About in Racers <-> Olds and News

[a007apl]

http://www.italiaspeed.com/2004/moto...r_jonsson.html

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[kldconcept]

RELEASE IMMEDIATE 24 JULY 2004

The hard-working determination of the Krohn-Barbour Racing pit crew made it possible for the team’s two Lamborghini Murciélago R-GTs to participate in this afternoon’s timed qualifying runs for tomorrow’s Portland Grand Prix, fifth round of the American Le Mans Series, despite both cars sustaining damage in a freak double-accident earlier in the day.

Misfortune struck the two-car team twenty minutes into this morning’s one-hour practice session at Portland International Raceway, Oregon, when the number 6 Lamborghini of Tracy Krohn spun approaching the tight chicane on the Start/Finish straightaway. Team-mate David Brabham was following right behind in the number 5 Lamborghini and, when forced to brake hard, also spun. The gap between the stationary number 6 car and the concrete barriers was a little too narrow for the number 5 car to make it through. The Lamborghinis touched, Krohn’s car suffering mostly rear-end damage, Brabham’s taking its hardest knock at the front.

Krohn explained: “I got on the brakes and it just snapped away from me, quick as anything. It would’ve been OK but unfortunately there was some traffic around and David was right behind.�

Brabham commented: “The same thing that happened to Tracy happened to me; I’m as experienced [in racing] as anyone out there, and it caught me out too.�

There were those who doubted the cars would be repaired in time for the afternoon’s one-hour practice or 20-minute qualifying session, but not team manager Dick Barbour. “Just watch my guys,� Barbour said as the cars were brought to the team’s pit garage for repairs. “We’ll have ‘em back out there. Never say die.�

The number 6 car made it onto the track at the start of the afternoon’s one-hour practice session, the number 5 car was running 15 minutes later. In qualifying Krohn posted a best time on the 1.94-mile, 12-turn course of 1min 16.505sec, for fifth place in the GTS class. Brabham’s co-driver Peter Kox recorded a best lap of 1min 12.228sec for the number 5 car, fourth in GTS, despite having to guess which Pirelli tires would best suit the car because of lack of track time. The GM Racing Chevrolet Corvette of Olivier Beretta was fastest in GTS, setting a new record of 1min 9.981sec.

Krohn’s co-driver this weekend is Nic Jonsson, the 36-yer-old Atlanta-based Swede who scored his first-career victory in an SCCA SPEED World Challenge Touring Car race at Infineon Raceway, California, last weekend. Jonsson said: “I’m really excited about this drive. Krohn-Barbour Racing is a really professional team, Dick Barbour is a proven winner, and Lamborghini makes great cars. I know the car’s not yet had all the testing and development it needs, because it’s new, but it’ll be good experience for me.�

Sunday’s Portland Grand Prix, round five of nine in the ALMS, starts at 1pm local time and runs for two-hours 45-minutes.

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RELEASE IMMEDIATE 25 JULY 2004

BOTH LAMBORGHINIS FRUSTRATED IN CHASE FOR THIRD PLACE

Both Krohn-Barbour Racing Lamborghinis had third place in their sights in the hotly-contested GTS class in Sunday’s fifth round of the American Le Mans Series at Portland International Raceway, Oregon, but ultimately both were deprived of a finish.

After nearly two hours of the two-hour 45-minute Portland Grand Prix, the number 5 Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT of David Brabham and Peter Kox was chasing the Saleen S7R of Johnny Mowlem/Terry Borcheller for third place. But as Kox lapped the Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GTR of Timo Bernhard/Jorg Bergmeister on the inside line going into Turn One, the Porsche turned-in too early and hit the left rear corner of the Lamborghini, damaging its rear suspension and forcing retirement.

Kox said: “It’s a shame, because we were going really well, staying with the Saleen. We were working through traffic and when I came up behind the Porsche on the pits straight I flashed my headlamps several times. I was nearly all the way past, on the inside, and really thought it [the passing maneuver] was finished, when he hit me really hard.�

The surviving number 6 Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT of Tracy Krohn and Nic Jonsson could also see third place within its reach, after two hours and 22 minutes of racing, when the Saleen slowed by 25 seconds per lap with an engine problem. But Krohn had been experiencing gearbox downshift problems and these worsened on the lap that Jonsson took over the Lamborghini for the race’s final stint, forcing the Swedish driver to bring the car slowly to the pits and retirement.

Krohn said: “The gearbox was playing up on downshifts for some time, but it was always a mystery. Sometimes it’d go in, sometimes it wouldn’t. I tried doing the whole lap just in third and fourth, I tried going around in fourth and fifth. I couldn’t tell the team what was going on because we lost our [car-to-pits] radio. We also lost our [rear-view] camera. So I couldn’t shift, I couldn’t see - it was a pretty tough outing!�

Jonsson, who was standing-in for Scott Maxwell at this race, commented: “After I went out of the pits, I got up to third okay, then I couldn’t downshift. I got fourth and fifth on the back straightaway, then something else locked up.�

Of his first experience of the Lamborghini, which made its US racing debut just four weeks ago, Jonsson said: “The car was more physical than I thought it would be, especially the steering, but it’s very direct, very responsive. Krohn-Barbour Racing is very professional and the Lamborghini has huge potential. With a serious test program, it’ll be good.�

The Lamborghinis of Brabham/Kox and Krohn/Jonsson completed 103 laps and 91 laps respectively before halting; the third-placed Saleen ran 113 laps to the finish. The GM Racing Chevrolet Corvettes of Ron Fellows/Johnny O’Connell and Oliver Gavin/Olivier Beretta placed first and second in the GTS-class and third and fourth overall, on 135 and 133 laps.

