Anders Krohn finishes ninth in Iowa for BHA

Krohn Finishes Ninth in Iowa

NEWTON, Iowa, June 25 — After a schedule change and the torrid pace of a race that saw only one caution flag, Anders Krohn finished ninth in the Sukup 100 Firestone Indy Lights race at Iowa Speedway early Sunday morning.

The race was delayed five hours due to rain and network television commitments with the featured IZOD IndyCar Series race, and began at approximately 12:50 a.m. Eastern time Sunday.

Krohn, who was tabbed to drive the Bryan Herta Autosport No. 28 in a late deal, qualified tenth but actually started ninth when Alon Day’s entry was withdrawn. Krohn, of St. Petersburg, Fla., and Stavanger, Norway, took the checkered flag 115 laps later in the same ninth-place position.

“First, I want to thank Bryan Herta Autosport for making this race happen for me,” Krohn said. “I was so happy to return to this team. I feel we didn’t get to show what we could do at Indy, and I feel the same way about Iowa.

“We had a good, solid race car that was very well balanced, but we were just lacking overall speed,” he explained. “We think we’ve identified the problem for the future.

“The first half of the race went pretty well; we were holding our own,” Krohn added. “With about 60 laps to go we developed a vibration in the right rear which progressively got worse for the remainder of the race. I just nursed it home the rest of the way. But I was happy we could bring it home in one piece.

“Bryan Herta Autosport consists of really great people, and I was excited to be able to work with them again,” he continued. “They worked so hard to get the car put together after it was damaged last time out. I have to thank Steve Newey and Bryan Herta for making it all happen. They went above and beyond, and I’m very grateful to them. I want to pay that back in the future with a top-notch result.”

Krohn got a great start and immediately moved into eighth by passing Oliver Webb, who started sixth. Krohn’s car, which carried sponsorship from the I-Tec and Yellow Jacket “Wanna Frac More?” campaign; Premiere Glass and Mirror of Lancaster, Pa.; OMP Racing and Bell Helmets, spent the next 24 laps chasing Carlos Munoz. Munoz passed Victor Carbone for sixth on lap 25, however, so Krohn focused on catching Carbone from that point on while simultaneously trying to hold off Bryan Clauson.

Munoz and Carbone switched positions again on lap 30. On lap 38 Jorge Goncalvez passed Clauson for ninth place, but Krohn remained in eighth despite the change in the drivers around him.

Goncalvez, who was Krohn’s teammate last year, got around Krohn on lap 51 to push the Viking to ninth place. He was able to regain eighth five laps later when the third-place driver, Sebastian Saavedra, pitted due to a broken right-front brake rotor. No yellow was required, however, and the torrid pace continued as the cars continued to cover the 0.894-mile oval approximately every 21 seconds.

Krohn remained sandwiched between Goncalvez and Clauson but he moved up one position to seventh place on lap 71 when the leader, Tristan Vautier, had to serve a drive-through penalty for accidentally blocking the driver who went on to win the race, Esteban Guerrieri.

Chase Austin passed Clauson on lap 80 to change the order of things behind Krohn a bit. Meanwhile Vautier was regrouping, and he passed Krohn for seventh place on lap 84 on his way to eventually finishing fourth. Austin really began pressuring Krohn around lap 98, and finally got around Krohn on lap 104 to push Krohn back to ninth place.

Krohn was still in ninth place when Webb hit the outside wall in Turn 4 on lap 108 to bring out the event’s only caution flag on lap 109. The green flew again on lap 113 and Krohn took the checkered flag on lap 115 in ninth place at 1:38 Eastern time.

Krohn’s fastest lap of the race occurred on lap six when he was timed in 20.4068 seconds for an average speed of 157.712 miles per hour. His fastest lap in qualifying was a 20.3756. Two laps were combined for each driver in time trials, however, so he qualified with a total time of 40.9074 and an average speed of 157.351 mph.

Source: Anders Krohn/Restart Communications