JONSSON: Watkins Glen Debrief

This past weekend, Krohn Racing was back on American soil at Watkins Glen for the Six Hours of The Glen. This racetrack and event brings back some great memories for me and my teammate, Tracy Krohn.

 

We had our first race win together at The Glen in 2005 in a Daytona Prototype at a very rainy and exciting race. We were able to pass for the lead about 30 minutes from the end and we never looked back. Another win came in 2009 on the short course at Watkins Glen, so as you can imagine, I have many great memories from this very historic track.

This time was a little different, however, since we just got back to the States from the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and then we also stopped at Magny-Cours in France for a LMP2 test on our way to Watkins Glen.

This time was also the very first time we’ve raced at The Glen in a GT car, but we came prepared with our Ferrari 458 to compete in the GTLM class.

Being the only privateer in the GTLM category, it makes for a great challenge, but at the same time it is extremely competitive and difficult to race against all the factory cars.

We unloaded for the weekend with a fairly well balanced car and we decided not to worry too much about ultimate lap times but instead focus on the balancing of the race car. We kept working on the race setup and ended up with a well-balanced and consistent car.

Tracy and I had decided to race the six hours just with he and I in the car, so I was selected to start with a double stint. Normally this is never a problem, but it was very hot and humid so it was quite a work out being in for that long,

The Glen is also a pretty physical track with lots of fast, sweeping, high G-load corners that really never give you a chance to rest. Unfortunately, we had a little bit of a mishap at the first pit stop when one of the front wheels rolled across the pit lane and resulted in a stop and 20 second penalty.

This put us a lap down and the opportunity for a great result, such the one in Sebring this year, was gone. However, we had a very good race car and ran a competitive race pace that made us feel good about the job we had done in practice getting the car balanced for the race.

We were also very proud of the effort by our Krohn crew, who had prepared a safe and reliable car for us in such a short time after Le Mans.

Even if we were not able to repeat our wins from 2005 and 2009, we were happy to have the opportunity to be back and compete at such a great facility and track as Watkins Glen.

Next stop for us with the Krohn Racing Ferrari will be at Circuit of the Americas, our home track in Austin, in the middle of September.

Until then, take care of each other and I hope to see you all there.