Le Mans France.  As the skies above delivered a variety of weather over the 24 hours of racing at Le Mans, there was joy and jubilation at the Ferrari 430 GT of Tracy Krohn, Colin Braun and Nic Jönsson finishing 2^nd in the GT2 class (19^th overall).

 The only Ferrari representatives on the GT2 podium included the youngest driver in the race, 18-year-old Colin Braun, who achieved this superb result under extremely challenging conditions on his debut at the world’s most famous sportscar race.  He was ably backed by Tracy W Krohn of Houston, Texas, and Nic Jönsson who performed brilliantly in the very worst of weather and track conditions. 

The final two hours of the race on Sunday were run under heavy rain, and over 45 minutes of the final hour saw the field parading behind a safety car.  Other than some quick repairs to the rear end of the car after Braun was hit by another (at just after 0600 hrs this morning), this car ran trouble free for the majority of the race. 

Colin Braun (the youngest ever driver to be podium placed at Le Mans):  “It was fantastic.  There was a sea of people underneath me on the podium and it was really neat.  To see the guys down there who had worked so hard during the whole race, and I feel bad for them they don’t get all the glory.  I had a great opportunity thanks to Tracy and Giuseppe.   

“For me, I’m going off to stock car racing now and this was the one shot I had to do Le Mans and for my first time here to get a podium is a pretty neat opportunity, I think, and it’s something I’m really happy with and proud of.  Everyone worked hard, and Tracy and Nic told me everything they knew about this race, and it was a really big team effort which all came off in the end.”

Tracy Krohn:  “It can’t be any better than this and if it is I just don’t know about it.  The drivers were fortunate enough to be in the car but the result doesn’t happen without a great team. We were fortunate enough that the car was very well prepared and we had almost no trouble at all, and it was just a superb day for us.  We had all kinds of weather conditions but the car was set up good for the wet as it was for the dry.  It handled properly all day long.  We had a couple of little incidents but we got through them and kept going and that’s largely as a result of the team.  All these guys are the ones that made it happen today.” 

Nic Jönsson:  “It was a fantastic day.  I race for Risi Competizione back in the States and for Krohn Racing in Grand Am too.  To be on the podium at the biggest sportscar event in the world is a very special feeling and to be able to drive here is wonderful. I’d been driving for 20 years and never able to make it to Le Mans before Tracy put the deal together for last year.  We didn’t have a very good race then but to finish this year…the car was great all day, everything was in place, the crew did a fantastic job to prepare the car.  It was as good the last hour as it was the first in the race which says a lot about the preparation.  I can’t say enough about the guys and how happy I am to be on the podium.  It will be in the history books and it’s very special.”

Photo credits:  Regis Lefebure/Risi Competizione