Christian Krognes makes his 24 Hours of Spa debut this weekend with the Walkenhorst Motorsport team. A Nordschleife specialist and VLN champion, it’s a whole new adventure for the talented racer from Norway. Follow Krognes this weekend in his daily blogs as makes his attack for Pro-Am class victory.
Fridays are typically one of the highlights during a normal week, and in the case of it being a day away from race day, one could say the same about a Friday before the 24 Hours of Spa. With the top 20 qualifying being the only track action of today, it might seem relatively relaxed, but in the background a lot of things are happening right until the Belgian flag is being waved on Saturday.
Especially the mechanics and engineers have been working flat-out to make sure that all the fine details on the BMW M6 GT3 are as they should be for tomorrow. With the GT3 cars being highly sophisticated and relatively complex machines, it’s easier said than done. As a driver I can only be very thankful for having a dedicated crew to make the car as perfect as possible for the race start.
For us sitting behind the wheel of the cars it’s more about getting into the groove for tomorrow. Among many things, it means sleeping a bit longer than we usually would do on a race weekend, perform some pit stop practice as well as some detailed data and video analysis. With Markus being a recent winner of this race there’s plenty to learn from him, and I believe we’ve done everything we can as a team to be prepared for Saturday and Sunday.
Personally speaking, I’ve usually had pretty specific ways of preparing for a weekend like this, first and foremost by visualizing different secenarios and ideal laps based on what I learnt through track time and data analysis. Further on, Spa is typically known for very changeable weather for one, but secondly, there will always be another suprise or twenty in different shapes and forms before the end of the race. To cope with these things with a cool head when you’re right in the thick of the competition could be key for a successful race.
Speaking for the team, there has been preparations going on for months and months already, and I believe everybody involved is keen on carrying out the final leg, starting tomorrow at 16:30. With Nico, Markus and Matias I have some very competitve team mates, and it’s great to finally say that we’re ready to tackle the 2017 24 Hours of Spa! See you at the finish line!
CHRISTIAN KROGNES AT THE SPA 24 HOURS: WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | RACE
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