Indy Lights - Krohn DNF's With Engine Problems

LOUDON, Aug. 16, 2011: Anders Krohn duplicated his best qualifying result of the 2011 Firestone Indy Lights season with a fourth-place starting spot in Sunday’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but he dropped out of the 100-lap race with only 77 laps complete due to an apparent engine failure.

The Houston-based driver’s official finishing position was 11th with Belardi Auto Racing’s Liberty Engineering Racing Special No. 9. In addition to Liberty Engineering the car is sponsored by Logi Trans Offshore Express, Trallfa, PM International Suppliers, Allied Building Products, ZAT Graphics, Eagles Canyon Raceway, OMP and Bell Helmets.

Krohn, a native of Stavanger, Norway, vaulted from fourth to third almost immediately when Bryan Clauson spun in Turn 2 on the first lap around the 1-mile oval. Krohn remained in third place for nearly a quarter of the race, from lap 1 through lap 21. At that point Gustavo Yacaman passed him to push him back to fourth.

“The Viking” set his best lap of the race on lap 30 with a time of 26.4064 (139.739 miles per hour). He had a two-lap combined time of 50.4569 (146.263 mph) in Sunoco Qualifying on Saturday.

Around the half-way point Krohn was engaged in a big battle with his teammate, Jorge Goncalvez, who went on to finish second, and Duarte Ferreira, who would end up third.

Krohn slipped from fourth to sixth with 62 laps complete when they both passed him. He dropped one more spot on the next lap when David Ostella got by too. Krohn was attempting to repass Ostella when the yellow flew on lap 70 for Estaban Guerrieri, who spun out in Turn 2 while running second. That moved Krohn back to sixth position.

Krohn struggled on the restart on lap 73 and Guerrieri passed him to push him back to seventh. Although it was obvious that something was wrong, the cause became evident to all in the crowd when Krohn’s car erupted in a cloud of smoke on the backstretch on lap 78 and he brought out the third caution flag of the race on lap 79. He made it back to the pits, but his day was done.

Polesitter Josef Newgarden led all 100 laps and completed the race a whole lap before the other podium finishers did.

“We never really had the pace today,” Krohn said afterwards. “It was peculiar, because our car was strong in qualifying. I thought we had a good chance to take a podium, but we keep being unlucky. The Belardi Auto Racing guys try so hard; it’s so painful yet again.

“The fans at New Hampshire have been great,” Krohn added. “We’ll be back, and hopefully our luck will change.”

Krohn is sixth in the point standings going into the next race, which will be part of the inaugural event at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor Sunday, Sept. 4. It will be shown live on VERSUS at noon. After Baltimore only two more races remain and they’re both on ovals: Oct. 2 at Kentucky Speedway and Oct. 16 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Krohn will be making his first starts at both of those tracks just as he did Sunday at New Hampshire.