A 'virtual' podium for Krohn Racing
The Krohn Racing team built on their success at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in scoring another podium finish, but this time by default, following the exclusion of Larbre from second place in class. This podium was quite unexpected after two incidents with LMP1 cars where the green and blue Ferrari was involved, resulting in penalties for both prototypes.
Honours in qualification went to Michele Rugolo, who took fourth in class on the grid and it was in the same position that the Ferrari crossed the finish line in a double stint for Niclas Jönsson. The disqualification of Larbre helped the team based in Braselton, a few miles from the Road Atlanta circuit, to score points for third place in the championship, and thus to keep their second place in the Am LMGTE class.
David Brown, Team Manager/Race Engineer: “The car was fast. However, we suffered at the hands of the prototype cars three times during the race. Twice Tracy was pushed completely off the track by prototype cars. We incurred some minor damage but we lost a lot of ground recovering from being knocked off the track after being hit. We ended up in fourth position. Nic did the last two stints very quickly, as Michele had driven earlier in the race – very quickly and consistently, but we weren’t able to make up the deficit that had been handed to us by the incidents. While we are disappointed to be fourth, and we are disappointed, we know that it is only halfway through the season. We’re looking forward to going to Sao Paulo, and not prevented from demonstrating our performance by impact from prototype cars.”
Michele Rugolo: "I’ll describe the race in three words – car was quick! Like always, we had many contacts with prototypes. Tracy spun two times because of that but even though they penalize the other cars, they don’t give us back our race so this is the result. We are all really disappointed because when the car is quick and we are performing well, we should be able to achieve the result, but these are races. We are still second in the championship. We are in the exact middle of the season because Le Mans is double points so it’s becoming really difficult.”
The quotes, which come from the team press release were collected prior to the announcement of the exclusion of Larbre. I bet that the third place they were handed will have soothed the hearts of the team members who will want to show what they are capable of at the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo on the 15th of September.
Dave Davies (quotes from team press release)
Photo: TOWCESTER (NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, ENGLAND) SILVERSTONE CIRCUIT, 6 HOURS OF SILVERSTONE, Sunday, August 26, 2012, RACE.