Jönsson
& Krohn Racing Capture Another Podium Finish at Mid-Ohio!
Buford,
GA - June 20, 2009 -
The No. 76 Krohn Racing Ford Lola of Nic Jönsson and Ricardo
Zonta finished second in Saturday’s EMCO Gears Classic race
at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. Krohn Racing’s
podium finish was their second in less than a week, after team owner/driver
Tracy W. Krohn, Eric van de Poele and Jönsson captured a third
place finish in the Risi-Krohn Ferrari 430 GT at last weekend’s
24 Hours of Le Mans race in Le Mans, France.
Jönsson started the Proto-Auto
Lola from the fifth position on the grid and climbed into the top
three. He pitting on Lap 25 of the 111-lap race, to turn the wheel
over to Zonta, who methodically worked his way up from the seventh
position to give the team a second-place finish.
Nic Jönsson comments: “We had a decent qualifying. We qualified fifth, although
I think we could have been third. We had a good car from the beginning
of the race. We got a lot of pick-up on the tires and it was almost
impossible to drive for four or five laps. It was just holding on
for life. Then the yellow came out and we had to do everything over
again. It was a very rough first 45 minutes. I hung on and tried
to keep the car up as high as possible. I handed it over to Ricardo
in fifth. Ricardo got in and did an absolutely stunning job. He
was in the car for a long time and it was hot in there. He did a
fantastic job and kept plugging away. I think we had a decent race
car. We still have a few more little things to do but the car is
getting more competitive. It’s right there now. Again, I can’t
say enough about Ricardo’s performance today. The Krohn team
did an awesome job. The pit stops were flawless and the strategy
was right on the money. I also want to give a big thanks to Tracy
to give us this opportunity to be out there and run up front when
he’s not able to be here. This second place today, following
up the third place on the podium with Tracy and Eric (van de Poele)
last week at Le Mans, feels really good. Hopefully we’ll have
some more wins here in Grand-Am this year.”
Tracy W. Krohn, Team Owner/Driver
Krohn Racing:
“It really was a great race. We had a good chance of winning
there at Mid-Ohio. My hat’s off to the Ganassi team. They
had a good bit of luck with pit stops and yellows; otherwise we
could have won the thing.
We are continuing to improve
this car and running at the top of the field. We just need a little
bit more out of the car and we’re going to be right there.
The battle between Scott and Ricardo is what Grand-Am racing is
all about! It was fun to watch. Ricardo stepped in there pretty
hard a few times and with traffic. I was very impressed with the
results. Pruett and Ricardo showed how to do it. That’s what
you want -- guys battling it out wheel-to-wheel.
Nic had to deal with some
funky tires at the beginning of the race and did so extremely well.
He brought the car in at an opportune time and it worked out for
us.
I’m ready to get
back in the race car at the next event at Daytona and can’t
wait to see everyone and get back at it.”
Ricardo Zonta, Co-Driver,
No. 76 Krohn Racing Ford Lola: “The race was good. I didn’t have much time in the
dry before jumping in the car for the race, so I had to get used
to the car in the dry. The car was quite good, and the mechanics
and the crew worked very well. The strategy worked very well so
I am very happy about our result. I tried very hard to overtake
Pruett at the end but we didn’t have enough speed on the straights,
too much downforce. We couldn’t really battle Pruett because
of that. If you just keep the car inside the corners you cannot
overtake the other guy. The only place to pass was on the straights
and we didn’t have the speed for it. It was good points for
the team. Of course, there is not much chance for the championship
anymore but I think if you keep it on the podium every race it would
be very nice.”
David Brown, Team Manager/Engineer,
Krohn Racing:
“We’re pleased with the results. It’s not often
you can run the same times as the 01 car, and faster than the 99
car. The car was quick. I think the 01 car was possibly the only
car quicker than us and very similar in times, which is, I think,
a step forward for us. So we are quite pleased about that. Apart
from the results, the fact that the car’s performance has
increased to that level is good and we think we understand why,
which is a nice thing. We’re quite encouraged by that.
We didn’t really have
any major issues in the race. Nic got a lot of pickup on the tires
at the beginning, along with everybody else. It took a long time
to clean them up and they never really came in completely so we
were quite keen to get those tires off the car and put a fresh set
on. Pit stops were absolutely wonderful. We were running a bit warm
once and we made a cooling change during a pit stop and it went
very well.
The
strategy really was that we sat in the factory before we left to
come to the race and planned our strategy. Precise details like
which lap we would stop on we had to decide at the time. The strategy
itself was exactly what we had planned to do.”
Jönsson's
next race will be round 7 of 12, Brumos Porsche 250 race at Daytona
International Raceway in Daytona Beach, FL on July 4th. That race
will be televised live at 2:00 p.m. ET. Visit Race
Schedule to view Nic's busy 2009 schedule.For
more information, please seewww.grand-am.comand www.krohnracing.net
and www.kssmotorsports.com.