{"id":1854,"date":"2020-11-13T17:07:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-13T17:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/?p=1854"},"modified":"2020-11-13T17:08:08","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T17:08:08","slug":"team-sahlen-has-epic-14-hours-of-sebring-all-the-way-to-the-checkered-flag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/13\/team-sahlen-has-epic-14-hours-of-sebring-all-the-way-to-the-checkered-flag\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Sahlen has epic 14 Hours of Sebring all the way to the Checkered Flag"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Team Sahlen,\npresented by honeybeeBase.com, entered Bell Racing 14 Hour Fall Classic at\nSebring International Raceway with great enthusiasm after their most recent OVERALL\nVictory in the Tire Rack \u2013 ChampCar Endurance Series at Pittsburgh International\nRaceway Complex.  The event would be the opening\nevent to the upcoming Sebring 12 Hours with the IMSA WeatherTech series, to be\nheld 7 days later.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Friday saw an\nopen Test and Tune day for all ChampCar racers. Team Sahlen took advantage of\nthis opportunity to shake the Stuttgart racers on the 3.74 mile World War II\nAirport Runway Circuit.  All four team drivers\n(Joe Sahlen, Joe Nonnamaker, Wayne Nonnamaker & Will Nonnamaker) took turns\nbehind the wheel.  The team was happy\nwith the day, with the handling on the Boxsters being excellent.  With a big day on Saturday, the Team Sahlen\ncrew worked diligently in the afternoon to race prep the cars before 5 pm,\nensuring an early dinner and good nights rest. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday dawned\nwith very sunny skies and 89 race cars on the pit road, ready to take the 14\nhour Enduro.  In the random draw starting\nline up, Team Sahlen rolled off in the 71st<\/sup> and 72nd<\/sup>\nstarting slots.  Solid driving through\ntraffic saw both \u201cKetchup\u201d and \u201cMustard\u201d move forward to the Top 5 by the end\nof hour one.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As the race\nprogressed into hours 2, 3, 4 and 5, the Hurricane coming through the Gulf brought\nin rain sheers to the central Florida circuit. \nThis made for very treacherous conditions. Straightaways were flooding causing\nhydroplane conditions.  Parts of the\ntrack would be wet and parts would be dry from lap to lap.  Spinning cars would cause mud and grass to be\nrandomly spewed across the track unexpectedly from turn to turn.  Team Sahlen methodically moved through the traffic\nto slide up into 2nd<\/sup> and 3rd<\/sup> OVERALL on track.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe Sahlen shared\nhis thoughts on the 1st<\/sup> half of the race \u2013 \u201cIts hard to describe\nwhat its like to be on track with 89 racers, in sheering rain causing flooding\nand blinding mist conditions on track is like. \nOur crew did a great job executing excellent pit stops.  Just surviving the 1st<\/sup> half of\nthis race was a victory in itself.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A brief drop\noff in rain at the 8 hour mark had all teams hopeful that conditions would lighten\nup, and make for a dry track.  This false\ndawn though was soon squashed as a new wave of rain sheers arrived, making for\nthe remainder of the 14 hour event to be continually wet on track.  As day rolled into night, Team Sahlen bolted\non their headlight bar and prepared for the final push to the finish.  Typically, when a race has rain and night time\nmixed together in results in several incidents on track.  Instead the direct opposite happened, with\nthe final 5 \u00bd hour of the race run under full green flag conditions.  This made for a very epic conclusion to the\nevent.  Both Team Sahlen\u2019s \u201cKetchup\u201d and \u201cMustard\u201d\nbattled to claw back onto the lead lap. \nWith an hour to go in the race, both Boxsters made their final pit stop\nin the race, and started chasing down the leader.  In the end, the team was just short on time\nto reel in the leader, netting a 2nd<\/sup> and 3rd<\/sup> OVERALL and\n1st<\/sup> and 2nd<\/sup> in Class C. \nThe margin to the leader being less than a minute, after 14 grueling hours\nof racing.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wayne Nonnamaker\nshared his thoughts at the end of the race \u2013 \u201cAfter the race, everyone on\nthe team kept saying the same thing- what an EPIC race this was.  And in all of my years of racing, I can\ntestify that this was indeed one of the more epic events I have ever been\nin.  To have both our Hot Dog racers on\nthe lead lap after 14 hours is truly amazing. \nAnd the only way this occurs if our racers run perfectly all day, and\nthat is where all the credit is due to the crew for prepping to cars that\nwithstand the 14 hour event without one mechanical hiccup.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2020 Team Sahlen Campaign Partners<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

honeybeeBase.com, Porsche Beachwood, Audi Mentor, ECS\nTuning, Tarett Engineering, Guard Transmission, Pittsburgh International Race\nComplex, HubstandsPRO, Maxima Racing Oil, Brothers Grimm Landscaping, NGK Spark\nPlugs, CM Racing Products, Mothers Polish, Grassroots Motorsports Magazine,\nDesign Engineering Inc., Hard Brakes, Forgeline Wheels, Optima Batteries,\nAll-Fit Automotive, Mazdaspeed, MSI Racing Products, Winding Road Racing,\nPerformance Friction Brakes & WIX Filters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Team Sahlen, presented by honeybeeBase.com, entered Bell Racing 14 Hour Fall Classic at Sebring International […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1855,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1854"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1863,"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1854\/revisions\/1863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}