
Krohn Racing owner/driver Tracy W. Krohn returns to the cockpit of the No. 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari F458 GTE-Am with co-drivers, Swede Nic Jönsson and Italian Maurizio Mediani for the penultimate round of the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship. All three drivers have driven the 16 turn, 5.451 km/3.387 mile Shanghai circuit, although it will be Mediani’s first actual race here and the second time for both Krohn and Jönsson.
All three drivers are motivated for a podium finish that has eluded the popular American team in this season’s WEC GTE-Am class. Although the desired class championship for 2013 is out of reach, the team that captured five podiums, including one second place finish and four third place finishes in 2012, feels a podium finish is still within their grasp.
TRACY W. KROHN, Krohn Racing Team Owner/Driver, No. 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari F458 GTE-Am: “I’m very happy to be returning to the Shanghai Circuit, which is a nice, top notch facility. It is a very technical track with long straightaways and long, sweeping corners with some banking and a fairly narrow track. Braking is important and it should be an interesting race, as it was last year.”
“All of the WEC circuits are world class. Some are newer and have more state-of-the-art facilities, like Austin and Bahrain, and others are real sports car classics like Spa and Sao Paulo. It is a good combination of old and new and I have really enjoyed racing at every one of them. They all provide exciting, solid racing for the fans and very challenging racing for the drivers, especially in the GT classes.”
NIC JONSSON, No. 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari 430 GTE-Am: “I’m definitely excited to go back to Shanghai and its fantastic facilities. The track is a world class facility with a F1 FIA grade A rating. It’s always fun to go back to a place where you have had success before and with a third place finish there in 2013 we are hungry and motivated to get on to the top of the podium this year.”
The 2013 season has been a challenging one for Krohn Racing. In 2012 the team saw five podium finishes – one second place and four thirds – in 8 races. What has made 2013 more difficult? “I believe the circumstance has been the biggest downfall for us this year. We are not really doing anything different from what we have done in the years past. We just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time lots of times this year. We have also had a little challenge to adapt to the new front bigger tire. It seem like the front tire has been a little too overpowering for the rear of the car so we have been fighting to get a good consistent balance of the car throughout the full race distance. But we keep working at it and the Krohn crew is working hard and are determined as ever to make sure we will get that ‘Mean Green Krohn Ferrari Machine’ back up on the podium in the last couple of races of the 2013 season.”
MAURIZIO MEDIANI, No. 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari F458 GTE-Am: “I never raced at Shanghai, but I did laps with the Ferrari 458 Challenge two years ago, while I was involved in the Ferrari program for APAC championship/instructor. The circuit will be very hard for front left tires because two corners are ‘spiral’ style after the starting straight and before the long back straight.”
“We absolutely want to close the season with a good result. I feel that we can and it is not important if we will race in the dry or wet, we have just to do it!!”
MARK SCHOMANN, Krohn Racing Race Engineer: “I am very confident in a good finish for us in Shanghai. We were right on pace in Fuji with the other 458s. The Astons and the Porsches had better qualifying times because they had soft tires and the Ferraris did not. Because of the temps that weekend it was a big advantage. Shanghai is a good track for the 458. The Astons have more power to pull out of the hairpin turn, but the rest of the circuit is good for us. We have made so many changes since last year that not very much of the data is helpful, except the gearing, which will be close to the same.”
From Krohn Racing press release
Photo: OYAMA-CHO (SHINOZUKA PREFECTURE, JAPAN), FUJI INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY, 6 HOURS OF FUJI, SUNDAY 20 OCTOBER 2013, RACE. (Krohn Racing).