News

Team Sahlen entered the entered Round 2 of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16, at Homestead Miami Speedway on a high from their 7^th place finish in the ROLEX 24 Hours at Daytona.   Despite this fantastic start to the year, the team knew that there was still a lot of work to be done to continue the team’s progress to front of the GT field.

Practice Session 1 started off well, with all four drivers receiving seat time behind the wheel of the Mazda RX-8s.  In the combined Practice Session 2 & 3, Wayne Nonnamaker posted a fantastic 1:18.9, which was good for 4^th fastest in the 18 car field.  To prove this was not a fluke, Wayne backed up that time with a fine 1:19.3 in the Morning Warm-up Practice Session 4 that was good enough for 4^th best time.  In Qualifying, Joe Nonnamaker and Joe Sahlen qualified the #43 and #42 RX-8s in 14^th and 15^th place respectively. 

The start of the race saw Joe Nonnamaker involved in a spin which put him back to the back of the back.  From that position, Joe clawed his way back up through the pack, until the 45 minute mark, when he then handed over to Wayne Nonnamaker.  Wayne continued to run a very consistent pace, placing in 10^th at the finish.

“This was a very strange race, with only 1 yellow flag, that came with 20 minutes to go in the race.  Then the race ran into the dark.  But without any night practice leading up to the race, it was quite difficult adjusting to the track at night. I am happy with the pace we showed this weekend, and content that we finished with a 10^th place finish.  Team Sahlen can build upon this result and move forward to the next round at Barber Motorsports Park.” – states Wayne Nonnamaker

Joe Sahlen ran a very steady 1^st 45 minutes of the race, rising as high as 12^th place.  Race Strategy saw Joe stay in the Mazda at the pit stop.  A few unfortunate incidents caused the #42 Rotary to fall down the order.  At the halfway mark, Will Nonnamaker jumped in the RX-8 and took it to the finish in 12^th place.

“It was a lot of fun racing out there.  Those 1^st 45 minutes were very intense with no yellows and all out racing.   Having just raced the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge hours before really helped in getting into the flow of the track.” – states Joe Sahlen.

The next event for Team Sahlen will be the Rolex Sports Car Series event at Barber Motorsports Park on April 10^th.  The race will be televised live on the SPEED Channel.

The 2010 Team Sahlen ROLEX & CONTINENTAL Tires Series Campaigns will be supported by Mazda, Mazdaspeed, HRPWorld.com, HAWK Performance, Cool Shirt, Racetech Seats, BBS, Alcon, Mothers Polish, EMCO, TheRaceSite.com, Grassroots Motorsports, Holliday Canopies, Alcon, CM Racing, Genesis Technologies, Endurance Karting, Bell Helmets, Castrol and SpeedSource Engineering.