Team Sahlen, presented by honeybeeBase.com, secured the OVERALL Win at the Nelson Ledges 7 hour enduro on July 13th. This victory marked the 9th straight season that the team has won OVERALL in the Tire Rack – ChampCar Endurance Series.
Team Sahlen 1st entered the series all the way back in 2011. This event was the grueling 25 hours and 25 minutes of Nelson Ledges. In this race, the team entered their “Charcoal” Mazda RX7. Although this event did not result in an OVERALL Victory, the team held their own, leading the early point of the race, and securing 11th Overall out of 71 entries. The team continued to make progress racing in the series, while also competing in the IMSA ROLEX and Michelin Challenge Series. Then in 2015, the team converted to being fully dedicated to Sportsman Endurance Racing, which included the Tire Rack – ChampCar Endurance Series.
The team’s 1st Overall victory in the series came at the 2016 Gingerman “Cookie Cutter” Classic, where the team secured a dramatic 1st and 2nd OVERALL on Sunday’s 7 hour enduro. The team continued this success with an Overall Victory at Pittsburgh in both 2017 & 2018 in their rotary rockets. The team converted to the Porsche Boxster in 2019, and dually secured Overall Victories at the Nelson 24 and Sebring. The abbreviated COVID 2020 season saw the Team secure a fortunate victory at the Pittsburgh event. 2021 was a banner year, as the team added to their total with Overall Victories at Watkins Glen, Mid-Ohio and Pittsburgh. Then just last year, the team secured Overall Victory again at Watkins Glen and Pittsburgh.
Team Sahlen’s current marker of Overall Victories in the series sits at 23. This places the team in a tie for 1st place with rbangracing / 90Racing.com. The team hopes to add to this total this fall, but knows that the competition in the series will be as fierce as always and any victory will be hard fought.
Joe Nonnamaker shared his thoughts – “ChampCar has grown into a very competitive series. I remember our 1st event in 2011, and to see where it has grown to is just amazing. I have raced in a lot of Endurance Series through the past 5 decades, and I can say that securing Overall Victories here is no easy achievement. You have to have a perfect race on track, run consistently fast laps, have super clean pit stops and have a bit of luck on your side. To imagine that we have been able to secure an Overall Victory for 8 straight years is a testament to the dedicated, hard effort from out Team Sahlen crew over this extended period of time.”
Beyond just Overall Victories, Team Sahlen has been able to secure class tallies of 42 wins and 84 podiums from 151 race entries. These victories have come in Class B, C and EC. As well, this marker was achieved with seven different race cars – 3 Mazda RX7s, 3 Porsche Boxsters and 1 Porsche Cayman.
In addition to the streak 9 year of Overall Victory in the Tire Rack – ChampCar Endurance Series, Team Sahlen was also able to achieve an 8 year win streak in the Summit Racing – American Endurance Series, dating back to 2015. The team’s 20 OVERALL Victories in the American Endurance Racing is the most all time in series. The streak that might be the most remarkable would be the 3 year period from 2016 – 2018, when Team Sahlen secured Overall Victory in 3 Sportsman Endurance Series: Tire Rack – ChampCar Endurance Series, Summit Racing – American Endurance Series and World Racing League.
Will Nonnamaker shared in his astonishment of this marker – “I don’t think we quite realized how difficult this achievement was until years later. Although each of these series followed much of the same format with endurance races, production cars and 200W Tires, the rules set for each series was very differentiated. We had different cars for each series, there were different pit rules, and teams to compete against that specialized in each series. And to accomplish the overall victory in each series 3 years in a row just says a lot about the level that our crew is able to perform at race in and race out.”
About Team Sahlen: Championship Winning Sports Car Endurance Racing Team
Team Sahlen has a rich history in Sports Car Endurance Competition. In the team’s inaugural year, the team won the 1984 SCCA Endurance SSC class racing a Volkswagen Golf. This was followed by winning the same Championship in 1987. In 1997 and 1999 the team secured the IMSA Endurance Touring class Championships racing the Mazda MX6. The team then switched to Acura Integras and won the 2001 & 2002 Grand American Endurance ST Titles again. Next the team moved up to the IMSA Endurance Championship and secured the 2003 & 2004 Titles racing Porsche 911s. The team then transitioned to the Grand American ROLEX series competition, racing a variety of cars that included Porsche GT3 Cup, Pontiac GTO, Chevrolet Corvette and Mazda RX7. During this period the team captured the 2005 and 2011 Bob Akin Sportsman Awards in the GT class. In 2013 the team competed in the top level of Sports Car Racing – the Prototype class in the ROLEX Series. This 1st year in Prototypes saw the team secure 2 Pole Positions, many laps led and securing the Jim Trueman Sportsman Award. In 2014, Team Sahlen returned to the IMSA Endurance Championship, securing Porsche the Manufacturer Championship, and narrowly missing out on the ST Driver & Team Championship. During 2016 & 2017, Team Sahlen competed in 3 Endurance Series (American Endurance Racing, World Racing League and ChampCar World Series) and achieved the unique distinction of winning OVERALL in each of the 3 Endurance Series. In 2022, the team celebrated their 8th straight season securing an Overall Victory in the Summit Racing – American Endurance Racing series. And in 2024, the team then celebrated their 9th straight season securing an Overall Victory in the Tire Rack – ChampCar Endurance Championship.
Check out the latest Team Sahlen news at: www.TeamSahlen.com
Team Sahlen All Time Statistics:
Driver Championships: 12
Team Championships: 7
Manufacturer Championships: 12
Victories: 129
Podiums: 333
Fastest Race Laps: 106
Pole Positions: 55
2024 Team Sahlen Campaign Partners:
honeybeeBase.com, Malco Products, Porsche Beachwood, ECS Tuning, Tarett Engineering, Guard Transmission, HubstandsPRO, Maxima Racing Oil, Pagid Brakes, NGK Spark Plugs, CM Racing Products, Grassroots Motorsports Magazine, Design Engineering Inc., Hard Brakes, Forgeline Wheels, Optima Batteries, All-Fit Automotive, Winding Road Racing, & Capri Tools.
