July 12, 2007 - The Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series makes it inaugural visit to Iowa Speedway this week for the Iowa 400K in Newton, Iowa. The two-car team of Krohn Racing hopes to improve its standings in the Rolex points championship at Round 9 of 14 at the 1.3-mile, 9-turn midwestern tri-oval speedway road course.
Krohn Racing team owner/driver Tracy Krohn pairs with Nic Jönsson in the No. 76 Krohn Racing Pontiac Riley for the Prototype-only race. The sister car, the No. 75 Krohn Racing Pontiac Riley, will feature Max Papis and Colin Braun looking for their first victory of the season after four podium finishes.
Max Papis, driver, No. 75 Krohn Racing Pontiac Riley:
Have you ever been to the Iowa track before?
“I have never been there but have seen some pictures and saw it on TV when Rusty Wallace did an inaugural race last year. It looks like a beautiful facility but we’ll see how the road course will be.
I’m looking forward to having a lot of enthusiastic race fans and we will be able to show them how good Grand-Am racing is.”
Are you superstitious about racing on Friday the 13th?
“I left the superstitions behind a few years ago. I’m not superstitious anymore. I’m going to focus on just going fast and doing the best job I can. I haven’t been superstitious in a long time because I felt when I focused on that, I wasn’t focusing on my job. After having been knocking on the door, when we get on the podium and when we win this race it will be awesome to prove the fate wrong by winning on Friday the 13th!”
The Krohn Racing team continues in fourth place in the Prototype team points chase with the No. 75 entry and 11th with the No. 76 entry as the Rolex Series passed the midway point of the season. Papis and Braun have four podium finishes, a second-place at both VIR and Mexico City and a third at Daytona Brumos and Mid-Ohio. Braun has captured two pole positions. Krohn and Jönsson have one Top Five and three Top Ten finishes so far this year.
Krohn Racing won the 2006 Daytona Prototype Driver’s Championship with driver Jörg Bergmeister and finished second in the DP Team Championship. The team collected three victories, six podiums, eight Top Five finishes, 13 Top Ten finishes and two pole positions.
The Iowa 400K is a 400-kilometers/192 laps/two and one-half hour night race and will be televised tape-delay on SPEED TV at 10:00 p.m. EDT on Friday night, July 13th. For more information, please see www.grand-am.com and www.krohnracing.net.