Sunday, 29 January 2012 16:56

2012 Rolex 24 at Daytona 12 Hour Race Report

2012 Rolex 24 at Daytona 12 Hour Race Report The No. 76 Krohn Racing Proto-Auto Lola Ford of Tracy W. Krohn, Nic Jönsson, Colin Braun and Ricardo Zonta was in fifth position at the 6-hour mark. Since that point, the four Krohn Racing drivers have been driving steadily pacing through the laps.

Colin Braun was the driver at the 6-hour mark and drive through his two schedules stint before turning the car over to Tracy Krohn. Krohn had a good, steady run for a single lap before giving driving duties to Nic Jönsson nearly at the right-hour mark, in P-7. Nic's two stints were rather uneventful and he brought the car in at 1:00 a.m. ET for Ricardo Zonta. A front brake pad change was added to the team's regular fuel and tires pit stop agenda before Zonta began his stint.

At the 3:00 a.m. Mark Zonta radioed the team to say he had a driveshaft problem and was going straight to the garage. He had been in seventh place and brought the car to the garage on Lap 352. It took a lengthy one hour and five minute pit stop to change the entire rear end of the car. Colin Braun took the back out just before 4:15 a.m. ET.

Colin Braun, driver of the No. 76 Krohn Racing Proto-Auto Lola Ford:
"My stint was very exciting and eventful. We started out in the Top 5, then we ended up passing the outside of a GT car and somehow he spun out into my tire. I had to limp back around which got us down a lap. We were able to get that lap back with good strategy by the team. We were able to get back into contention into the Top 5 and even the top for a little bit. It's just tough because the new cars have so much straight-line speed compared to what we have. You have got to use the traffic and try everything to keep them behind. But we're keeping our goal of staying on the lead lap and taking care of our stuff. Unfortunately, we had to get hit by that GT car but sometimes that happens in racing."

Tracy W. Krohn, owner/driver of the No. 76 Krohn Racing Proto-Auto Lola Ford:
"The car is actually pretty good. But if you just get a little bit offline it's real loose in the back and that takes awhile to overcome. Mainly the biggest problem is the GT cars and the lines getting tighter and tighter. Actually I was pretty satisfied with my stint. The only really troublesome thing was a couple of GTs running out in the middle of the track. That's always scary because you don't know which way to go."

Ricardo Zonta, driver of the No. 76 Krohn Racing Proto-Auto Lola Ford:
"I was trying to keep my pace in front of the leader because at the time we were getting a yellow and I was hoping to get back the lap I was down. But on the last three laps before the yellow, I got a GT car on the "bus stop". He was really slow. The leader was about three seconds behind and he caught me straight after the "bus stop". In three laps was the yellow flag so we could not get back the lap. We were still one lap down. Now in the end I was trying to keep my pace to help for a yellow flag again. Then had a driveshaft problem, where we lost complete power from the wheels to the engine."

David Brown, Team Manager/Race Engineer of the No. 76 Krohn Racing Proto-Auto Lola Ford:
"The car came in because it only had one drive shaft operating because the joint failed on the right hand inboard driveshaft. We're not exactly sure why, so we changed the backend, which is everything from the engine backwards. It's now got different rear suspension and a different gearbox on it. It takes a long time to change the backend of the car. It's very complex."

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