RPM Racing successfully defending its 992-Am Teams’ championship in this year’s 24H SERIES powered by Hankook is “goal number one,” according to Tracy Krohn. 

RPM, which has confirmed its #907 Porsche 992 GT3 Cup will compete at all five of the 24H SERIES’ European rounds in 2024, concluded a successful 2023 season with its first series championship, having taken three 992-Am class wins from four outings. Speaking recently with CREVENTIC, Tracy Krohn, who will contest the full European season with RPM this year, explains that successfully defending the 992-AM Teams’ title is now the main goal for 2024.  

“Oh you bet! That’s goal number one,” Krohn explained to CREVENTIC. “There are a lot of things that happen in racing that you can’t control. That’s just part of racing. But I know we’ve got enough experience under our belt to do a very good job.

“Nobody that I know [at RPM Racing] wakes up and thinks, ‘gee, what I really want to do is finish 2nd!’ ”

Much of Krohn’s confidence can be attributed to last year’s 24H SERIES European season finale in Barcelona, at which RPM Racing finished 5th overall in 992 and took the 992-Am class win one lap clear of nearest rival Juta Racing. This, despite a heavy accident in Free Practice preventing the champion-elect from running at all during Qualifying. Lessons learnt during the Hankook 24H BARCELONA weekend that, the native Texan feels, could prove invaluable to RPM’s 2024 campaign.

“That last race, we had basically incident-free pit stops,” Krohn continues. “We made a bunch of [stops] – fuel, tyres, change drivers, change the brakes every once in a while – and they all went pretty well. And that’s why we finished as well as we did. We know that the consistency is there. We didn’t have as good a race as we had hoped, but we’ve studied what happened and what we can do about it moving forward.”

RPM Racing has also confirmed that its 2023 line-up – reigning 992-AM Drivers’ champions Krohn, Philip Hamprecht and Niclas Jönsson – remains unchanged for 2024. Jönsson, a multi-time Le Mans 24 Hours podium finisher, and Hamprecht, the 2019 Porsche Carrera Cup Asia champion, competed alongside Krohn – the founder and CEO of W&T Offshore, as well as a European Le Mans, the Weathertech Sportcar Championship, and World Endurance Championship alumnus – at Mugello, Monza, Estoril and Barcelona last year (Patrick Huisman was brought on-board for the latter and the 2024 Hankook 24H DUBAI). A blend of consistency, experience and youthful raw speed that could stand RPM Racing in the increasingly competitive 992-Am class.

“Well, Nic [Jönsson] and I, this is our 21st year driving together.” – The pair first competed together in the Panoz Racing Series in 2003. – “So, I have been trained by one of the best drivers I know. It’s always a pleasure driving with him. He’s a very positive energy force, mentally and physically. 

“Philip has proven to be a very consistent, very quick, very easy to deal with, smart young man, who really enjoys what he’s doing. And it shows! He’s been a solid teammate for us. 

“This is a [driver line-up] that’s clearly working. We want that to continue, and hopefully it continues to be consistent.

“I’m a very big believer in experience. Both of these guys have more experience racing than I do. [26-year-old] Philip, although he’s still a young man, he’s been doing this since he was very, very young. And he’s been in the car a lot more than I have because, apparently, he doesn’t run a publicly traded oil and gas company! I’m basically a weekend driver, and they’re full-week drivers, and knowing I can rely on these guys makes all the difference.”

As well as championing his teammates, Krohn was also quick to sing the praises of RPM Racing, with which he hopes to continue a fruitful working relationship “for a long time…” 

“I’m very impressed with RPM Racing, and I have been since we started racing with them.” – Krohn and RPM first joined forces in the NLS (formerly VLN) in 2021. – “I think it’s always really important when the team manager has both a racing background and a mechanical background, and that’s what we see with RPM [with Lukas Moesgen]. I’ve been very pleased to partner up with them. They’ve done a very good job, they’ve got a lot of consistency with their personnel, and we enjoy working with them. I look forward to doing that for a long time.”

RPM Racing is one of four teams to have already confirmed a full European season with CREVENTIC. 2017 24H SERIES Overall GT Teams’ ‘Europe’ champion Hofor-Racing has registered its Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the top class, while Lionspeed GP begins its first campaign as a stand-alone entry with a Porsche 992 GT3 Cup in ‘992.’ Porsche affiliate Orchid Racing Team has also confirmed a full season entry in the 992 category. 

The 24H SERIES European season is scheduled to begin on 22-23-24 March, when the 10th edition of the Hankook 12H MUGELLO will be hosted at the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello.

Though it would be four years before Track Krohn made his 24H SERIES return after a character-building debut at Portimão in 2017, the three-time Le Mans 24 Hours class podium finisher quickly made up for lost time: in the six starts since his comeback at the Hankook 24H SEBRING in 2021, he’s won half of them! 

And this, despite, or perhaps as a direct response to, the progressively high level of competition in the 24H SERIES. Indeed, strong grids and proven competition were among the prevailing reasons why the Texan native was so keen to return for a full campaign in 2024. 

“The level of competition just continues to move up to a higher level. I’m impressed with the organization around the racing, and I’m impressed with the quality of the competition. It’s a lot different to the first race we did with them. Portimão was a good experience several years ago, but I see big names and teams that continue to get into this series that are at a really high level. They’ve got good drivers and good cars, and it’s fun to compete with them and know we can do so convincingly.” 

Krohn’s reference to Portimão is significant, as the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve returns to the 24H SERIES calendar in 2024 on 10-11-12 May after a one-year hiatus. Given the largely positive memories of his maiden run with the series in Portugal in 2017 (we go into greater detail about that HERE), will this year’s Hankook 24H PORTIMAO be a significant event for Tracy Krohn? Or, as the competitively-minded so often do, will he simply be focused on ‘the next race’…? 

“Oh no, Portimão is a great track! Unfortunately, when we did our last 24H race there [in 2017], we had some difficulties with the transmission. And I feel like, with the car we’re in now, the Cup car, the transmission isn’t going to be an issue. We know that Porsche makes a great car!

“I’m very excited to be heading back to Portimão, because it’s a real quality race track. It’s got high speed corners, low speed corners, it’s got hard braking zones, fast turns, there’s a lot of elevation change. It’s a real rollercoaster ride. We actually just finished a test there – we got to drive [the Porsche] in the wet and the dry, so we were very fortunate with that too – so we have a pretty good idea, going into [the Hankook 24H PORTIMAO], what the car’s going to do and how we need to respond to it. It’s a fun track, and it challenges you, no matter what. You put a whole bunch of cars around there, and it’s going to make an interesting race.”