Hey Nic Jonsson here again! I hope you all have had a good week. Personally I have had a very busy but great week since you last heard from me. My parents and other in-laws have gone back home to Sweden after visiting the last 3 weeks. It's great to have mom and dad around and see how much they enjoy their little grandson Max. It's difficult when they leave since you know it will be a while before you see them again. It's also hard to get Max back into the normal routine since they spoil him so much. "Great stuff"!!!!
Last weekend was the short race (2 hour) at the Watkins Glen together with the NASCAR print Cup series. It's always great to run the same weekend as those guy's since we get a chance to showcase Sports car racing at it's best for a new fan base. We at Krohn Racing came to this race with high hopes after having a had a good race in Barber a few weeks ago with a 5th place finish despite a drive through penalty late in the race. Practice did not really boost our hopes very much since we were well off the pace and was fighting the same thing we have all year...a big under steer. In the corners you spend a lot of time in and/or leading on to the long back straight. We changed the car around and got it better so we know we were heading in the right direction. So for Qualifying, we made a few more changes and improved the car but ended up qualifying a very disappointing 9th. We had one more session before the race so we decided to try something different that we had not tried all weekend and this made the car better and we felt some hope again. For the race you really need to make sure you don't run too much down force so that you don't killed in the back straight away. We came up with a down force level we thought would be good and made mechanical changes to the car accordingly to compensate for the aero we took off the car.
The race began and I had a good start moving up from 9th to 6th on the first lap and was able to run with the top group and battle it out with the 5th and 4th place car. When we were getting into traffic, we had to be a little careful especially this early in the race so we did not damage the car. Traffic is one of those things you have to be patient with because you can catch a slower car at a place where you will lose time and ground to the car in front. But for the most part, the next time you will have the advantage and be able to catch back up. Unfortunately for me and the Krohn team, one of the slower Porsche cars opened the door for me to go by between turn 10 and 11 but decided at the very last moment to tuck down on the inside when I already had committed and was halfway up along his car. We had slight contact that sent him into the wall in turn 11 and I ending up with a drive through penalty. Since we had a very good car, we took the penalty and came back out with no traffic ahead and I was able to run a really good pace and make up some lost ground to get the car back up in the top 5 before it was time for me to hand the car over to my co-driver, Ricardo Zonta.
Ricardo did a great job as well as the Krohn crew of fueling and putting new tires on. We had a strategy that no one else was on so Ricardo was able to make it up to 3rd place before we decided to pit 57 minutes from the end under green flag conditions. We knew we could go 58 minutes on a tank of fuel so we were good to go the distance. This put us back to 7th place before we were able to move up in the top five again and we were hoping that the cars in front of us had to pit for fuel before the end as well. One after another, they started to peel off when we got inside the last 30 minutes of the race. One team started to slow their pace and hoping to be able to save enough fuel to go to the end if they got another caution period, that yellow flag came about 20 minutes from the end. They still needed to pit so we inherited the lead with about 20 minutes to go with the 01 car right behind us. Our car was very good on long runs so we knew if we could hold them off on the restart and the first few laps that we would have a good shot at it and we did. Ricardo did a great job of defending first position and we celebrated our 2nd victory of the year!
This was our first win in dry conditions with our Ford powered Proto Auto LOLA chassis. To win one in the dry conditions proves that the car has the speed and potential to win races and be a contender for the Championship next year. The Krohn team has done a fantastic job with all the development on this car. It's been a long and challenging path at times but really sweet and rewarding standing on top of that podium seeing the smile on the Krohn Racing crew faces.
This win was also very special for me since I had my dad in from Sweden to watch me race that weekend. My dad has not been to many races since I stopped racing in Europe. Also, he has not been with me in the "WINNER CIRCLE" since I won races back in Europe many years ago. It was great to see his face full of excitement and for us to be able to experience this together again meant a lot to me as well. Without his commitment and support along with my mom and brother early in my career, I would not be where I am today.
Be safe, your friend, Nic
