Presented by Eibach
Team Sahlen, presented by honeybeeBase.com, entered the Tire Rack – ChampCar Endurance Series National Championship with a focus to compete for the title. The team entered both their #942 “Ketchup” and #943 “Mustard Porsche Boxsters with drivers Joe Sahlen, Joe Nonnamaker, Wayne Nonnamaker & Will Nonnamaker. It had been over a decade since all 4 drivers had been on the Virginia International Raceway track. So everyone was looking forward to the Friday Test Day. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans – and 1 inch of sleet and snow covered the ground – canceling the day’s on track activities. The crew focused in on unloading the cars and ensuring all prep was ready for the 15 hour enduro coming up on Saturday & Sunday.
Saturday dawned with frigid temperatures and overcast skies. With their strong results from the season, Team Sahlen was gridded in in 1st and 2nd OVERALL. The duo of Wayne & Will Nonnamaker each started a Boxster, with the plan to plan to run a solid pace in the early stages of the long race.
Wayne Nonnamaker shared his thoughts from the start of the race – “We knew that this was going to be a long race, the track was going to be cold, and traffic would be difficult. So Will and I made plan to just run a cautious 1st stint. We settled into 3rd and 4th. There was a lot of cars going off track and spinning in front of us, thus just surviving was the key.”
The #942 had a perfect day – Catching 2 of the 3 pit stops under Code 35 Cautions – and zero off track excursions. This placed “Ketchup” in 3rd place, just behind 2nd place, at end of Saturday’s 8 hours of racing. #943 had a car knock it off track and was not as fortunate on yellows. This placed “Mustard” in 4th place – a few laps off the front. The end of the day’s racing activities was a bit unusual, as this event was a parc ferme event. All race cars were parked on pit straight, with car covers placed over them, awaiting the next day’s continued racing. No work could be done to the cars overnight.
When the 9 am re-start time came on Sunday – a thick fog covered the entire track. Visibility was limited to no more than 50 yards. This was not condition to start the race, and thus race cars rolling on track was delayed. Then the delay was delayed even more. Finally after 3 hours of waiting, the green finally was dropped to restart the race. And now instead of a 15 hour race, the event was now a 12 hour race. More importantly, the 4 hours of Sunday racing made for a “sprint” race for the team. Strategy changed for all racers including Team Sahlen. Fortunately for Team Sahlen both of the day’s stops were able to be accomplished in Code 35 Yellow Flag conditions. This allowed the team to lose minimal time in the pits.
As the race drew towards a completion – amazingly Team Sahlen’s #942 “Ketchup” was only 1 lap off of the leader. This 2 minute gap would be difficult to bring back on pure pace. But anything can happen in a race, with traffic and reliability. So the team kept pushing and pushing to keep the pressure on the leader. Although this pressure was strong, the team ended up concluding the event in 2nd Place and 4th Place OVERALL. The team also secured 1st and 3rd in the C Class results and Championship. This was the team’s 15th crown since 1984.
Joe Sahlen shared his thoughts after the event – “The team did a great job today. We were super strong on both days. This was tough competition, and finishing only 1 lap of the leader is quite an achievement. It was a bit strange with all the fog on Sunday – but kudos to the VIR and ChampCar for persevering to get the event going at noon.”
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, Rennline & Valco Cincinnati with Big Wrench Racing