Malthe Jakobsen and Crowdstrike Racing had to settle for sixth place in this weekend’s round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship at Road America.
Massive preparations in the weeks leading up to the race had paid off when George Kurtz secured second place on the grid for Sunday’s 2.4-hour race on the track in Wisconsin. Kurtz also delivered an impressive performance in the race and handed the car over to Malthe Jakobsen in second place.
– “From here it was just a matter of keeping the car in front and then fighting for the victory at the end, but it didn’t work out that well for us,” says Malthe Jakobsen, who managed to stick to the plan at the start of his stint.
A safety car period hit the field and Crowdstrike Racing chose to make a quick pit stop to have enough fuel for the rest of the race.
– We dropped to fourth place during the pit stop lap, and when the race was restarted, I was overtaken by someone who I was battling with towards the end of the race. On the last lap I took the chance to get back into fourth place, but it ended in a crash where we both went off the track and suffered major damage to the cars,” says Malthe Jakobsen, who wasn’t done fighting:
– “We both got back on the tarmac and a few corners later I managed to get past, but it was by no means pretty to watch. I crossed the finish line with a really damaged car, and sixth place was anything but what we were looking for, so my mood wasn’t exactly great after the race,” says the Dane, who has a harsh conclusion on the outcome of the race:
– “The racing was really hard and I probably could have had my elbows out even more and used the car like the others did, but I chose to look after the car and be careful. It’s a shame that the team didn’t get a good result out of the great efforts made to fight for the victory,” he says.
Now it’s time for a long-awaited summer break for the driver from Thy, who won’t be back in the driving suit until September when the sixth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship is held at Circuit of The Americas in Texas.