Krohn Racing start twelfth in the inaugural GRAND-AM of the Americans

The Krohn Racing Team spent Thursday learning the new Circuit of the Americas track in Austin, Texas during the promoter’s Test Day. They put that knowledge into use today during three practice sessions and qualifying.

#76 Krohn Racing Ford Lola (left): Nic Jonsson, Tracy Krohn

Photo by: Mike Geng

Both Krohn and co-drive Nic Jönsson took turns during the session to learn the 3.41-mile, 18-turn circuit. The two hour and 45-minute race starts at 4:00 p.m. EST on March 2nd.

Tracy W. Krohn, Krohn Racing Team Owner/Driver, No. 76 Ford Krohn Racing Daytona Prototype: “The car wasn’t bad but it wasn’t as good as the previous session I drove in. There was a little too much oversteer about midway through qualifying and I just didn’t catch it quick enough.

I had more adjustment on the front bar but I thought maybe the tires were going to settle in. I thought maybe I was overdriving it a bit. Finally I made an adjustment to the front bar and the car drove better then.

I wish I had another lap. Of course, everyone always wishes they had another lap! We made some changes prior to qualifying and I think we’ll probably go back to what we had and I think we’ll have a better car.

I think we start behind the eight-ball a little bit because we haven’t done any development on the car in a few years. All that being said, there’s a lot that happens during the race and I think the car will be very good in the race. I think it’s very good on tires as well so we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Nic Jonsson, Driver, No. 76 Ford Krohn Racing Daytona Prototype: “As usual, the crew did a great job to prepare the car. We’ve had no mechanical issues, which I think is impressive after not running the car hardly in the last two years to come here and run mechanically sound.

Unfortunately, I think the new generation car is a little faster than the car we had a few years ago. The car is not bad, it’s just the fine tuning of the car is just not there with the Gen 3 car.

We are struggling a little bit with pace but it’s a long race tomorrow. We just need to keep plugging away and I think we can continue to improve the car another half a second or so.

If we can do that it will improve and the race pace will not be as fast as practice or qualifying. We may have a car that can run in the Top 7 or 8, hopefully. If we can do that we should be pretty pleased.

Tracy’s done a very good job here today both in practice and qualifying. He qualified 12th and that’s very respectable running a car that’s not as quick as the other guys.

He’s very close to some of the guys in front of him. Driving internationally against much tougher competition has definitely elevated his game a few notches. That’s great to see.

We are using this race to be able to come back here with the WEC in September. It’s a good warm up for that, even if it is with a different car.”

David Brown, Krohn Racing Team Manager/Race Engineer: “The car setup is sensitive, as ever, with this car. We’re getting closer to having a good car but we’re still a bit off the pace…too much off the pace.

Between now and the race we are not going to find several seconds of lap time but we need to make sure we have a good balance so the drivers can at least drive the car to its maximum performance, whatever that is in the race, and then have a good race from then on. We’re making a few small changes tonight and mainly focusing on race preparation and the warm up in the morning.”

Krohn Racing