One Door Closes – Another Opens

Koch and Triarsi on the Move!

By Eddie LePine. Photos by Jack Webster

Auto racing can be a cruel sport. One minute, you can be on the top of the world, the next you are out looking for a job. In other sports, even journeyman players get guaranteed multi-million-dollar contracts to play their game. Not only is this not true for the vast number of drivers in motorsports, they are also participating in a sport that can injure or kill them.

The same holds true for team owners and team principals. They can spend vast sums of money for the best cars, the best crews, the best facilities and the best drivers – for all of it to come crashing down around them in an instant. The car breaks, the crew makes a mistake on a crucial pit stop, the driver crashes out, or, as happens quite often – the sponsor leaves you high and dry, the checks stop coming.

It takes a special type of person with unwavering dedication to be successful in the auto racing game. Through my many years of participating in and covering this sport, I have seen many drivers come and go, many teams come and go, and many fortunes won and lost.

Once in a while, I come across that rare combination of drive and talent, who join forces at the right moment in time and who seem destined to go forward together in their motorsport journey. It is as though the planets and stars have aligned for a brief moment.

Right now, that moment is for Triasri Competizione and Kenton Koch.

It all started this June at Watkins Glen. Kenton was driving the #32 Korthoff Competition Mercedes AMG in the IMSA Si

x Hour race. After a long hard-fought battle, Kenton and his co-drivers finished on the podium in 3^rd place. Right behind Kenton and the AMG was Onofrio Triarsi in the Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3. He was literally right behind – less than a second back. Onofrio had teamed with Andrew Waite and Ferrari factory driver James Calado.

In behind-the-scenes drama, Triarsi had entered two Ferrari 296 GT3s at the Glen, one originally sponsored by JG Wentworth and to be piloted by Sheena Monk and Stevan McAleer. Long story short – funded driver (Monk) left, taking the sponsorship with her prior to the race. Triarsi entered the car anyway (with other drivers) and suffered a DNF and 12^th place finish the Glen. It turned out to be an expensive weekend, indeed.

In other behind the scenes drama, after finishing 3^rd at the Glen and preparing to head to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park for the next race, the Korthoff team withdrew from the IMSA WeatherTech Championship, shuttered their website, and parted ways with Kenton Koch and their other drivers. Suddenly, Kenton, who was 6^th in the GTD driver’s championship, was unemployed in the middle of the IMSA season.

Knowing about the turmoil that had occurred at Triarsi and needing a ride, Kenton phoned Onofrio to inquire about joining the team for a one-off race at Mosport. A deal was struck and Kenton and Onofrio shared the car in Canada for the first time, finishing 7^th.

How was the transition from Mercedes to Ferrari? Kenton: “It’s been a transition for sure just because the car (Ferrari) is made by ORECA. So when ORECA makes cars, they make them for little French people, and I’m not a little French person! So really the only difficult transition has been just fitting in it.” Kenton is famously 6’4” tall.

Onofrio Triarsi: “The big thing with Kenton is, you know, we always had a good time racing each other on track. And I just think he’s a great guy to work with and super knowledgeable. And the fact that this opportunity came up…it worked out and we’re happy to have him on board.”

Onofrio has paid his dues in racing, both as a Team Principal and a driver. He began racing in 2012 and won two Ferrari Challenge Driver Championships before switching to IMSA GTD competition. He also oversees his family’s two Florida Ferrari dealerships, Ferrari restoration shop and the race team. Onofrio said, “Once we established ourselves for Ferrari Challenge and we were able to support our customers there, we felt it was important to make the next step for any of the guys that wanted to transition, but also for us as a group to go professional racing, and we felt IMSA was the best place to go.”

Onofrio and Kenton signed a race-to-race deal, and after the 7^th place at CTMP (Mosport to us old guys) it was on to Road America for the two hour and forty-minute sprint race. Once again, Kenton and Onofrio would share driving duties on the Triarsi Ferrari.

The race week got off to a solid start, with Onofrio qualifying the #021 car 3^rd in the GTD field. After a chaotic start to the race, which saw a number of yellow flag periods, Onofrio drove solidly and methodically and moved up through the field. Before handing off to Kenton, Onofrio secured second place in GTD. Later in the race and with only 6 minutes remaining and running second behind the DXDT Racing Corvette of Alex Udell, Kenton pulled a brilliant out braking move to the inside going into Turn 6, passing and taking the lead of the race.  It was tight, with a bit of bumping, but clean. As Kenton said after the race: “It was fair based on how (race control) was calling the race. They made the race interesting, and I hope that was interesting. I certainly had a blast. It was a fun pass.” He not only held on, but pulled away to finish 1.6 seconds clear of the eventual second place Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Triarsi Competzione it was their first IMSA victory. For Kenton Koch, it was his third IMSA class win, for Onofrio, his first. After his solid weekend (qualifying 3^rd and moving the car to 2^nd) Onofrio was full of praise for Kenton: “Having Kenton onboard definitely helped a lot with development. He did an amazing job at the end of the race to put it up there. We’re definitely going to take advantage of this momentum, and we want to keep this going.”

Before joining forces, Onofrio Triarsi was 16^th in the GTD Driver’s Championship standings. After Road America, he is up to 13^th and within striking distance of the top 10. Kenton was 6^th after Watkins Glen, and with his win with Triarsi he now sits 4^th in the GTD championship with three races remaining – and his championship hopes are once again alive.

Just goes to prove, that sometimes when one door closes, another one opens.

See you at the races.