Ricardo and Krohn Racing, return to race in the Grand-Am series this Saturday (7), in the traditional circuit of Watkins Glen, in the United States. The race, the sixth race in the championship, will bring a different challenge to pilots. This will be the second longest race so far, just behind the first of the year, the 24 hours of Daytona. the race will last 6 hours, Double the hours of what they are used: of the first five races undertaken in 2008, four have been less than three hours long.

With the experience of preparing for the 24 hours of Le Mans, and also disputing the Stock Car series in Brazil, where the races are no more than 50 minutes, the duration of the race does not worry Ricardo. "“I like both the endurance and the sprint racing experience, although they are different. In Grand-Am with the sprint racing you still have a co-driver and must make pit stops. So this is not like sprint racing in other series where you are the only driver in the car.", said Ricardo, who drives along side Nic Jonsson.

Even so, he suggests a small difference between the longer and shorter races. " the main difference between Grand-Am sprint and endurance is that you really must preserve the car and the parts like brakes and tires when driving in an endurance race. You do not take the same kind of chances as you do in a sprint race because you must make sure the car is there at the end of the race.”. In the longest single race of  this season, the 24 hours of Daytona, the team did well: they finished in fourth place.

The best result still remains the third position obtained in Mexico City. Ricardo believes that there is still room for improvement. "It seems in the past four races we have done, yellow flags or on-track things have caused us to not have as good of result as we could have. I like that we will have more time in the car. We have continued improving the car every race so I think we are ready for an endurance race with the Lola.” concluded Ricardo, who is placed fifth in points standing.

1 Memo Rojas/Scott Pruett. 167 pontos

2 Jim Matthews/Marc Goosens, 148

3 Alex Gurney/Jon Fogarty, 130

4 Mark Patterson/Oswaldo Negri, 118

5 Ricardo Zonta/Nic Jonsson, 115

6 Ian James/John Pew, 111