Team Sahlen, presented by honeybeeBase.com, entered the New Year’s Eve Weekend at Sebring International Raceway with hopes of redemption. Redemption because in 2021 Team Sahlen had a very difficult weekend at Sebring with Mechanical mishaps placing the team with double DNFs for the dual enduro race weekend.
Previously though, Team Sahlen has also had good fortune at Sebring with ChampCar, with a 2nd and 3rd overall in the 2020 14 Hour race. Prior to this, Team Sahlen secured 1st and 3rd overall in 2019. In 2018, the team secured the EC Class victory on both Saturday and Sunday enduros.
The Team entered the Friday practice day to get the cars sorted out and to ensure that all 4 drivers were up to speed. The weather was beautiful, the cars ran great, and competitive times were set in anticipation of the 8 hour race on Saturday.
Saturday started with the team on the back of the grid from the random start draw. With 100 entries, this placed “Ketchup” and “Mustard” with several cars to pass to get to the lead. As the race entered the 1 hour mark, both cars had reached the Top Ten, with “Mustard” sneaking into the lead. An on track incident with a lapped car at the 90 minute mark took “Mustard” out of the event and the weekend. This left the mantle of carrying the team’s honor to “Ketchup” for the remainder of the event.
As the race progressed, “Ketchup” continued to move up the order, having the majority of the pit stops being under Full Course Caution / Code 35 assisting on this direction. As the race reached the last 2 hours, Team Sahlen was at the top of the order, with a lap lead on the competition. Maintaining a steady pace, the #942 Porsche Boxster crossed the line in 1st Place Overall.
Will Nonnamaker discusses how challenging the race was – “With 100 cars on track, just managing traffic was difficult. I know that many times I had to just remind myself to be extra, extra patient. And that is not always easy to do when you are strapped into a race car. Fortunately, we came out on top today against some very strong competition.”
For Sunday’s sunny event, Team Sahlen brought the #941 “Chili” Boxster into the starting lineup in replacement for the injured #943 “Mustard”. The starting order for Team Sahlen was a bit better than Saturday, as the team started in the front third of the grid. This day would be a day of perseverance and fortitude by the drivers and the crew, as a series of maladies struck both cars. This included a Power Steering issue, Shift Linkage, Fuel Pick Up and Wing Bracket breaking. The drivers did their best to drive through and around the issues. But most importantly, the crew did a fantastic job on each pit stop of diagnosing and resolving the issues the best they could remedy the issues. At the end of the race, the focused efforts resulted in the team netting a very respectable 4th and 6th place finish.
Team Manager Allen Wells shared his thoughts – “What a fantastic job the crew did all day working to resolve the issues. In spite of many problems, neither car stayed in the pits longer than the mandatory 5 minute stops, which is a testament to their dedicated focus and swift actions.”
2023 Team Sahlen Campaign Partners
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