Team Sahlen, presented by honeybeeBase.com, entered the Tire Rack – ChampCar Endurance Series at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course to compete in the dual enduros. This was to include an 8 hour race on Saturday and a 7 hour enduro on Sunday.
But 1st on Friday was a Test&Tune Session that allowed the team to shake down both the #942 “Ketchup” and #943 “Mustard” ECS Tuning Porsche. The Boxsters ran great with very competitive times.
For Saturday, the team was fortunate to draw a high starting slot, being 15th and 16th out of 70 racers. This allowed the Joe Nonnamaker and Joe Sahlen to able to rise up quickly through the pack to the top 3. A mechanical issue unfortunately placed “Mustard” behind the wall for the day. This left “Ketchup” to hold up the honor for Team Sahlen. Joe Sahlen ran a solid shift to hand the racer over in 2nd place overall. During the next shift driven by Will Nonamaker, a damaged splitter placed Team Sahlen on their back feet trying to repair the damage on various pit stops. Although not perfect, the crew did make enough repairs to allow the drivers have a racer good enough to charge through the field. And charge the drivers did, rising up from 15th to 5th in the last 3 hours.
Overnight it was concluded that “Mustard” would not be able to start Sunday’s 7 hour enduro. This left “Ketchup” to make the lone start for the team. Ace Rain Driver Wayne Nonnamaker was slotted into the driver’s seat for the start of the very, very slick track. Starting 50th out of 60 racers, Wayne methodically set passing cars. And after 2 hours of driving had risen up to 2nd Overall. An unfortunate incident in the 3rd hours saw “Ketchup” have day ending damage. Team Sahlen ended up retiring for the day, hoping to regroup for the very next ChampCar event that is to take place in just 2 weeks at Road America.
Will Nonnamaker shared his thoughts after the race – “We were very competitive on each day, rising up to the top 3 on both days. But unfortunately, these are endurance races, where you need to be fortunate to not have any incidents or problems though the whole 8 hours. This weekend was not our weekend, but we will be back and ready to go again in 2 weeks in Wisconsin.”
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