Team Sahlen entered the Mid-Ohio weekend with high hopes of a great finish.  The team even entered the Thursday Test Session. 

"We had a bad crash with the #43 Mazda at Lime Rock.  The crew worked extra hard to get back on track.  We just barely got it done in time to roll out on the track on Thursday." - states crew chief Mike Thomas

Making steady progress, things were looking up, until qualifying revealed a malfunctioning fuel pump.  This mishap put the team in 42^nd position out of 51 Street Tuner racers entered for the weekend.

At the start of the race, Joe Sahlen apply worked through the pack to rise up to 20^th place, and handed over to Will at the first yellow flag at 55 minutes into the race.  This yellow was due to rain starting to come down on the track.  Will proceeded forward, and soon came back into the pits for rain tires.  The remaining hour and half were spent under wet conditions.

"I was used to the wet conditions from the GT ROLEX race the day before.  We survived the race with hardly a scratch on the Mazda.  In the end 17^th was a nice finish, although we were hoping for much more." - states Will Nonnamaker

The finish in 17^th place was good enough though to secure the SUN TRUST Most Improved Position Award for improving 25 positions, more than any other competitor in the race.

The next event for the Team Sahlen KONI Challenge Series Mazda will be the July 4^th weekend race at Watkins Glen.