ILMC - Krohn Racing Team Has Unusual Race At 6 Hours Of Imola

Imola, July 4, 2011: American Ferrari Team Nearly DNFs but Driver Nic Jonsson's Patience Pays Off

The Krohn Racing Team came to Imola, Italy for the fourth round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup Series at the Enzo and Dino Ferrari circuit with high hopes for victory in their Ferrari 430 GTE-Am car. However, a podium was not meant to be and taking the checkered flag nearly didn't happen.

Alternator problems as the fourth hour was approaching weighed heavily on the strategy of the team as to whether to take a longer pit stop and the chance that a battery change would temporarily solve the problem, or see if the alternator would hold for the final two hours. Perhaps the team could have soldiered on and climbed back into four place in class but a shunt in the rear from a Ferrari 458 GTE-Pro car as driver Nic Jönsson was approaching the fifth hour changed the race totally for the American team based in Braselton, Georgia.

Team owner/driver Tracy W. Krohn, Swedish native Nic Jönsson and Italian Michele Rugolo managed to finish seventh in class in their Krohn Racing Ferrari 430 and acquire badly needed points towards the ILMC GTE-Am point championship.

QUOTES: NIC JONSSON, No. 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari 430 GTE-Am: "When I got into the car for the second time I got new tires and the car was completely different. I was able to run low's (1:47), which I think was the quickest in class at the time. We started getting some positions back and were about 20 second behind fourth place at that point. I had a battle with one of the (Ferrari) 458 Pro cars. Finally he just hit me from behind going into Tosa (Turn 7) and spun me around. We had an alternator going down so there was no juice left in the battery when I tried to restart it. I got pulled behind the wall and sat there for about 15 minutes with the master switch off. I knew that normally when a battery cools down it gets recharged a bit so I was hoping that was going to be enough and it was. I turned the main (switch) on again and it had enough so the car fired back up. I suited up again and drove back to the pits.

I tried to communicate on the radio all the way back and couldn't get anyone. I thought maybe the battery was too weak so the radio wouldn't work. I came back and didn't see anyone on pit wall or anyone in the garage. Then I saw (crew member) Lenny out there rolling up one of the hoses. Then David came out and we put the car back up on the stands and got everything fixed so I could get back out there for the last half hour so we could score some points.'

TRACY W. KROHN, Krohn Racing Team Owner/Driver, No. 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari 430 GTE-Am: "Nic, being the stubborn Swede that he is, stays with the car. He waits and waits and waits even though the alternator is out. He doesn't abandon the car. He doesn't have radio contact and then starts the car. He wheels down pit road and nobody is there. He pulls in front of the garage and is putting the rollers underneath the car by himself and we discover he is there. He gets out and then everybody is running around trying to put their firesuits on. Somebody caught him, probably one of the Ferraris and that put him in the gravel trap. He just refuses to quit and that's one of the reasons why we like him!'

MICHELE RUGOLO, No. 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari 430 GTE-Am: "We are disappointed the way the championship is going because we have had some really bad luck. We hope for the next race we are going to have good luck and everything will be fine for us.'

DAVID BROWN, Krohn Racing Team Manager/Race Engineer: "I have to say there were incredibly difficult circumstances. Our drivers in particular, and most of the drivers in the field, did an outstanding job not to have a massive number of yellows and crash cars all over the place, although there were a few. We did get hit at least once during the race. Nic was finally hit at the end of the race.

Nic started in the car, and then we put Tracy in and then Michele, single stinting the drivers but double stinting the tire, which was fine. Dunlop tires were very robust and performed very well. We were very pleased and didn't have any problems with the tires. Tracy had a small spin during his shift when he had a downshift issue and spun, although it wasn't a massive issue. Later in the race, with about two and quarter hours to go, the alternator failed. Now we have a previous experience with the alternator and we know that our system will last some time with no alternator because of the battery capacity. However, sooner or later it will go flat. But we were in battery-saving mode and we had a plan for how we were going to change the battery, is necessary. It was tight as to whether we could make it to the end of the race with the remaining battery capacity.

However, a Ferrari went straight into the back of Nic in the Tosa corner and spun him off the road and the engine stalled. It would not have been quite so catastrophic if it had not been for the fact the battery was so flat it would not restart the engine. Despite Nic's repeated efforts to start the engine, there was so little voltage to start the car, as we could see on the telemetry; it would not start. I had him switch everything off and sit there a few minutes and see if there is just enough to start the engine.

In fact, he very patiently sat there over10 minutes and finally switched everything back on and it started. We had assumed he had gotten out of the car because there was nothing happening and he would not answer our radio calls. Most of the crew had changed back into their normal uniform and out of their firesuits. The crew chief then came running through the truck yelling, he's back, he's back!' We grabbed radios and ran into pit lane and engaged the jacks. Nic got out of the car and helped us wheel it back into the garage, at which time a mass of mechanics in various states of dress, putting their kit on, ran out into the garage. We couldn't put a fresh alternator in so we just changed batteries, fresh tires and fuel and sent it out with about 28 minutes to go. The two things you need to satisfy with the ILMC rules are to do 70% of the distance and we need to cross the line at the end of the race in order to get points. We were determined, given that the car actually turned to go out and score some points….and we did. Nic got back in the car and drove it magnificently to the end. I'm rather disappointed we finished seventh. It obviously could have been quite a lot better than that. I suppose we recovered to best we could and grabbed some points out of it.'

JEFF HAZELL, Krohn Racing Motorsports Manager' "It was a difficult weekend. Again we had problems with an engine from Michelotto in the practice and had to change it. Then during the race the alternator failed. We had made every modification that we know of to keep the alternator alive but they seem to fail on these cars. So I'm beginning to wonder why the pieces that the team prepares run without problems and why the pieces we get from Michelotto let the car down?'