Hey there, Nic Jonsson here. Now that we have reached the mid-point of this race season, we at Krohn Racing have changed our goals for the remainder of this season. We've had a lot of up and downs, with the highs being the win at New Jersey in the rain and our 2nd place finish at Mid-Ohio a couple of weeks ago. Without getting into too many details about our lows, so far this season I have to say it was the 24 hour race in Daytona. That was the biggest disappointment for us since we had a good, fast race car and had been preparing for months with the crew working very hard back home over the winter. But that's the way racing goes sometimes. just look at the big boys in F1, Ferrari and McLaren from dominating the last 10 years to hardly taking any points this year. That is an indication of how hard it is and that you also have to have a little luck. I'm a firm believer that you make your own destiny but there is some stuff you just can't control and fall victim to.
Well on to something more positive, it was great to have Eric and Tracy back in the # 75 Proto-Auto Lola in Daytona and having them bring home a good result for the team. This weekend we will be at Barber Motorsports Park for the next round of the Rolex and KONI Championship.
This is without a doubt one of the greatest and most well-kept facilities in the country. All the surroundings are beautiful along with a fantastic motorcycle museum at the track. The track offers a lot of elevation changes, blind entries, slow and fast speed corners along with some really nice flowing turns. This is a track that every driver enjoys especially since it's a very technical track with many different ways of taking a corner. Even though the track is rather narrow, it still offers good passing possibilities. This is a place where you want to run as much down force as possible on the car as long as you can balance the front and rear for both hard braking and mid-corner speed. The straights here are not the type of straights where you're going to out drag anyone because you have more power. To pass someone on the straights you have to make sure you come off the previous corner really well and can get to power as early as possible. A very important thing here is to have a good, positive front end of the car so you can get the car turned and pointed to get back on the power.
Another important element is the braking. At Barber, you need to have a stable rear end since you are braking into several corners going downhill. This will make the rear even lighter under braking than on a flat braking zone. The weight transfer you have in the car braking downhill makes a big difference so if you can have the car calm and stable here, you will be able to turn and attack the corners harder and get back to the power earlier and easier. I'm very excited to be racing back at Barber and am hoping for a great weekend for the Krohn Racing Proto-Auto Lola.
On the Kinetic Motorsports side in the KONI Challenge, we are racing 3-GS and 1-ST car. Even though I'm not racing myself, I'm still going to be watching and paying very close attention to how my team does. This race is also going to be very hot and the key will be to stay hydrated and make sure we stay cool and not lose focus when it's time to go racing.
Until next week, have a good one!
Your friend, Nic
