Team Sahlen, presented by honeybeeBase.com, secured their 6th Victory Overall in the Tire Rack – ChampCar Endurance Series. This victory was in the rain soaked Saturday 8 Hour Enduro at Road America in the Tire Rack – ChampCar Endurance Series.
Friday was a Test Day at the beautiful Wisconsin track. Team Sahlen tested all three Porsche Boxsters – #941 “Chili, #942 “Ketchup” & #943 “Mustard”. Having three race cars on track kept the crew very busy all day. The benefit of this allowed all 4 drivers to get plenty of seat time in preparation for the weekend’s long endurance events.
Saturday dawned with Rain. This placed all 60+ racers on high alert, as the race would start with at 8:30 am in the cold, with a wet track with more and more rain coming down by the minute. The Team Sahlen racers took their time in the early stages of the race, and rose up into the Top 5 Overall at the midpoint in the race. As the race neared the last hour of the race, Team Sahlen’s #943 “Mustard” was in 6th place – 2 laps down. Then the rain started to come down harder and harder. And as the conditions became more treacherous, the #943 moved further and further forward in the field. Then with 3 laps to go, “Mustard” passed for the overall lead. The checkered flag flew, and Team Sahlen secured the OVERALL win. This was Team Sahlen’s 6th consecutive victory in a row in the Tire Rack – ChampCar Endurance Series.
Wayne Nonnamaker shared how the end of the race went – “Those were some of the worst conditions I have driven in. I am not sure how I even kept the car on track some of those laps. But the end goal of OVERALL Victory was just sitting out there to be had, and I had to keep pressing on to hopefully real in the cars in front of us. Wow to have won 6 races in a row is a feat that I don’t believe our team has ever accomplished before. We will certainly cherish this marker for years to come.”
The temperature on Sunday night went very very low. And all the rain on Saturday turned into Ice on Sunday morning. There was ice on the cars, ice on the tents and ice on the track. This led to a sketchy track as the racers took the green flag. Soon a wreck into turn one led to a full course caution. As the cars went back to green though, the skies parted, and the sun came out. The track slowly dried, and the Team Sahlen racers slowly moved up the pack. As the race move forward through the midday into the final hour of the 7 hour race, the #943 “Mustard” was again on the charge, rising up from 5th place to pass 2nd place with just 20 minutes to go in the race. The event marked the 1st race ever for the team with the #941 “Chili”. The Porsche Boxster had been utilized as a test and practice car, but on Sunday it ran the full race, securing a very solid 6th Place overall after an unscheduled pit stop at the start of the race dropped the Boxster down the order by 2 laps.
Joe Sahlen shared his thoughts on “Chili” – “What a fantastic day today. I couldn’t be happier on how well Chili ran today. The crew did a fantastic job last night prepping the Porsche for today. And Chili ran strong all day, with 6th place a very good debut race result.”
Team Sahlen’s next race will be the New Year’s Eve event at Sebring International Raceway with the Tire Rack – ChampCar Endurance Series. The dual 8&7 hour enduros will be on Saturday and Sunday. The event will be televised live on ChampCarLive.com presented by AutoZone.
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