The contest was full of action right from the start, with the weather causing a safety-car start for most of the first hour, but then clearing for the duration.
The Krohn Racing Ligier JS P2 rose steadily through the order during the race and a top ten finish looked on the cards. However, contact from another competitor, who was later penalised and apologised to the team, forced the car to spend time in the garage for extensive repairs.
However the team rallied around to get the car back out on track to take the finish, demonstrating the sort of ‘endurance spirit’ that has always been associated with this race. Although the result isn’t what the team hoped for, the pace shown during the race against very high-quality opposition gives plenty of cause for optimism going into the coming rounds of the European Le Mans Series.
Tracy W. Krohn, Krohn Racing Team Owner/Driver: “I suppose it’s disappointing not to finish better, on the other hand it’s fantastic to be here, I always have to pinch myself to think that it’s real. Both Nic and João did a fantastic job, the team did a great job under stress, every time they were tested they performed perfectly. There were a couple of incidents with the car, so I gotta tell you that the Krohn Racing and Greaves Motorsport guys did a fantastic job. I’m just very happy that we finished the race and hopefully we’ll be back here next year.”
Nic Jönsson, Driver Krohn Racing: “We’ve had a lot of difficulties since we showed up here in practice, so we didn’t really get a chance to qualify properly. But the guys worked hard trying to get the issues we had corrected for the race and they did a phenomenal job. The car was transformed compared to where it was on Test Day. Towards the end of the race, when we got the right Michelin tires with all the pressures sorted out, we were running very competitive lap times – among the top five quickest cars. So I’m very pleased with the Krohn Racing effort this weekend, even if the result wasn’t what we were looking forward to or wanted. But I think we need to take the positives from this moving forward to the ELMS season. We do have the pace, the guys do phenomenal pitstops, so a big thank you to the Krohn Racing and Greaves Motorsport teams and Michelin for the whole week and all their hard work. We go home now for a few weeks then come back to Austria in good shape and go for a podium there.”
João Barbosa, Driver Krohn Racing: “After the very limited time we had in the practice sessions, it was really good to have some great weather to go racing here in Le Mans. It’s always good to be back and Krohn Racing did a great job in the race. The car’s been running better and better every time I’ve been in it and I’m getting more used to the car myself.”
Jeff Glover, Team Manager Krohn Racing: “Well, it was a challenging event. We had some contact brought on by a couple of other cars that sent us back to the garage for repairs. I’m proud of the team for the swiftness and accuracy of their work, and the car was good. Aside from those setbacks, the car was fast and all three of our drivers turned some great laptimes. Thanks to Michelin and the entire team including Greaves Motorsport who were very helpful. We’re proud to have finished our 11th Le Mans event in one piece and in a respectable position. We look forward to Austria ”
Lee Penn, Race Engineer Krohn Racing: “That was a very good race but I’m quite frustrated. The car was fast, the drivers were fast, but they made a couple of mistakes, which weren’t a big deal, but then we got collected by several cars. That cost us dearly, which was a real shame, because we’d started 58th and we were up to 18th at one point, but it was a great race and a real pleasure working with Tracy and the rest of the drivers.”
