Olivier Pla and Alex Brundle join the Krohn Racing team for this week’s roar before the 24 and for the Rolex 24 Hours itself later this month.
The two Onroak Automotive men will join Krohn regulars Nic Jonsson and Tracy Krohn for the first competitive outing of the team’s brand new Judd engined Ligier P2 coupe.
The Ligier was received by the team in late November and immediately began an extensive testing program, which totals eight days running prior to this weekend’s Roar Before the 24 test days. Pla worked with the team at their shakedown in Estoril, Portugal in November 2014 and Brundle joined Krohn and Jonsson at a private test at Daytona in December.
Gary Holland, Krohn Racing, Team Manager: “We are pleased and excited to have Alex and Olivier joining Tracy and Nic as part of our team for the ROAR and Rolex Daytona 24 hours. The IMSA TUDOR championship is entering its second year and we believe will be even more competitive than 2014.With Krohn Racing stepping up to the “P” class with our Ligier – Judd, we want Daytona to be a statement of intent for the year and think that our driver line up shows this. The team has worked tirelessly to ensure that we are as prepared as we can be for the huge challenge that Daytona will be. We firmly believe that this is the correct time to be stepping up to the “P” class with IMSA making great strides towards ensuring there was parity between LMP2 and DP cars at the end of last season; we have confidence that this will continue in the right direction in 2015.
Of course, it is very difficult to have a 24-hour race as the first race of the season, let alone do it with a new car and engine combination; however, with our partners at ONROAK and Judd, we believe we can come away from Daytona with a strong result.”
Tracy W.Krohn: “We had a lot of discussion concerning the driver lineup for the 24 Hours of Daytona. There are so many excellent drivers with loads of experience and proven records, so it was a quality problem trying to determine who would be best for this race. All that said, we decided that we would be best served by relying on proven drivers with the most time in the Ligier chassis. We think that with Olivier Pla and Alex Brundle we have met all of those specs and more. They are both proven champions and have done much of the development work on the Ligier chassis and Judd engine combination. We couldn’t be more pleased.”
“The primary goal is to get back to a winning combination of car/engine and driver. That will make it easier to attract sponsorship and interest in our team. We had a lot of success in the past with Daytona prototypes and different engine combinations. We do expect more from this Ligier/Judd LMP2 in the way of performance. While I enjoyed driving GT class, it was time to get back to a higher downforce chassis. It is a real challenge, but at the same time it is a truly sophisticated and elegant machine that any driver would appreciate. Testing has gone pretty well and we have already incorporated many of the things that we have learned from those different tests as well as having gained overall knowledge of the performance of the Ligier/Judd car at different tracks. Overall, this is a fantastic car that is both predictable and very physical for the drivers. It’s really a great ride!”
