This Week in Ford Racing: Krohn Racing

Dearborn, Mich. — Sunday, Krohn Racing won their first Grand-Am Rolex Series race of the 2009 season at a rain soaked New Jersey Motorsports Park. Nic Jonsson and Ricardo Zonta, drivers of the winning No. 76 Proto-Auto Ford Lola along with team owner Tracy Krohn talked with This Week in Ford Racing about what the win means for the team and their hopes for the rest of the season.

NIC JONSSON – NO. 76 PROTO-AUTO LOLA FORD-- CONGRATULATIONS ON WHAT WAS A VERY WILD AND WET WIN SUNDAY IN NEW JERSEY.“Thank you very much. It was a wild and wet Sunday in Jersey as you said. It’s been a victory we’ve been looking for, for a long time ever since we’ve started running the Proto-Auto Lola in Homestead last year. We’ve been very close a few times last year, but the luck really hasn’t been there with us. This weekend everything seemed to fall right in place and we were able to climb to that top step on the podium.”

HOW TOUGH WAS IT? THERE WAS A DOWNPOUR FOR A WHILE AND LOT OF TEAMS WERE HOPING THEY WOULD RED FLAG IT BUT THEY DIDN’T. FINALLY THE RAIN SLOWED DOWN AND YOU GUYS WERE ABLE TO MOTOR ON AND HAD A COMMANDING VICTORY.“Yeah, you’re right. In the middle of the race there, it actually started pouring down quite heavily. They actually put the pace car out at one point and we ran behind the pace car under yellow for about 20-25 minutes just because they wanted to do a track inspection. I think that was a very good move on Grand-Am’s part because it got very treacherous out there about an hour into the race with that whole track basically floating underneath the water. Even with the treacherous conditions, the Proto-Auto Lola Ford ran really well for us the whole day.”

IT’S THE SECOND YEAR FOR KROHN RACING WITH THE LOLA CHASSIS AND NOW YOU’VE BROUGHT THE FORD ENGINES ON BOARD SO IT’S REALLY STILL AN ADJUSTMENT YEAR FOR THE TEAM.“Yeah it is, last year was a real development year for us because we ran a different power plant. This year we felt we got the car a little bit more competitive and it was time to make a move on the engine side and we decided to go with the Ford power plant this year. We have had great support from the Roush-Yates power plant team and it’s been a great step forward. I feel like we have a very competitive package and we should be able to contend for more wins this year hopefully.”

I THINK AT THE END OF LAST YEAR THAT IT WAS VERY NOTICEABLE THAT THE MACHINES POWERED BY THAT ROUSH-YATES FORD ENGINE WERE REALLY UP AT THE FRONT OF THE PACK. THEY WERE COMPETING EVERY WEEKEND FOR A VICTORY, IF NOT BEING VICTORIOUS.“Absolutely. John Maddox, who was in charge of that whole Roush-Yates Ford engine program for the Grand-Am Series has done a fantastic job. We actually ran the Ford power plant back in ’06, so we’re not completely new to the engine but I think that’s one reason we went back to that because we had a working relationship with Roush-Yates and John in the past, and had a very good experience. So far everything seems to have worked very well.”

WE’RE VERY EARLY IN THE SEASON FOR THE GRAND-AM ROLEX SERIES BUT DO YOU FEEL THAT YOU’RE COMPETITIVE ENOUGH AND ALL THE PIECES ARE FALLING INTO PLACE THAT YOU AND RICARDO ZONTA CAN COMPETE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP AND HAVE A VERY GOOD SHOT AT WINNING THE TITLE?“I have no doubts that we have the package, the strength and the speed in our team to compete for the championship. Unfortunately we started out with a DNF in Daytona and VIR the first two events. At VIR it was because of contact and in Daytona because of a mechanical failure, so we fell pretty far behind in points in the first two events. Now with a win this past weekend at New Jersey, hopefully we’re back in the hunt. If one of the teams who did really well in the first two events will have bad luck we’ll be right back in it. I definitely think we have the package, we have the team and the line up to definitely be up there running for the victory every week and hopefully that will be enough for the championship as well.”

To read the rest of this interview please visit: http://www.fordracing.com/news/detail/?article=36336