Krohn Racing has announced that João Barbosa will join their driver line-up for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June. He will be teammates with Tracy Krohn and Nic Jonsson at the 83rd running of the famous French endurance race.
This will be Krohn Racing’s tenth consecutive race at Le Mans, and also Krohn and Jonsson’s tenth year as teammates. 2015 will mark Barbosa’s eight race at La Sarthe.
With their new Ligier JS P2 Judd, Krohn Racing will enter the LMP2 class for the first time at the race, having previously used Ferraris or Porsches in GT classes. They have already scored three podiums at Le Mans, most recently in 2012. Last year, Ben Collins joined Krohn and Jonsson to finish tenth in their Ferrari 458 GTE-Am.
Barbosa has had a fantastic season already, currently leading the Tudor United SportsCar Championship, where he competes in the #5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP in the Prototype class. He won the Rolex 24 at Daytona twice, in 2010 and 2014. At Le Mans, he has raced seven times, with a best result of 4th in 2007 in the LMP1 class, and 3rd in 2011 in LMP2.
Currently, Krohn and Jonsson are competing in the European Le Mans Series this season, along side Ozz Negri Jr. in the LMP2 class.
“We want to welcome Joao Barbosa to our team for this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans,” said team owner/driver Tracy Krohn. “As you can imagine, we had a lot of interest from drivers to join us this year at Le Mans in the new Ligier-Judd. It’s a competitive package and a step-up up for our team. We’ve already shown a lot of strength in a short amount of time and hope we can do the same at Le Mans. Joao is a great addition because, although he’s not driven the Ligier, he has Le Mans experience and is a fierce and skilled competitor and will suit our team well. He won’t be able to join us at the Test due to his IMSA commitment with the race in Detroit, but we feel he’ll be able to get up to speed in the Ligier rather quickly, come race week.”
“I was very excited when I got the phone call with the invitation to drive at Le Mans with Krohn Racing,” said Barbosa. “I’m not only excited to be able to get back to Le Mans but also to join a top team with a great operation. This opportunity came about when I was talking with one of Krohn Racing engineers and how I would love to go back to Le Mans. He mentioned that there could be a possibility so we kept in touch and I just waited. I was thrilled when I received the phone call to join them. Although we’ve competed on the same circuit in America off and on over the years, I’m really looking forward to spend more time with Nic and Tracy to get to know them better. One of the exciting challenges will be to drive the Ligier for the first time. I’ve been racing against them in the IMSA TUDOR Championship so I will be able to have an inside look of how good car it is. From what I’ve seen it’s a great car, very competitive and I think the overall package will work very well at Le Mans.”
The next race for Krohn Racing will be the 4 Hours of Imola in ELMS on May 16/17 and then then 24 Hours of Le Mans will take place on June 13/14.
