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< Back to News Home Surprisingly Dry Event at Detroit sees Team Sahlen capture amazing 4th and 9th place

Posted (06/04/2013) -

Team Sahlen came into the Detroit race weekend wondering if they would even see one dry flag lap.  And in the end, there wasn’t one drop of rain on the track while the Grand American ROLEX Series was on track at the Belle Isle Circuit.

 

At the start of practice, Team Sahlen made their 1st foray onto the newly revised track.  Practice Session 1 was spent revising the set up and figuring out which gear configuration to put in to maximize the set up.  These changes would see a significant impact with Dane Cameron placing the #42 in 3rd place in the very next session.  Then Wayne Nonnamaker backed that up with a 2nd place best time. In Qualifying, Wayne & Will Nonnamaker then placed the #42 & #43 in 11th and 12th respectively on the grid. 

 

The 1st lap of the race was an eventful one that saw significant banging and clanging.  At turn 3, Wayne was forced wide and had to use the exit lane to come to a stop.  This push off was a fortunate one, as turn 5 saw a BIG wreck.  Will Nonnamaker was actually barely able to avoid the incident himself, showing the scars of the #01 splitter cut into the side of #43. 

 

Will Nonnamaker shared his thoughts on the incident - “The wreck was unbelievable. Carbon Fiber was everywhere.  And fire shooting out of the back of the damaged Prototypes.  I narrowly avoided the still spinning #01.  I feel very fortunate to have made it through the carnage.  This is exactly why street courses are scary.  Just like that, $100,000+ worth of damage occurred.”

From there the race went back to green, until another Yellow came out at the 1 hour mark.  This yellow allowed the #42 to pit and change out drivers.  The pit stop practices that the Team Sahlen crew has been conducting at the race shop paid off as the #42 leapfrogged several competitors, and came out of the pits in 4th place.  The Yellow was also fortunate as it allowed the #43 to get back on the lead lap in 9th place.

 

One final late restart with 15 minutes to go saw Dane lined up still in 4th place.  And on that 1st lap back to green, Dane jumped all the way to 2nd.  Dane then even made a play for 1st place.  The close racing saw Dane battle hard and settling for 4th place.  This result was the highest Daytona Prototype finish to date for Team Sahlen

 

Dane added his thoughts to the weekend - “It felt great to secure our best finish so far in Detroit and validate all of the work that it took to get us into the top five in Daytona prototype. It was a pretty wild race and I think we were conservative when we needed to be and we attacked when there was an opportunity to. As a team we ran a well executed race and had some great pit work so I am very proud of everyone at Team Sahlen. I am really pleased with how things are progressing and now the goal becomes to challenge in the top 5 every race and work towards getting that first podium.”

This fine finish saw the #42 move to 7th place in the Team Championship. And Wayne Nonnamaker continues to be the leader in the Jim Trueman Sportsman Daytona Prototype Class Award over Alex Popow and his brother Will Nonnamaker

 

Team Sahlen’s next event will be at their home track of Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on June 15th at 4:40 pm.  The race will be televised live on SPEEDTV.

 

GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series is supported by:

BMW Motorsports, Dinan Engineering, Design Engineering Inc, Penske Shocks, EMCO Gears, Racing Print Media, Mothers Polish, TheRaceSite.com, PFC Brakes, Classic Motorsports Magazine, Grassroots Motorsports Magazine, BBS Wheels, and Hella Lights

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