Team Sahlen, presented by honeybeeBase.com will be entering their 1st race of the season at this coming weekend’s Summit Racing – American Endurance Racing event at Nelson Ledges Road Course. The most recent trip for the team to Nelson Ledges was fall of last year, when the competed in the Tire Rack – ChampCar Endurance Series’ 24 Hour event. This twice around the clock event has long been run at Nelson since 1980. In that initial event 30 years ago, Joe Nonnamaker competed in a Volkswagen Rabbi, finishing 5th overall and 1st Class SSC. In last year’s 24 hour race, Joe able to come full circle and this time secure the Overall victory, with his 2 sons, Will & Wayne, and Joe Sahlen in their Porsche Boxster.
Joe Nonnamaker reminisces about last year’s event – “Nelson Ledges has always been a special place for the Nonnamaker Family. My 1st races were here. Both Will & Wayne took their driver’s school here. And then to come back and win OVERALL at last year’s 24 hours was a dream come true. The ownership and management at Nelson Ledges has done a fantastic job rebuilding the track. The new resurfacing is just fantastic. I can’t wait to get out and race our Porsche Caymans at this weekend’s Summit Racing – American Endurance Racing event.”
With the unfortunate situation of COVID-19, Team Sahlen has had a considerable layoff since the last event raced on New Year’s Eve at Sebring International Raceway with the Tire Rack – ChampCar Endurance Series. The team was successful at this event, scoring the overall victory in the 7 hour enduro. And the last time Team Sahlen competed with the Summit Racing – American Endurance Racing series was at the Fall 2019 Mid-Ohio event. At this event, Team Sahlen secured the Overall Victory in both Saturday and Sunday’s enduros. Uniquely, Team Sahlen won with 2 different racers, Audi R8 & Porsche Cayman, in the two events.
During this 5 month off season, the Team Sahlen crew has been busy rebuilding the team’s fleet of race cars for this season’s full schedule of events. The list of cars prepared includes – “Retro” Audi R8 GT3 Ultra, “Saucy” Porsche Cayman GT4-PDK, “Lunatic” Porsche Cayman GT4-PDK, “Ketchup” Porsche Boxster, “Mustard” Porsche Boxster, “Salt” Porsche Cayman, “Dijon” Mazda RX7 and “Charcoal” Mazda RX7.
Car Chief Trevor Whipple shared his thoughts on the off season – “Preparing 8 race cars is quite an undertaking. We just took the approach of completing 1 car a week, and these short-term goals got us to the long term end game of having everything ready before the season event started.”
For this weekend’s event, Team Sahlen has entered their #41 Porsche Cayman GT4-PDK “Lunatic and #42 Porsche GT4-PDK “Saucy”. The team will be utilizing the Friday test session to shake the down their #43 Audi R8 GT3 LMS Ultra “Retro” and their #943 Porsche Boxster “Mustard” after their winter rebuilds.
Will Nonnamaker shared his thoughts leading up to this weekend’s race at Nelson – “I can hardly wait to get out on the track at Nelson. It is one of my favorite tracks to drive on. It has quite a fast course. The competition in the American Endurance Racing series is very tough. Hopefully our many laps around this course will provide us with a slight advantage in our quest for the top step on the podium.”
2020 Team Sahlen Campaign Partners
honeybeeBase.com, Porsche Beachwood, Audi Mentor, ECS Tuning, Tarett Engineering, Guard Transmission, Pittsburgh International Race Complex, HubstandsPRO, Maxima Racing Oil, Brothers Grimm Landscaping, NGK Spark Plugs, CM Racing Products, Mothers Polish, Grassroots Motorsports Magazine, Design Engineering Inc., Hard Brakes, Forgeline Wheels, Optima Batteries, All-Fit Automotive, Mazdaspeed, MSI Racing Products, Winding Road Racing, Performance Friction Brakes & WIX Filters.