By alley - Jun 10, 2015, 5:40 AM ET

LM24: "P2 is going to be a tremendous race" says Krohn's Barbosa

Veteran sports car ace Joao Barbosa is back for his ninth 24 Hours of Le Mans, and tells RACER he thinks this weekend's 19-car LMP2 field is primed for a memorable race-within-a-race.

"There's a lot of good teams, good drivers, and there's a big mixture this year with

different cars, different manufacturers," said Barbosa (LEFT), who will share the No. 40 Krohn Racing Ligier JS P2-Judd with Tracy Krohn and Nic Jonsson.

"It's definitely a race that's creating a lot of interest lately. You never know how the P1 cars will race, but you always see a lot of P2 cars together. I think P2 is going to be a tremendous race."

Barbosa is one of many rockets in the P2 class, and will be expected to fight with the other stars in the deep field of cars, but pushing at qualifying speeds could be risky throughout the two-day race.

"Historically, that's the thing to be concerned about," said the 2014 TUDOR Championship Prototype champion. "I think we're going to have to be very conservative at times during the race because usually P2s suffer quite a bit on reliability at Le Mans for some reason. I mean, if you have a reliable car, that's, I think, the most important thing. If you stay out of trouble, that's the second biggest thing to do. And you always have to remember the P2s can break easier than some of the other classes."

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The Krohn team comes into Le Mans with some momentum after contesting rounds in the ELMS. With the Texas-based program in full swing, Barbosa likes their chances in the race.

"I think the team has a great shot," he reckoned. "I think it's got the right ingredients with the Ligier, Judd, and the Michelin tires, which I think will be very, very good here. It's going to be a great race, a great fight to the end. If we do a clean race I think we will have a great shot of running for the podium, but the main thing is keep out of mechanical problems and keep the car away from the garage.

Barbosa, Jonsson, and Krohn spent some extra time on a driving simulator this week in Paris to familiarize themselves with the nuances of the Le Mans circuit and some of changes they will face once practice begins.

"It was definitely helpful, especially because with the new rules with the new slow zones, because there was something we could try and could have more knowledge in the simulator," Barbosa said.

"Driving the actual simulator--I know my way around here a little bit I think, but there's always a little bit of changes, and I've got to drive a new car. I've never driven this car before. The more things you can do to be prepared for this race, especially for me who has never driven this car before here, the better it is."