
Krohn
Racing / TRG finished fifth after a grueling six-hour Rolex Sports
Car Series race at le Circuit Mont-Tremblant. Both Jörg Bergmeister
and Christian Fittipaldi led the rain-soaked race in the No. 66
Pontiac-powered Riley Mk XI, but electrical gremlins finally zapped
them back to fifth place. Their teammates weren't as lucky in the
No. 67 Pontiac-Riley. Nic Jönsson fought a failing electronic
control unit and, as he slowly returned to pit lane, he was hit
by a GT car, taking him out of the race.
start 66 7th Bergmeister windshield wipers not working
start 67 8th Jönsson
50m 67 13th Jönsson ECU failed, hit by GT car, out of race
66 7th Bergmeister pit – fuel, wiper repair
1h43 66 1st Bergmeister race lead
2h6 66 2nd Bergmeister lead change
2h23 66 2nd change pit – Fittipaldi in, tires, fuel
3h17 66 1st Fittipaldi race lead
3h26 66 1st Fittipaldi pit – dry tires, fuel
3h58 66 1st Fittipaldi pit – fuel
4h36 66 2nd Fittipaldi lead change
4h48 66 2nd change pit – Bergmeister in, tires, fuel
6h 66 5th Fittipaldi finish
Jörg
Bergmeister, No. 66: "Right when I went out of the
pits, I lost the power-shift so I had to use the clutch on upshifts.
After five laps, I started to get misfiring and it got worse and
worse. But I could do turn one flat out!"
Christian Fittipaldi, No. 66: "It was a really
competitive race. I didn't expect that for six hours the top six
cars would be running nose to tail. In the wet, it was pretty bad
because I went out with a brand-new set of rains [tires], which
was a mistake. The car was simply undriveable. The tires took about
six or seven laps to come in and then it was okay. I just had to
be very, very patient and make sure the tires would come in."
Nic Jönsson, No. 67: "You can't see anything
in the spray – it's a lottery of whether or not you'll stay
on track. It's just very dangerous. We had an ECU go bad on us several
times and then it just completely died. I got the car refired, fixed
the idle and tried to make it back to the pits, but on the back
straightaway, a GT car just came at full speed and hit me from the
side. That was it."
Tracy Krohn, No. 67: "Apparently, we got a
lot of water inside the car. The splitter acts like a water funnel
and Nic said he had about three inches of water inside the car,
so the ECU crapped out about three times. Vision inside the car
was no problem – there was no fogging – but the outside
was really hard to see. And this track has old asphalt on it, so
it throws up a lot of spray. It's pretty risky out there."

TRG
led the GT class for more than half of the six-hour Rolex Sports
Car Series race at Mont-Tremblant, but contact with a Daytona Prototype
car ended the charge. Andy Lally led through most of his triple
stint in the No. 65 Auto Gallery/TRG Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, but
his co-driver Marc Bunting wasn't as fortunate. He was hit twice
by the bigger prototype, resulting in damage to the car's bodywork
and radiator. He returned to the track 15th and regained two positions
to finish 13th. Andy Brumbaugh, Marc Bullock and Dave Master had
a smooth run to 11th in the GT class in the No. 63 Master Asset
Management / Somers Lithium / Targa Newfoundland Porsche.
start
63 17th Brumbaugh
65 1st Lally
1h3 63 10th change pit – Bullock in, tires, fuel
1h11 65 4th Lally fogged windshield, lost lead
1h53 65 1st Lally GT lead
1h56 65 1st Lally pit – fuel
2h28 65 1st Lally regained GT lead
2h38 63 14th change pit – Master in, fuel
3h19 65 1st change pit – Bunting in, dry tires, fuel
3h23 63 14th Master pit – dry tires, fuel
3h42 65 3rd Bunting hit by prototype car, pit to replace left-front
tire and repair right-rear bodywork damage
4h 65 10th Bunting pit – right radiator replacement
4h41 65 14th Bunting back on track, 14 laps behind GT leader
4h42 63 12th change pit – Brumbaugh in, tires, fuel
6h 63 11th Brumbaugh finish
65 13th Bunting finish
Marc Bullock, Master Asset Management / Somers
Lithium / Targa Newfoundland No. 63: "I can't thank David [Master]
enough for giving me the opportunity to do this race. Andy was a
great leader, we all had fantastic times on the track. It's remarkable,
we had no problems with the car whatsoever. The only problem was
tire wear because of the rain, but that affected all of us equally."
Andy Brumbaugh, Master Asset Management / Somers
Lithium / Targa Newfoundland No. 63: "I wanted a top-ten finish,
but I knew that with about 20 minutes to go and almost a full lap
to make up to the 10th-placed car, it wasn't worth risking the car
by pushing too hard. I settled into a comfortable rhythm for the
last stint and just made sure I brought it home in one piece."
Dave Master, Master Asset Management / Somers Lithium /
Targa Newfoundland No. 63: "It feels great to have run five
Rolex races and finished five times. It was a pleasure to drive
with Marc, and Andy did a great job leading the driver lineup this
weekend. Driving in the rain was an interesting challenge, but I'm
glad we came through unscathed!"
Marc Bunting, Auto Gallery / TRG No. 65: "I
was hit twice by the same car. He hit me going into the hairpin,
knocked the back end out and we lost the radiator. It's frustrating
because Andy had a great qualifying and a great first half of the
race. It's unfortunate to get taken out like that."
Andy Lally, Auto Gallery / TRG No. 65: "We
just had some back luck out there. The conditions were horrible.
Now it's just charge. There's no more conserving now. We have nine
races to go, but we have to charge to get all our points back. It's
a pressure off that I didn't want off, but now we can just go flat
out to win."
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