DP Qualifying

66 2nd Jörg Bergmeister
67 21st Tracy Krohn

Front Row!
Krohn Racing/TRG will start Sunday's Rolex Sports Car Series race at Laguna Seca Raceway from the front row.

Jörg Bergmeister (right) returned from an uncharacteristic off-course excursion on Friday to qualify the No. 66 Pontiac-powered Riley Mk XI second on the 52-car grid. His lap of in one minute 24.466 seconds on the 2.238-mile road course was less than one-tenth of a second behind the pole position.

"It was definitely much better than yesterday!" he said. "It was kind of a gamble today for qualifying because we weren't able to do the qualifying setup yesterday. The car was running really good – the whole team did an excellent job on that. I'm really happy that I could make up a little bit for yesterday."

CART vs Prototype
Max Papis, who drives the No. 66 Pontiac-Riley with Jörg Bergmeister, won the 2001 CART Championship Series race at Laguna Seca. He noted the differences between his CART car and the Krohn/TRG Daytona Prototype.

"It's a completely different feeling when you drive an Indy car compared to the prototype car because the Indy car has so much more downforce. It makes some of the corners that much faster," he noted. "In the prototype, there's a lot more sliding and a lot more being on the edge, especially in medium-speed corners."

Rookie Results
Nic Jönsson and Tracy Krohn have enjoyed two top-five finishes in three races this year, driving the No. 67 Pontiac-Riley. Jönsson is encouraged by the rookie team's progress.

"It's still early in the season and we've only done one real test day. The teams that are beating us have been in the series for one or two more years; we're a brand-new operation," he said. "I feel very confident for the future, that we'll be a contender for winning races sooner rather than later this year."

Fast Start
TRG owner Kevin Buckler will start the No. 88 Comfort Systems USA Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car second on the GT grid for the Rolex Sports Car Series race at Laguna Seca Raceway on Sunday. Buckler, who shares the car with Steve Johnson, turned a fast lap of one minute 32.867 seconds on the 2.238-mile road course.

"That was fun! We have a good car for the race," Buckler said. "The track's great right now, but the traffic is a nightmare. I don't know how we're going to get through it without some major carnage. Staying out of trouble is going to be more important than lap times."

Passing Strategy
Passing is always tricky with more than one class of cars on track, but the slippery Laguna Seca surface makes it even more challenging. Marc Bunting has his eye on the Rolex Series GT championship, so he plans his strategy accordingly.

"Sometimes you've got to give up a couple of tenths [of a second] to give a prototype a clean pass. You might give up a half-second on one lap, but you're going to be there the next lap. You have to pick and choose your times to be aggressive," he explained. "We're trying to stay competitive and go as fast as we can, but at the same time be a little bit cautious and think about the big picture."

Local Lore
Dan Pastorini (right) started racing in northern California – at his father's restaurant. "My dad built a little quarter-midget race track outside the restaurant to attract people. It was called the Purple People Eater," he recalled. "We had about six kids around town who had souped-up quarter-midgets and we used to race out there on Friday and Saturday nights."

After a successful career as quarterback for the Houston Oilers, Pastorini returned to his California roots, working with his nephew at Data Works Plus, based in the Bay Area. The company sells digital photo-management systems to law-enforcement agencies.