Team Sahlen’s concentrated effort to build and prepare a 2nd Porsche Boxster came to fruition at the Tire Rack – ChampCar Endurance Series’ Pittsburgh Grand Prix. The newest member to the racing fleet, “Mustard”, had started the initial build stage just after the Sahlen’s Champyard DOG at the Glen in May. Throughout the summer, the racer continued to be built, with only the Nelson Ledges 24 hours deviating the crew’s efforts.
During Friday’s Test&Tune, Team Sahlen was able to roll out “Mustard” for the 1st laps on the race track. The initial track action saw zero issues, with all on Team Sahlen happy to see a new Boxster roll out on track.
Joe Nonnamaker shared his thoughts on the newest Boxster – “Mustard”s debut – “The crew has been working non stop to bring this new car to life. Its great to see all their hard work pay off with the goal of the Pittsburgh Grand Prix reached.
Saturday’s race saw Team Sahlen excited to take on the challenge of defending their 2017 & 2018 Overall victories at the Tire Rack – ChampCar Endurance Series Pittsburgh Grand Prix. Bright, blue skies meant for dry track. Team Sahlen charged hard and by the halfway point in the race, the team was running 1st and 2nd. Then misstep by Will Nonnamaker in the #943 “Ketchup” racer knocked the Boxster out of the race. This caused a full course red flag, which then in turn compromised the #942 “Mustard” race strategy. In the end “Mustard” was able to still secure a 3rd place overall out of the 70 race cars in the event.
The Saturday evening saw the Team Sahlen crew work tirelessly to fix the damaged #943. And with the parts that were available, the crew did an amazing job getting “Ketchup” ready for action again.
Will Nonnamaker shared his thoughts on the effort to repair the Stuttgart racer – “Everyone on the team just pitched in to fix up “Ketchup”. After I hit the wall, I didn’t think there was a chance that we back on track this weekend, but the crew had a never give up attitude, and succeeded.”
Sunday dawned with cloudy skies that resulted in off and on rain showers all day. Team Sahlen came out focused run at the front and battle with the leaders. The team was successful, with both Boxsters spending time atop of the leader board. In the end, 2 near perfect races resulted in a 2nd and 3rd Overall, and the fastest race lap of the day
Wayne Nonnamaker shared his thoughts after the race – “What a fun day of racing. We had a nearly perfect race today. And that was good enough for 2nd overall. It would have taken a perfect race here to have challenged the front wheel drive RBankRacing Honda CRX in the rain. We didn’t a zero error day, but to find ourselves on the podium with both Boxsters is just a testament to the focus of this Team Sahlen crew.”
The next race for Team Sahlen will be the October 19th and 20th – Summit Racing – American Endurance Racing Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course event. Team Sahlen is the defending overall victor from last year, as well as 2015 & 2017. The team hopes to enter their brand new Audi R8 LMS GT3 “Retro” racer in the quest to defend the overall victory.
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