presented by Guard Transmission
Team Sahlen, presented by honeybeeBase.com, will be entering their 3rd event of the season at the upcoming Memorial Day Endurance Classic at Watkins Glen International. The event is with the Tire Rack – ChampCar Endurance Series. Saturday will be a 7 hour endurance race, followed up with another 7 hour endurance race on Sunday. This event is the home race for the Sahlen family. Joe & Anita Sahlen have been coming to Watkins Glen International for over 40 years. Their 1st race was during the Formula 1 weekend, where the duo camped out in the company Ford EconoVan. Now fast forward and Joe will be entering this weekend’s event with his Team Sahlen #942 “Ketchup” Porsche Boxster.
Joe Sahlen shared his excitement for the weekend ahead – “Coming to Watkins Glen is always an exciting time for the Sahlen family. Having come here for over 5 decades, it sometimes feels like a second home here in Western New York. And with Sahlen’s having sponsored the IMSA Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen for 26 years, we have grown very close with the wonderful staff here at the track. This weekend will be extra special as my son Joseph will be joining me again in the race. He will be driving a Lightning McQueen Ford Mustang in the race, so it will be easy to spot him.”
The team recently competed in the Tire Rack – ChampCar Endurance Series in the Daytona 14 Hour Event. In this race the team had the very, very bad unfortunate to have a transmission seal go bad on the 2nd lap of the race. This turn of events was very disappointing for the team, as the #943 “Mustard” Porsche Boxster had secured the overall victory the prior year. Will Nonnamaker shared his thoughts after Daytona – “The best news about Daytona was that the crew worked extra hard to fix the Boxster so that we could go back out on track. This allowed us to ensure the problem had been solved. Additionally, we were able to use the afternoon as a test session to work through set up for the new Kumho tires we are running on this year.”
In last year’s event Team Sahlen secured the Overall Victory in both Saturday and Sunday’s 7 Hour Enduros. The team knows that this good fortune may not occur this year – as the competition is super tough in the Tire Rack – ChampCar Endurance Series. Joe Nonnamaker shared his thoughts leading up to the race – “Each year the teams at the front end of the ChampCar field get tougher and tougher. We know that it will be super tough to repeat last year’s double victory. But the team is coming in prepared for this event. We have went testing several times since Daytona. And as well, I personally have been driving the iRacing simulator for Watkins Glen for past several weeks in preparation. Hopefully we are up to the challenge and we can compete at the sharp end of the grid.”
The weekend’s events start on Friday, May 22nd with Test & Tune in the afternoon. Saturday will dawn with a 7 hour enduro starting at 9 am. Then Sunday will have another 7 hour enduro. The race will be televised live on the ChampCarLive channel on YouTube.
2026 Team Sahlen Campaign Partners:
honeybeeBase.com, Malco Products, Porsche Beachwood, Discovery Parts, Valco Cincinnati with Big Wrench Racing, ECS Tuning, Tarett Engineering, Guard Transmission, HubstandsPRO, Maxima Racing Oil, Pagid Racing, Frozen Rotors, 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, Rennline, & Eibach
