Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Global

Krohn Racing Silverstone race report

Krohn Racing press release

#57 Krohn Racing Ferrari F430: Tracy Krohn, Nic Jonsson, Michele Rugolo

#57 Krohn Racing Ferrari F430: Tracy Krohn, Nic Jonsson, Michele Rugolo

Daniel James Smith

Krohn Racing Post-Race Report for 6 Hours of Silverstone

After starting in the fourth position in the GTE-Am class and leading for 19 of the 161 total laps, the Krohn Racing No. 57 Ferrari 430 GTE-Am team had to settle for a seventh place class finish at the 6 Hours of Silverstone race. This weekend’s race was Round 5 of the 7-race 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup series.

#57 Krohn Racing Ferrari F430: Tracy Krohn, Nic Jonsson, Michele Rugolo
#57 Krohn Racing Ferrari F430: Tracy Krohn, Nic Jonsson, Michele Rugolo

Photo by: Daniel James Smith

Qualifying driver Nic Jönsson started the bright lime green Ferrari from the fourth qualifying position in the GTE-Am class and brought it to the front by Lap 35, where he kept the car until the second pit stop. The team made a quick stop for tires and fuel when the safety car came out briefly, which played well for strategy.

Krohn Racing team owner/driver piloted the middle portion of the six-hour race, performing a double stint like Jönsson. Italian driver Michele Rugolo took the final two hour stint and brought the Prancing Horse to the checkered flag.

QUOTES:

TRACY W. KROHN, Krohn Racing Team Owner/Driver, No. 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari 430 GTE-Am: “Everyone did a fairly good job. I was a little disappointed with myself. I haven’t been in the car much this year and it showed. On the other hand we learned some things about tires we didn’t know before that will help us later on. In fact we probably learned a whole bunch of things that will help us. That part is the positive part. Now we go to our home track at Road Atlanta so we know exactly what to expect there. Actually we were hoping to get a little rain here today to level the playing field but it just didn’t happen. We’ll regroup, go to Atlanta and see what happens there. We definitely like to run at Petit.”

NIC JONSSON, No. 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari 430 GTE-Am: “The race start was pretty clean. Actually people started accelerating much quicker than I anticipated so it was pretty strung out and we weren’t really side by side for the start. We started off with a tire combination that we qualified the car on yesterday. I think it ended up being the wrong choice today because after about 10 laps, the tires really went off for me. I was really struggling. The car had push entry at the exits and I was really struggling. We pitted and got another set of tires on with a different tire compound combination. Then the car really settled down and was very nice to drive. It was probably the best car I had all weekend.

The finish was not what we were hoping for but the car is somewhat in one piece and we finished the race and earned some points and that’s the main thing. We had some unfortunate things happen in the middle of the race where we had contact and lost a couple of laps because we had to pit. No we go back to the States to our home race in a few weeks at Road Atlanta. We’re very comfortable and excited about going to Road Atlanta. I think we’re going to be very fast. I think we’re going to have a very good chance of winning in Atlanta.”

MICHELE RUGOLO, No. 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari 430 GTE-Am: “I was a bit disappointed about the final result because our performance was much better. We have been, to me, one of the fastest from the beginning and we finished with just six points. Our skills are much better than the other teams. We need to achieve a better result. This is what we will work towards when we go to Road Atlanta for the Petit Le Mans race.”

DAVID BROWN, Krohn Racing Team Manager/Race Engineer: “We started with Nic and the car was fairly loose at the beginning of the race so we elected to change the tires early and fit it with a different tire compound combination. We continued with that compound combination for the rest of the race. We took the safety car yellow, as only one other GT car in our class did and gained a lot of time for doing that. Unfortunately, Tracy had some contact and he was forced off line, picking up a lot of rubber on the tires. This happened throughout the race and it only got worse as the race went on. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to clean his tires, so we elected to fit another set of tires for his second stint, which was much more productive as a result. We put Michele in the car for the last two hours and he drove very well. We led the class for a bit, had fast lap times, good pit work and good strategy but regrettably finished a disappointing seventh in class.”

The Krohn Racing team fell back to third in the ILMC GTE-AM class Team Championship point chase with 35 points. They currently follow Labre Competition (65 points) and Proton Competition (37 points) with two races remaining in the championship.

The penultimate and next race on the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup Series calendar is the Petit Le Mans, October 1, at Road Atlanta, in Braselton, Georgia, USA.

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Harold Primat Silverstone race report
Next article Pescarolo Team Silverstone race report

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Global