One of the Krohn-Barbour Racing Lamborghinis lasted the full nine-hours, 35-minutes to reach the finish in Saturday’s 1,000-mile Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta, Georgia (round eight of the American Le Mans Series), though the team’s other Lamborghini skated off the track on oil after five hours while running strongly in third-place in the GTS class behind the two factory-supported Chevrolet Corvettes.
The number six Lamborghini of Scott Maxwell/Tracy Krohn/Joe Fox came home fifth in GTS, completing the greatest race distance yet by the Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT in the car’s first year of competition. Of the 35 starters in the gruelling event, 11 failed to last the distance.
Team manger Dick Barbour said: “Petit Le Mans is a very demanding race. Even though it’s held on a fairly smooth track, it runs at a sprint-race pace the whole way through. To finish a 10-hour race with a new car is an achievement. The Lamborghini not only looks the part; today it proved it is the part, too, as a long-distance racing car.”
Progress of the Maxwell/Krohn/Fox car was interrupted when Maxwell, struggling with a soft brake pedal and difficult gear-shift, spun off the track into the gravel trap on the outside of turn 10 shortly after the three-hour mark, losing about 10 laps before rejoining; and when Krohn had to bring the car into the pits, after seven-and-a-half hours, to rectify an oil leak by having an oil cooler replaced, losing 20 laps.
Krohn said: “We had a few minor problems, but we made it through and I’m pleased it all held together. The crew did a great job to keep us going today.”
The number five car of David Brabham/Peter Kox/Nic Jonsson was the faster of the two Krohn-Barbour Racing cars, moving up from fifth to third in class (and the top ten overall) in the opening three hours of the race, pulling out 17 laps on the fourth-placed car.
Then Kox had the cruel luck to arrive at turn 10 a couple of seconds after an LMP2-class Lola’s engine erupted, spilling oil on the track. On the slippery surface, the Lamborghini spun lazily into a gravel trap at the circuit’s edge, its wheels sinking-in and its engine stalling. Corner workers towed the Lamborghini out of the gravel, but the engine wouldn’t restart. Kox got out of the car and poured the water from his cool-suit over the starter motor, thinking perhaps it had overheated, but still the car wouldn’t start. Battery drained, the car was out.
Kox said: “I had no chance! There were no warning flags out because the oil had only just dropped. It’s so frustrating, because it was going really well. The car was running perfectly and third place was realistically ours; we were taking it easy, a walk in the park.”
The GTS-class was won for the eighth successive ALMS race this season by a Corvette, Oliver Gavin/Olivier Beretta/Jan Magnussen completing 376 laps to place fourth overall. The Corvette of Ron Fellows/Johnny O’Connell/Max Papis finished second in GTS (fifth overall) on 375 laps, the Dodge Viper of Tom Weickardt/Jean-Philippe Belloc/Fabio Babini third (19th overall) on 339 laps. The number six Krohn-Barbour Racing car completed 313 laps (21st overall).