The Portland Grand Prix was won outright by the Audi R8 of JJ Lehto/Marco Werner (141 laps) from the Lola EX257 of James Weaver/Butch Leitzinger (1min 8.446sec behind)

[SFDMALEX]

Anyone say R-GT?
I race one

[kldconcept]

:fadein:

[a007apl]

[a007apl]

http://www.italiaspeed.com/2004/moto...ing/ratel.html

[a007apl]

http://www.italiaspeed.com/2004/moto...l_preview.html

[a007apl]

http://www.americanlemans.com/home/index.aspx

[kldconcept]

:shock:

[68-998]

I have some picks of the Nations Cup Diablo. I'll see if I can find them and put them up somewhere. Got some pics of the green(!) 550 maranello as well.

[a007apl]

coll, add for we Your Lambos here

[kldconcept]

CANADIAN MAXWELL TO MAKE LAMBORGHINI DEBUT AT HOME TRACK

When the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) makes its only appearance of the season outside the United States this weekend, visiting Mosport International Raceway in Ontario, Canada, local driver Scott Maxwell will make his race debut in one of the two Krohn-Barbour Racing Lamborghinis.

Toronto-based Maxwell had hoped to start his season with Krohn-Barbour Racing six weeks ago, when the exciting new Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT made its US competition debut in round two of the ALMS at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on June 25-27, but he has been frustrated in his hopes of starting every one of the last four races.

Maxwell and his team-mate Tracy Krohn had to sit out the Mid-Ohio race, and round three at Lime Rock, Connecticut, one week later, because the Lamborghini was badly damaged in Friday practice at Mid-Ohio when a Porsche collided with it. The Lamborghini was rebuilt around a new chassis in time for round four at Infineon Raceway, California – but Maxwell found himself unable to get to the track because he was without an up-to-date ‘P1' visa to enter the United States. Maxwell's visa finally came through on Friday 23 July, the day of practice for that weekend's fifth round at Portland International Raceway, Oregon, but by then the team had enrolled Nic Jonsson as a one-off stand-in.

Forced to watch from the sidelines, Maxwell has seen ‘his' number 6 car achieve the best-ever result for the Lamborghini marque in an international-status auto race, when it placed second in the GTS class (to a Chevrolet Corvette) at Infineon Raceway on July 18. Krohn, participating in his first-ever ALMS race, shared the car that day with track instructor David McEntee.

Maxwell said: "It's somewhat apropos that I get to make my race debut in my own back yard. It's been a bit of a roller-coaster season for me because of the crash damage and then the visa problem out of the blue, so I'm excited that I'm finally getting to drive the car. I grew up at Mosport and know it really well, so the focus for me this weekend is going to be on getting to know the car. I'm looking forward to getting in and doing a good job.

"Mosport is perhaps the most challenging track we visit all year. It's very much the old-style road racing track in that it follows the terrain and it's kept its character over the years. It's very hilly and fast, with sweeping, blind corners. Good drivers tend to thrive there. You have to be smooth, keep momentum through the fast corners, and not be intimidated by the blind crests."

Maxwell is a past winner of the Mosport 24 Hours, and won two Canadian national single-seater championships early in his career. As a sports car racer, he has scored class victories in the Daytona 24 Hours, Petit Le Mans and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Krohn-Barbour Racing's number 5 Lamborghini will be driven as usual this weekend by Dutchman Peter Kox and English-based Australian David Brabham. Kox placed second in the GTS-class at Mosport last year, in a Prodrive Ferrari 550 Maranello; Brabham placed second-overall at Mosport in 1999 and 2001, driving for the Panoz factory team.

This Sunday's race will run for two-hours 45-minutes on the 2.459-mile, 10-turn Mosport road course near Bowmanville, starting at 12.00 noon (ET). CBS Sports is scheduled to televise the event from 1.00pm to 3.00pm (ET). Timed qualifying, to establish starting-grid positions, takes place Saturday, with practice on Friday.

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RELEASE IMMEDIATE 7 AUGUST 2004

KROHN-BARBOUR RACING CARS TO MISS SUNDAY’S RACE

Following this morning’s practice session for the sixth round of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) at Mosport International Raceway, Ontario, Canada, the Krohn-Barbour Racing team has taken the decision not to run its two Lamborghini Murciélago R-GTs in Sunday’s race.

In Friday’s and Saturday’s 90-minute and 60-minute practice sessions at Mosport, the cars of David Brabham/Peter Kox and Tracy Krohn/Scott Maxwell developed handling abnormalities which were found to be due to a partial and gradual deformation of the cars’ rear lower suspension wishbones. The cars’ straightline tracking was affected, requiring the drivers to hold the steering wheel off-center to drive in a straight line. If the cars were to continue running, the condition would likely worsen.

Team manager Dick Barbour explained: “We’ve made this decision only after a lot of careful consideration, and of course with regret. But I’ve been racing more than 25 years, and that’s long enough to know these kinds of things happen. The Mosport circuit is the most demanding we’ve been to yet, and the Lamborghini is a new race car that we only took delivery of six weeks ago. The early days of this program were always going to be a learning process, and today we’ve learned that one particular component needs modifying.

“The only place to manufacture that modification to the high standards that Krohn-Barbour Racing and Lamborghini would demand is back at the race shop. Unfortunately, that means this weekend we’ve had to take an early shower.�

The Krohn-Barbour Racing cars will return to action in the next round of the ALMS at Road America, Wisconsin, on August 20-22.