75 car from the fifth position but spun in Turn one of the first lap when the leaders slowed and he had to brake hard to avoid another car. He was consistently turning some of the fastest laps of the race and had brought the car up to third from the 13th position when it was time to turn the car over to Krohn on Lap 47, after one hour and 5 minutes of racing.

Although Krohn was assessed a drive through penalty for speeding exiting the pits, he was clocking some of his fastest times of the weekend and had his eyes set on unlapping himself after the drive through penalty put him down a lap. He was just 1.3 seconds off the fastest race lap at the time, when the car let loose and sent him off course just 26 minutes into his stint. The Krohn Racing team’s day was ended when it was assessed the damage was too great to return to the track in the time remaining.

The No. 99 Gainsco Chevrolet Riley of Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty won their first race of the 2010 GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series season in New Jersey’s Round 9 of 12.

DRIVER QUOTES: TRACY W. KROHN, Team Owner/Driver No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford Proto-Auto Lola: Regarding the penalty for speeding: “Unfortunately somehow the pit lane speed limiter wasn’t on when I came out of the pits. I didn’t catch it until I got to the end of pit lane. I was hoping nobody noticed but no such luck.”

Regarding the car’s retirement: “There was a lot of drama. The car was very good. As we got going, I started passing guys. I passed the 10 car and was coming up on the 99 car when I went into Turn 1 and got the brakes and it just let loose. I thought I popped a tire. I went into the grass and thought I was going to hit the wall. I was doing everything I could to go down through the gears and slow the car down and turn right. Then as I came back on the track, it felt like the left front tire was square so I knew it wasn’t just a tire. I don’t know what it was but we’ll take a look at it and see what it was.”

NIC JONSSON, Driver, No. 75 Krohn Racing Ford Proto-Auto Lola: Regarding his first stint: “I got all caught up going into Turn 1. Whoever was up front at the start over slowed entry so everybody bunched up. I had a choice between T-boning the 01 car in the middle of the side or hit the brake and spin myself out. I tried to hit the brake a catch it but I spun out and had to start over again basically from the back. I started chasing and it took a little bit before I got by a few of the slower cars because it was very tight out there. You really need a good run to get by him. We got going and had a pit stop to come in and refuel, then settled in and started clicking good laps off and were able to start moving up through the field. We made it up to third place before we came in. The car was very good and we were running very competitively lap times and among the quickest out there.”

Regarding the retirement of the car: “We had to retire because Tracy had a left front issue without any warning or anything. Tracy did a fantastic job all weekend and was within two seconds of the quick cars out there, which is fantastic. He didn’t put a wheel wrong all weekend. The Krohn guys have done a fantastic job all weekend with the Proto-Auto Lola. We would have had a car to finish on the podium today. We were in a really good way to that actually because we were third when I came in to turn over the car to Tracy. He went out there and kept it in 8th place or so. We were doing really well until the left front problem. But, hey, we had a good car. The guys have done a fantastic job again. We have to go to Watkins Glen with a positive outlook and hopefully have a good finish.”

DAVID BROWN, Krohn Racing Team Manager and Engineer: “We had incidents with several cars during the race and shortly thereafter we had a problem with the left front and had to return the car to the garage. We’ll take a look at all the elements back at the shop this weekend and assess what happened. Onward to Watkins Glen.”