Third and Eighteenth at Daytona
Krohn Racing/TRG driver Jörge Bergmeister qualified third in the Daytona Prototype class for Thursday night’s running of the Grand American Rolex Series Brumos Porsche 250. Teammate Tracy Krohn qualified his number 67 Pontiac powered Riley in eighteenth position.

During the last couple minutes of qualifying the skies opened up and the rain came. The team is coming off a water soaked race at Watkins Glen that saw them finish first and second in the competitive Daytona Prototype class.

Bergmeister left the pits quickly and posted a time of 1:46.357 with an average speed of 121 mph. The effort saw him start from the second row. “We were able to get the car in line at the front of the field for qualifying, so I set my time on the first timed lap,” said Bergmeister. “After the black flag I was not able to get a clear lap and improve my time. We had a little more left, but probably not enough for the pole. We need to strategize our setup now and take a hard look at the weather radar for tonight.” Bergmeister will share his number 66 Daytona Prototype with Italian Max Papis.

Team co-owner and driver Tracy Krohn laid down one lap in qualifying and then drove in too deep off the banking at turn one and went off into the mud. The Texan posted a time of 1:50.267 and started from the ninth row. “I just drove it in too far trying to push for a good lap time and hit the marbles and went off. The car is handling well; we still have the usual push. We lost some practice time this morning with a half-shaft problem, but we have a good understanding of what the car wants here. The team that predicts and sets their car up best for the weather will have a good night.” Krohn shares the driving duties with teammate Nic Jönsson.

In the Daytona Prototype driver’s standings, Bergmeister is currently in fourth; Jönsson is in sixth with Tracy Krohn strongly in the top ten holding down seventh position.

TRG Pontiac GTO.Rs Qualify Seventh and Eleventh
TRG drivers Paul Edwards and Marc Bunting qualified seventh and eleventh respectively for the inaugural race for the TRG Pontiac GTO.Rs, at Daytona International Speedway.

In addition to 90+ degree temperatures, central Florida is currently receiving record rain fall. There is an 80% chance the race will see some precipitation before the end sometime around 10:00 p.m.

Paul Edwards is racing at Daytona for the first time. The young Californian ran a time of 1:57.407 with an average speed of 109 mph. “I really like the track and the place is legendary in endurance racing. I only had about 10 laps practice prior to qualifying; we had a small gear issue at the beginning and a vibration before qualifying that we did not have time to repair. The team has the fix; we will get it ready for the race and look to be competitive and at the front.” Edwards is teamed with fellow GM factory driver Jan Magnussen.

The morning practice session witnessed the number 65 car driven by Bunting and teammate Andy Lally run flawlessly from the drop of the green at 9:00 a.m. through qualifying. Bunting was able to run a 1:57.957 good for a sixth row GT starting position. “We had a good morning with the new GTO.R. In qualifying I gave it all I had. The car is very comfortable to drive and handles well. We are getting beat pretty good down the straight-away. We should have a good car in the race tonight.”

Team owner, Kevin Buckler, was a proud chief as the GTO.Rs took to the track for the first time in competition. “The cars really look great! Although we had a few small issues with Jan and Paul’s car, we were able to get into seventh position in GT in qualifying. We are about where we expected we would be here at Daytona. The restrictor is hurting our top end around the long oval, we are about a second-and-a-half down to the faster cars at the braking point of turn one.”