SEBRING, Fla.—Olivier Pla set a new series qualifying record to take the pole for Saturday’s Tudor United SportsCar Championship 63rd Twelve Hours of Sebring, giving Krohn Racing its first pole in “too long” according to team owner Tracy Krohn.
Pla lapped Sebring’s bumpy 3.74-mile, 17-corner course in 1:51.152 at 121.131 mph, three-tenths of a second faster than his nearest competitor.
The Krohn Racing #57 Ligier-Judd JS P2 was the quickest car on track in the Thursday afternoon and Thursday night practice sessions—quite a surprise after a rather disappointing performance at Daytona in January, where the car retired after six hours..
The Krohn engineers apparently found the secret formula for Sebring; the car was fourth fastest Thursday morning and just got faster.
“We were very strong in all the sessions yesterday and we knew going into qualifying that we had a very strong package, a very good car. We have been working at it,” Olivier Pla said after the qualifying session.
Pla went out early and set a very fast time, then ran wide at Turn Seven and had to take a few laps to clean his tires. He got a call from the pits as the session wound down telling him to go for it; he responded by taking the pole and setting a new qualifying record.
“I am looking forward to the race tomorrow,” he said. “For sure it is going to be a difficult one.”
“Olly did a fantastic job with the car today. If you watched it, it looks a little loose—he drives it quite well that way; me, not so much,” team owner Tracy Krohn said, laughing a bit ruefully. Krohn, who co-drives with Pla and Nic Jonsson, went off the rod a few times in the morning practice session.
