After a rain-delayed practice on Thursday night that saw all three drivers complete the required five laps, Krohn Racing took to the 3.4-mile Texas circuit on Friday for the 25-minute qualifying session in fairly dry track conditions.
The GTE-Am class qualifying saw the Krohn Racing Ferrari F458 start the session on slick tires. With a light drizzle on the front straight and temperatures in the high-70s, Krohn Racing driver Nic Jonsson started the session and drove for four laps before handing the No. 57 Ferrari over to teammate and Krohn Racing team owner Tracy W. Krohn with a little over 12 minutes left in the session.
Krohn completed seven laps during his qualifying stint. Per FIA WEC regulations, the two best lap times from each of the two qualifying drivers were averaged together, giving a best time of 2:13.349 between Krohn and Jonsson and securing the eighth GTE-Am starting position.
TRACY W. KROHN, Krohn Racing Team Owner/Driver, No. 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari F458 GTE-Am:
"One of the things we were trying to do is get a better balance on the car, so even though it was a little slippery out there, the car balance was much better. I'm satisfied with the balance of the car and I think everybody else will be. The top of the hill was sort of slippery and I never quite got it right but overall the car was very good. The times were inconsequential because we had been so far behind on getting the balance of the car since we've been here so it was just nice to know that we're set now. This is the best the car has been."
NIC JONSSON, Driver, No. 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari F458 GTE-Am:
"Conditions were a little challenging when I went out and it was wet from basically turns seven to 11, which made it difficult so we didn't have a whole lot of confidence in the rest of the corners because there was rain on the windshield. The track wasn't slippery in most places. Because of all this, we were overly cautious, which made us lose out on a good bit of time, but I'd much rather have that than a car in the wall on qualifying. With a six-hour race, it doesn't really matter where you qualify so I think we have a really good race car. We've been working on that the last couple of days and have a really balanced race car to start tomorrow, so we'll work hard and try to work ourselves up through the field."
HAYDEN BURVILL, Krohn Racing Engineer:
"Typically we use qualifying as an opportunity to give Tracy more track time and, as always, when there are less cars on track he can get better quality track time and we did that again today. Unfortunately, it started raining just before the session, so Nic's time is not really representative of the car's performance. The track was drying for Tracy but the car was good enough for him to have the confidence to go the fastest he's been in a drying track condition. The work we've done on the car since practice has paid off. I'm glad we have a competitive race car now, particularly one that may work in mixed conditions in the race tomorrow afternoon. The forecast looks like it may be raining earlier in the race and potentially drier in the darkness, so I believe we've got a car that's suitable for that now."
The FIA WEC Six Hours of Circuit of The Americas will be televised live on FOX Sports 2. Coverage will begin on September 20 at 6:00 p.m. EDT for the start and carry through the checkered flag at midnight EDT. It will mark the first FIA WEC round, other than the 24 Hours of Le Mans, to be televised live in North America.
