presented by Design Engineering Inc.
Team Sahlen, presented by honeybeeBase.com, entered the NASA Team Racing Endurance Championship event at Pittsburgh International Race Complex for the Friday 4 Hour Enduro. This would be the team’s 1st foray into racing in the NASA TREC series. Yet the team would be no stranger to racing at Pittsburgh, having 1st been on the track way back in 2013. Over the past decade of racing at the rolling 2.78 mile circuit, Team Sahlen has accumulated 22 class victories.
For this weekend’s event, the team would be racing just 1 Porsche – the #943 “Mustard” Porsche Boxster. The drivers would be Joe Sahlen and Will Nonnamaker. The team rolled into Pitt Race on Thursday night to set up the paddock in advance of Friday – that would be a 1 day race event.
Saturday dawned with beautiful blue skies. The team quickly moved through tech and the drivers attended the morning official NASA series meeting, all in advance of the 1st practice session that occurred at 9 am. Due to constant rains that occurred in the Midwest in July, the track was very green. Soon though the track rubbered in during sessions 2 & 3. The team’s times were good enough to secure 3rd OVERALL and 1st in Class 4 on the grid. The 2 hour lunch break saw the team prep the Boxster for the race and set up the pits.
The 1:30 pm race start saw Will Nonnamaker behind the wheel, chasing the pole sitting #140 Legends Roadster. Will kept the pressure on the entire stint, keeping the open wheeler in striking distance. At the 1st pit stop, the team had run a perfect overcut, running several laps more than the #140, putting a gap on the pack, and stepping into 1st place.
Will Nonnamaker recapped the 1st stint – “That was a lot of fun racing with a Legends Roaster. The only real difficulty we had in that 1st 90 minutes was a strong sprinkle at 45 minutes that looked to threaten to be a downpour. But the clouds cleared out and it was smooth sailing after that for my drive.”
Joe Sahlen then proceeded to drive the next stint, continuing to distance the pack, pulling out an even bigger lead. Joe shared his thoughts after getting out – “The car was perfect my entire stint. I had no difficulties with traffic, and just was able to turn lap after lap on track.”
Will Nonnamaker ran the final leg of the race, taking care to bring the car home in one piece while retaining the lead. And as the checkered flag flew at 5:30 pm – the #943 “Mustard” Porsche Boxster crossed the line 1st. This victory marked the teams 22nd Class Victory at Pittsburgh International Race Complex. Even more importantly, this win marked the team’s 6 Endurance Sports Car Series to secure an OVERALL VICTORY within. The full series list includes Grand-Am Cup, ChampCar Endurance Racing Series, World Racing League, American Endurance Racing, Lucky Dog Racing and now NASA Team Racing Endurance Championship.
The next event for Team Sahlen will be the Tire Rack – ChampCar Endurance Series event at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on September 5th-7th. Saturday will be an 8 hour event followed by a 7 hour on Sunday. The team will be entering both the #942 “Ketchup” and the #943 “Mustard” Porsche Boxsters.
2025 Team Sahlen Campaign Partners:
honeybeeBase.com, Malco Products, Porsche Beachwood, Discovery Parts, ECS Tuning, Tarett Engineering, Guard Transmission, HubstandsPRO, Maxima Racing Oil, Pagid Brakes, NGK Spark Plugs, CM Racing Products, Grassroots Motorsports Magazine, Design Engineering Inc., OMP Racing, Bell Racing, Forgeline Wheels, Optima Batteries, All-Fit Automotive, Capri Tools, Fabspeed Motorsport, Eibach & Valco Cincinnati with Big Wrench Racing
