Krohn Racing is expecting to find improvements during the 24 Hours of Le Mans after struggling to set a competitive qualifying time.
The American squad, run by Greaves Motorsport, finished at the bottom of the LMP2 pile and lines up for today’s race 59th on the 60 car grid.
Adverse weather conditions greatly impacted the team’s qualifying plans, with Wednesday evening providing the only opportunity for dry running.
Swedish driver Nic Jonsson qualified the Krohn Racing car, setting a 3:45.213s lap, but heavy rain during the next two sessions prevented any improvement.
“With the rain we haven’t had a chance to try and put a time in,” said Jonsson. “The guys did a great job and we have the car back to where it was at the test day. So we have a car that we can race and a secure car to race, maybe it is not the fastest car but it is going to be consistent and that really counts in a 24 hour contest.”
Despite the lack of practice, the Krohn organisation remains optimistic ahead of the start of the race.
“During the Practice and Qualifying sessions we didn’t quite have the car that we wanted but at least we came away with a car that we can race with,” said team owner/driver Tracy Krohn.
“The rain has been an interesting factor for us, I got to stay out one lap too long on the intermediate tires. I discovered it was too wet and spun on the Mulsanne Straight, a couple of 360’s out there, but no real damage. The car was ready in time for the final Qualifying session so it wasn’t an issue. The team has really worked hard to get everything put together this week. We are very proud of Krohn Racing and Greaves Motorsport and I look forward to a very successful race.”
“It is really hard to predict what is going to happen in the race,” added Joao Barbosa, who is joining Krohn and Jonsson for Le Mans. “We didn’t have the smoothest of Practice and Qualifying. The weather conditions did not help either, but I think we made solid improvements during the time that we had on track. Our focus was not on Qualifying and we are a little further back than we expected; but I am sure we will have a good race.”
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