Hi Nic Jonsson here again! Wow, where do I start...this was a race filled week for me! I raced in the KONI Challenge series on Saturday afternoon with Kinetic Motorsports, a team I share ownership in. I then raced in the Rolex series with the "mean green Krohn machine" on Sunday with Krohn Racing so my buns got some seat time!
To start, the KONI race was a real challenge for us at Kinetic. We ran 5 cars, all in GS. We ran two new BMW E92 M3's and three of the E46 model. Three of our cars qualified in the top 10 which was a great result for us! We also led several laps in the race with two different cars. Unfortunately, I was penalized with a stop and go while being in the lead after the officials claimed I had jumped the start during a restart. With all the pit stops and all the strategy planning done in different ways, our final results were all under the top 20 in class. We finished 7th, 13th and 15th. Two cars suffered suspension failure but finished 16th and 19th. It's a real challenge to run five cars but all the crew did a fantastic job all week and we managed to survive with a big "Gold Star".
We also introduced a rookie this week, a New Jersey native, Frankie Montecalvo, who did a fantastic job! It's always great to see new, young talent come into our sport and do well. We are looking forward to working with Frankie and watch him progress for the remainder of this season and beyond.
Sunday came around and it was time for me to put my Krohn driver hat on. The weather was exactly what had been promised since we arrived on Thursday...RAIN, and lots of it! That New Jersey track is called Thunderbolt Raceway so I think Sunday's weather was fitting. We started out with a good first practice session in semi-wet conditions but were struggling a little bit in the dry conditions until the qualifying session where we ended up with the 4th fastest time. The engineers changed a lot on the car before qualifying and were able to get the car handling well. It's always a big advantage if you can start in front, not only for the obvious reason but especially in wet conditions since the spray behind other cars is so significant that it's very hard to see ANYTHING! Really, it's almost zero visibility behind another car.
I got a good start and up to 3rd in the first turn before the yellow came out because two cars got together in turn one. We decided to pit and get our mandatory stop within the first 45 minutes out of the way. We rejoined the field in 8th place when we went back to green. I was told to just get settled in and run a good pace. I ran with a big safety margin since it was still very early in the race. I was able to work my way up to 4th in the next few laps before the next yellow came out. At this time, two of the cars in front of me pitted and I was second when we went back to green. I was able to overtake the #10 car going into turn one (obviously a good passing spot!) and managed to open up a comfortable lead from the rest of the field. Another "Caution" came out about 30 minutes later but we stayed out and after going green again, I was able to open up a good lead. About 1 ½ hours into the race, officials decided to throw a yellow flag for track inspection since cars were going off-track while just going in a straight line. This was due to a lot of standing water and made it very difficult to drive safely. I really think this was a great call by Grand-Am to put safety first. We then decided to take that opportunity to pit and put my co-driver, Ricardo Zonta behind the wheel. One problem we were having most of the race was with our communications. I lost radio transmission about 30 minutes into the race so not only were we battling weather issues, we were dealing with this as well...it certainly made for an interesting ride! Luckily, we had previously discussed in our race strategy meeting that we wanted to pit as soon as we got within the fuel window to make it to the end...timing is everything so that worked out well! After the pit stop, this put us back to 6th position but Ricardo did a great job working the field and took over the lead with about 45 minutes left in the race and never looked back! Our first win in years, we couldn't be more excited!!!!!
I have to say, this was a pure team effort! It has been so much hard work put in by the entire Krohn team to develop this Proto Auto Lola since the day we received it. We have had some hardships and bad luck over the past year but this win helped heal some of that. Everyone from our office staff back home in Atlanta to the management and owner, Tracy Krohn, has a huge part in this win. My first win in the Rolex series came at the 6 hours of Watkins Glen in 2005 driving together with Tracy...also under very raining conditions. It's very emotional for us at Krohn Racing to take our first victory with the Proto Auto Lola chassis powered by Ford. I've been with Tracy and the Krohn team from the day Krohn Racing was formed and it's very special for me to be part of this history making day.
Now that we have won our first race with this car, we need to keep working hard and developing this set up. We're off to Laguna Seca in two weeks and as you know, you're only as good as your last race so it's time to refocus and keep looking ahead...although we are all enjoying this sweet victory for now. I would to say a special "thank you" to the whole team and to Tracy for given us the opportunity to finally get this first win with the new Proto Auto Lola Chassis.
On a personal note, when I called home after the race my wife told me that my 21 month old son, Max, had been standing in front of the TV and my face showed up during an interview and he started shouting "Daddy". I was already emotional from winning the race and now hearing this...I have to admit, it really made it hard to fight back the tears...all around, it was a day I won't forget!
I can't end this blog without saying another huge "thank you!!" to all the fans, those that came out to the race last weekend and endured the weather. To those that have written me on my Facebook page, my website, text and called saying congrats and showing your support. I can't express enough how much that means to me and makes me appreciate even more the job that we do. Without our race fans, we (as drivers) could not fulfill this passion for the sport of racing we all have.
Until next week stay safe and dry!
Your friend,
Nic
