6-3-2007

6-3-2007 - Colin has fun at LeMans Pre Qualifying

LeMans France - Colin had his first laps ever at the famed LeMans track today in the pre qualifying event held before the actual race weekend. All teams entered in the 24 hour race attend the pre qualifying day to test the cars and give the drivers time in the car.

Risi Competizione and Krohn Racing teamed up to prepare the Ferrari 430 for Colin, Tracy Krohn and Nic Joinsson. After technical inspection and drivers meetings they were ready to go for Sunday.

Colin got about 18 laps on the 8.4 mile long track. He was able to run a 4:08.0 lap for his best. Nic Jonsson did a 4:07.6 lap and Tracy was in the 4:12 range. The team decided to run race set ups and full fuel tanks with the hard tires to simulate race conditions. many teams made qualifying runs on soft tires and light tanks.

The #99 ended up 7th in the 14 car GT2 class. Colin said the track was very fun and fast. There were many crashes during the day and Colin said he just wanted to learn the track and be able to prepare for the race weekend June 16-17.

TEAM PRESS RELEASE.......................

In the only official test session to be held at the Le Mans circuit in France before the 24 Hour race in 13 days time, the Houston-based Risi Competizione team, in association with Krohn Racing, also of Houston, Texas, today ran through a full and thorough test program and pronounced itself very satisfied with the way in which the day had gone.

Nic Jönsson’s best time of 4:07.529 placed the Krohn green car 7^th in the GT2 category. Eighteen-year-old Colin Braun was making his debut at the famous La Sarthe track – the only one of the six drivers not to have driven at Le Mans before, and he sported a wide grin after completing his mandatory ten timed laps.

DRIVER QUOTES:

Colin Braun: “It was a lot of fun. This track is a difficult place to learn but a lot of fun, and with a lot of character to it so it was neat to do the 20 or so laps that I did. I really enjoyed the day and we Krohn Racing drivers worked well with our engineer, Mark Schomann, to get the car running pretty good. I’m excited about our chances for the race. Tracy has done a great job and was running some good lap times so we’re going to have a good shot.”

Nic Jönsson: “I’m very pleased. I talked before the session with Mark, our engineer, about race set up and we’ve been running full tanks all day and trying different tire combinations so things are good. I know we’re 7^th in the middle of the field, but if we go out with low tanks and new tires I’m sure we’d be in the top three or four. For Colin, who’s here for the very first time, it’s been great and he’s been getting up to speed well. For Tracy it’s been fantastic – he’s about 6 seconds a lap faster this year than last – so if we can continue like this and stay out of trouble in the race we’ll be in good shape.”

Tracy Krohn: “Today was a great day. I’m definitely much quicker than I was last year and the car is going well. I don’t think we had the right tires on it in the last stint there, but I’m very pleased and looking forward to next week.”