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Thursday, 20 June 2013 09:11

Krohn Racing Completes Major Rebuild to Chassis in order to Turn Laps in Thursday Night Qualifying

Krohn Racing Completes Major Rebuild to Chassis in order to Turn Laps in Thursday Night Qualifying The Krohn Racing team completed an extensive rebuild of the No. 57 Ferrari GTE-Am car on Thursday, June 20th in preparation for the 24 Hours of Le Mans after team owner/driver Tracy W. Krohn suffered an accident in Wednesday's Free Practice.

A Ferrari 458 of the same specifications was located in Italy by Michelotto for lease to Krohn Racing for the 24 Hours of Le Mans after the Krohn chassis was determined to be too damaged for repair. The replacement car had to be stripped and rebuilt to ACO GTE-Am specification and the team did so expertly in exactly nine hours.

Krohn driver Maurizio Mediani, a 24 Hours of Le Mans rookie, had to complete a compulsory five laps in the night, which was fulfilled within the last 30 minutes of the final Qualifying Practice session of the night.

TRACY W. KROHN, Krohn Racing Team Owner/Driver, No. 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari F458 GTE-Am:
"The team did a fantastic job on getting the car together. We were very fortunate that everything came together at the very last minute. We were just getting ready to send the car out when we got a red flag in the session. That was unfortunate. Now we just need to wait to get approval from the Stewards to enter the race."

DAVID BROWN, Krohn Racing Team Manager/Race Engineer:
"Today was a busy day because last evening we had a very large accident in one of the corners after the Dunlop Bridge, which resulted in terminal damage to the chassis of our Ferrari 458. As a result of that, we had to source another identical specification car. With the help of our colleagues at Michelotto, we were able to secure a rental on an identical car, which, in fact, is in excellent condition from Northern Italy. It was put on a truck last night and driven overnight by a truck driver and mechanic, who were delivered with it. It arrived at 2:15 p.m. and having stripped the parts which we wanted from our existing car by the morning, we then set about converting the car we were leasing into a Krohn racing car. It was a very involved, lengthy and complicated process, particularly, as ever, on the electrical side. However, due to an outstanding effort on the part of the Krohn Racing mechanics and electrical and systems people, along with the help of Michelotto, and the mechanic and truckie from the team who leased the car to us, we managed to get the car on the track in exactly nine hours.

The car ran faultlessly. We still have some work to do tomorrow to finish its preparation for the 24 Hours race, which has particularly challenges over and above a normal six hour race. We're confident that having built the car that it will be a robust vehicle for the length of the race. We are now awaiting advice from the Stewards in regarding to the race on Saturday."