Ninth and Nineteenth at Barber
Krohn Racing / TRG drivers Christian Fittipaldi and Jörg Bergmeister were leading the race, and nearly claimed their first Grand American Rolex Series win of 2005, until they had to make a pit stop for fuel with four laps to go in the caution-filled Porsche 250 Presented by Bradley Arant - at Barber Motorsports Park on July 31. The Brazilian and German were able to bring the car home in ninth. Teammates Nic Jönsson and Tracy Krohn finished 19th.

Starting from the outside of row one, Fittipaldi had to make a pit stop just 11 laps into the race, as his number 66 Krohn Racing / TRG / Pontiac Riley had smoke coming from the rear of the car.

“In the beginning of the race we had too much oil in the engine,” Fittipaldi said explaining the reason for the early unscheduled pit stop. “The car started burning and fumes were coming from the back of the car. They [the Grand Am officials] were going to black flag me. So, we took the opportunity to make a pit stop and put Jörg in the car and try to run him as much as we could.”

With Bergmeister behind the wheel, he put on an impressive driving display, steadily making his way through the field, while trying to pick up some of the positions they had lost due to the early pit stop. By the time Bergmeister got out of the car on caution lap 36 for Fittipaldi’s next stint, the number 66 car had moved up to 13th.

“It was pretty tough to pass here,” Bergmeister said. “There are only two spots that really work. One is in the hairpin and the other is in the last corner. You can go to the inside and dive in there, which is pretty hard because after a while guys know you are coming. It was pretty interesting out there. The traffic was really bad.”

Fittipaldi needed only 17 laps to take over the lead on lap 53, a position he would hold for the next 39 laps around the 2.3-mile, 16-turn circuit. The last four laps of the race would prove to be the most crucial of the race. With Fittipaldi leading, he had to pit because the car was low on fuel and this untimely pit stop kept Fittipaldi and Bergmeister out of victory circle.

“That is how the race went,” Fittipaldi said, expressing his frustration. “It definitely wasn’t our day today. We had the quickest car out there the whole weekend, but we lost the race and that is what counts at the end of the day.”

“You wouldn’t believe how slow I was going toward the end to conserve fuel. I couldn’t go any slower than that because if I did Max [Angelelli] would go by me. We hoped that another yellow would come out [late in the race] and I would keep my track position and then I could beat him to the end. But, obviously that wasn’t the case and we had to stop about four laps from the end. Then, when we did a short [pit] stop, I don’t know what happened but we had a small problem with the fuel system or something because we ran out of fuel on the last lap.”

“We were good up front again,” co-team owner Kevin Buckler said. “This [No. 66] car has been leading so many laps this year. It looked like we had a little bit of an oil leak or an overfill problem early on. We had to come in and that put us out of sequence. We just needed that extra couple of laps at the end, which we didn’t get. The guys drove really well.”

Krohn and Jönsson both had a tough day in the number 67 Krohn Racing / TRG / Pontiac Riley, as Krohn was penalized one-minute by Grand Am officials for making contact with the number 5 Ford Crawford in turn 5. At that point, Krohn came in for a pit stop and Jönsson got into the car on caution lap 43. But, shortly after the race went green on lap 48, Jönsson was stopped on course in turn three without power to his Daytona Prototype.

“There were a lot of yellow flags today,” Krohn explained, of his stint in the car. “It takes about three laps to get the tire pressure up on this particular car. So, just about the time you get the tires warmed and get out from under traffic, it is about time for another yellow. I had some contact with the No. 5 car going into turn five. I felt like he kind of short braked me, but I barely tapped him and turned him around. It wasn’t anything intentional. In fact, I went over and talked to him. So, they [Grand Am officials] gave me a one-minute penalty when we came in.”

“Tracy did a really nice job hanging in there on the lead lap for the first hour or so,” Jönsson said. “Then we decided to try for one [pit] stop. So, we left him in the car until around lap 40. If it wasn’t for the two yellows we could have made it to the end [on pit strategy].

“We were coasting around for about five or six laps trying to save fuel, then when the race went green [on lap 48] going into turn one I got back on the power and the engine just died. We’ve been trying to figure out what went wrong and we can’t find the problem. The fuel pressure is totally gone. The engine just died and I had to park it. I believe that we had a pretty decent car. We just have to hope for better luck at the next race at Watkins Glen.”

Pontiacs GTO.Rs Fourth and Fifth
The mantra for the day at Barber Motorsports Park was consistency, as TRG teammate drivers Marc Bunting / Andy Lally and Paul Edwards / Jan Magnussen brought their Pontiac GTO.Rs home in fourth and fifth, respectively, in round eight of the Grand American Rolex Series Porsche 250, presented by Bradley Arant.

After qualifying the number 65 TRG / Pontiac GTO.R eighth in the GT class, Bunting drove a consistent race, moving up several positions, before his teammate Lally got in the car for his stint on lap 46. Lally continued where his teammate left off, eventually bringing the car home in fourth.

“The track was getting greasy and there was a lot of debris out there,” Bunting said of his time in the car. “The car was great and we were staying consistent. We were picking up some debris from the track and it was making it push a little bit. But, other than that the car was well prepared, easy to drive and I didn’t even know it was hot out there. It [the car] was pretty much what we expected.”

“One of the nice things this team has done with this car is they have given us a really consistent piece,” Lally added. “Right now we just have to work on getting a little more speed out there and then we will be able to keep up with the BMWs and the Porsches. The team is doing a great job putting together a really solid car. I’ve got to thank them and my teammate Marc, who did a super job in the first stint.”

“The guys did a great job,” team owner Kevin Buckler said of the teams effort. “The team ran flawlessly. There were no mistakes at all.”

Edwards, who qualified ninth in the GT class, also drove a consistent race in the number 64 TRG / Pontiac GTO.R, despite fighting a car that was pulling to the left. He essentially played follow the leader, running behind fellow teammate Bunting during his stint of the race. On lap 45, Magnussen took over the reigns and helped bring the car home in fifth.

“We stayed out of trouble on the starts, which was our main objective,” Edwards said. “We had a funny set of tires. We qualified with those tires yesterday and we had a loose tow-link and they tightened it up. They said it [the car] should have felt fine after that. But, it was still pulling to the left real bad. And, these were the tires that we qualified on yesterday and the front left must have had a small leak. It didn’t get any worse, but we were fighting it out there. In right hand corners we were losing a lot of time. So, I made it up [the time] in the left handers.”

“It was really uneventful,” Magnussen said of his run. “The car ran really nice. We didn’t have any problems. We had a really good pit stop at the right time. We were unlucky with the pace car and went a lap down early in the race, which made it tough for us. But, that’s how it is. The car ran good. It will keep getting better and better. We will be fast at the end of the year I’m sure.”

Round nine of the Grand American Rolex Series will be run at Watkins Glen Aug. 12.