WHO IS: Christian Krognes

ONE PART of the reigning Spa 24 Hour winning trio will make his Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour in 2019.

28-year-old Christian Krognes (Pictured, centre) hails from Norway and paired with Phillip Eng and Tom Blomqvist to win the classic Belgian race last year, driving for Walkenhorst Motorsport.

He’ll re-join the Walkenhorst team to tackle his first around-the-clock Bathurst enduro sharing a BMW M6GT3 with Nick Catsburg and Mikkel Jensen.

The Norwegian had a lengthy and highly successful karting career in the mid-to-late 2000s, including several national championship victories.

He moved to cars via the VLN endurance series at the Nurburgring and began to build his GT career from there, quickly building a strong resume’.

His career highlight, however, came at Spa-Francorchamps when he helped guide the Walkenhorst M6 GT3 to victory, in a tense 1-2 finish less than a lap in front of the second-placed Rowe Racing BMW.

“The final minutes were extremely long, and I can remember how none of us really dared to be cheering on until the final lap, perhaps a bit in disbelief over what was happening in front of us,” Krognes wrote for www.gt-report.com.

“The cool thing about being victorious at such events is the amount of people you can celebrate with, and meeting Tom and Philipp besides the parked M6 down the start-finish straight is simply unforgettable to me.

“I have to say that for such a young and inexperienced team relative to the factories that were present at Spa, it’s pretty damn cool what we achieved together. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing all the guys at Walkenhorst for a few years already and could see something like this come somewhere down the line, but the way the management, engineers, mechanics, staff and my team-mates dealt with it all is simply remarkable.”

Krognes will work with Eng and Blomqvist at Walkenhorst for the full 2019 Intercontinental GT Challenge.