03.07.2004 Just one week after Krohn-Barbour Racing gave Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT its US racing debut, the new team-car combination is back in action at this weekend at Lime Rock

Just one week after Krohn-Barbour Racing gave the fabulous Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT its US auto racing debut, the new team-car combination is back in action at this weekend's ALMS round at Lime Rock.

Peter Kox and David Brabham took the Krohn-Barbour car to within seven-tenths of a second of clinching third place in the GTS class in last Sunday's race at Mid-Ohio, proving that, even in races of two hours and 45 minutes duration, every second counts.

This weekend, the Italian supercar goes to Lime Rock with a potential performance gain over the full race distance of about 24 seconds.

“At Mid-Ohio, because of the pit configuration, cars had to be refuelled on the left-hand side, but the fuel cell on the Lamborghini is on the right," chief engineer John Bright explains, "That meant the fuel had to flow across the car to the tank, which is not an easy route to get the fuel-line across.

"At Lime Rock, we'll be refuelling from the right-hand-side, and the fuel will drop straight into the fuel cell. If the car runs reliably, as it did last weekend, this should speed-up each of our two pit-stops by about twelve seconds.”

The Lamborghini's performance should also improve fractionally because it has had more track time. Before Mid-Ohio, the Krohn-Barbour Racing car hadn't turned a wheel and, compared to the Murciélago R-GT which has raced just once in Europe, ran on different, Pirelli, tyres, with slightly different aerodynamics and a more severe engine restrictor.

“We were pretty much gathering data about the car from scratch," team manager Dick Barbour admitted, "Every time we ran it, we learned something more about how it responds, for better or worse, to alterations in the set up of suspension dampers and ride height. I'm sure that learning process will continue at Lime Rock.”

Barbour, a legend in US sportscar racing, describes the Lamborghini as 'the most beautiful racing car I've seen in my 25 years in the sport'.

"It was designed mostly as a customer car, so that teams like ours can go racing in the production-based GTS class," he explains, "It's a great value-for-money starting point but, if we are to win races, we'll have to develop it, and both Tracy Krohn and I set-up this team with every intention of winning. We know we have a lot of work to do to get there, a lot of catching-up to do because the Corvettes have been running for five years, but we'll be disappointed if we don't win a race this season.”

Brabham is acknowledged as one of the world's very best sportscar drivers, but admits that adding another different car to his resume provided a steep learning curve.

“Last weekend, we were throwing everything we could at the car, just to see how it responded," the Australian revealed, "Mid-Ohio was never going to be anything more than an extended test session for us, though I did end up racing really hard when there was a chance of hanging on to third place.”

Co-driver Kox reckons that the way the season has been structured could mitigate against immediate success for the Murcielago.

“Our biggest challenge is the ALMS calendar," the Dutchman explains, "Many of the races are so close together that we have to do four races before we'll get the chance to do any development.”

After rounds two and three, at Mid Ohio and Lime Rock, on consecutive weekends, there is only a one-weekend break before round four at Infineon Raceway and round five at Portland International Raceway. However, by the time the circus arrives in California, Krohn-Barbour's second R-GT should have been repaired after its accident in last Friday's test session at Mid-Ohio.

The car, to be driven by Scott Maxwell and Texan businessman and team co-founder Tracy Krohn, has been rebuilt with a new chassis that was delivered to the team on Thursday.