{"id":2830,"date":"2022-01-30T21:43:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-30T21:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/?p=2830"},"modified":"2021-12-09T22:16:56","modified_gmt":"2021-12-09T22:16:56","slug":"will-nonnamaker-celebrates-30-years-of-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/2022\/01\/30\/will-nonnamaker-celebrates-30-years-of-racing\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Nonnamaker celebrates 30 years of Racing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

2022 marks the 30th<\/sup> Anniversary of\nracing for Team Sahlen\u2019s Will Nonnamaker.  For Will, he always had a\npassion to racing anything fast that wheels on it.  Whether that was a Big Wheel, Bicycle or an\nATV, he has always enjoyed the thrill and excitement of pushing to the\nlimit.  Fast forward to 1992, when Will\nwas attending Miami University, he couldn\u2019t take not getting to race any\nlonger.  The itch to get behind the wheel\nof a race car could wait no longer.   So went\nto the local Go-Kart swap meet in Dayton, Ohio. \nWill\u2019s family traveled down from Lima, Ohio to join him at the\nevent.  While walking around the expanse\nof Go-Karts, tires and misc parts for sale, an idea was struck upon to instead\nbuy a VW Golf from Team Sahlen\u2019s Bill Pate to race in SCCA. This journey led to\nWill & his Dad Joe traveling to Kokomo, Indiana over Spring Break to pick\nup the little hot rod.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The plan was hatched for Will to attend his 1st<\/sup>\nDriver\u2019s School at Nelson Ledges Road Course. \nThe one hurdle in this plan was that Will would be still taking his last\nfinal exam on the Thursday of Driver\u2019s School. \nAnd so, as always seems to go in racing, the greatest adventure in\nracing is somethings just getting to the track. \nWill drove left Oxford, Ohio on Thursday afternoon and arrived in Lima,\nOhio, where Joe had the VW lined up behind the RV.  No trailer, just driving the VW to the track,\nin the most grassroots start to racing as you can get.  The 1st<\/sup> year of racing had its ups\nand downs, with receiving the SCCA Western Ohio Rookie of the Year as the\nhighlight to the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fast Forward several years, and Will Nonnamaker made\nhis Professional debut in racing in the spring of 1994 in the IMSA Firestone\nFirehawk Endurance Series driving a Mazda MX6. \nSeveral years of gaining experience saw Will be rewarded with the 1996\nTouring Class Rising Star Award.   1999\nsaw Will partner with his brother Wayne in a 4 door Mazda 626 sedan.  And in this season the duo would secure the\nMotorola Cup Touring Class Driver Championship. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Next, Team Sahlen moved to Acura Integras, which saw\nWill secure the 2001 and 2002 Grand-Am Cup STII Driver\u2019s Championships.    This was then followed with the move to\nPorsche 911s in the Grand-Am Cup GS class. \nHere, Will Nonnamaker assisted in Team Sahlen securing the 2003 &\n2004 Team Championships.  Additionally at\nthis time, Will\u2019s lifelong dream of racing in the ROLEX 24 Hours was\nachieved.  In total Will raced in the twice\naround the clock event at Daytona a grand total of 10 times.  The results included a Top 10 overall,\nleading at Midnight, and breaking in the 1st<\/sup> hour of the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While campaigning in the Grand-American ROLEX\nseries, Will Nonnamaker achieved a unique distinction of winning the very 1st<\/sup>\never Bob Akin Sportsman Award for being the best nonprofessional driver in the\nGT class.  16 years later, and the Bob\nAkin Sportsman Award is still a coveted prize in the IMSA WeatherTech series.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Will achieved another lifelong dream of racing a\nPrototype in 2013, when Team Sahlen campaigned a BMW Daytona Prototype. Will\nshared his thoughts on driving a Prototype \u2013 \u201cEver since I was a little kid\nwatching the Holbert Porsche 962 and the Group 44 Jaguar, I wanted to race a\nPrototype.  That dream came true and I\ncherish every moment of that experience. \nDriving a car with downforce is like nothing I had ever experienced\nbefore, and it was truly a memory I will never forget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Then in 2014, Will teamed up with his brother Wayne\nfor a run at the IMSA Continental Tire Challenge ST championship.  In a hard fought season, the duo came up just\na few points shy of the Championship in their Team Sahlen Porsche Cayman.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Will\u2019s longest running Teammate in Endurance racing\nhas been Joe Sahlen.  The duo have raced\nalmost every type of Sportscar you can imagine \u2013 Daytona Prototype, Dodge SRT4,\nMazda RX7, Porsche Boxster, Mazdaspeed3, Chevrolet Corvette and much more.  Will shared his thoughts on having Joe Sahlen\nas a Teammate \u2013 \u201cI remember the 1st<\/sup> time I met Joe Sahlen, I just\nknew that he had a passion for racing like me. You could see it in his\neyes.  It has a been a great 17 year\npartnership both on and off the track.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Since 2015, the duo of Joe & Will have enjoyed\ngreat success in Sportsman Endurance Series, that has included the Summit\nRacing \u2013 American Endurance Racing, World Racing League, and the Tire Rack \u2013\nChampCar Endurance Series.  Facing large\n100+ fields and strong competition in these very competitive Sportsman\nEndurance Series, Will has been very fortunate to experience great success\nwinning over 20 events raced in the past 6 seasons driving Porsche Caymans,\nMazda RX7s, Porsche Boxsters and a Audi R8 GT3 Ultra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Will shared his thoughts on 30 years of racing \u2013 \u201cI\ndon\u2019t think I ever imagined 30 years ago I would still be racing.  I still have the same passion for driving as\nwhen I 1st<\/sup> got behind the wheel back at Nelson Ledges those many\nyears ago.  And as long as I have that\ndrive and enjoyment I will keep getting out for the thrill and excitement that\nis Endurance Sports Car Racing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2022\nTeam Sahlen Campaign Partners<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

honeybeeBase.com, Porsche Beachwood, Audi Mentor, ECS\nTuning, Tarett Engineering, Guard Transmission, , HubstandsPRO, Maxima Racing\nOil, Brothers Grimm Landscaping, NGK Spark Plugs, CM Racing Products, Mothers\nPolish, Grassroots Motorsports Magazine, Design Engineering Inc., Hard Brakes,\nForgeline Wheels, Optima Batteries, All-Fit Automotive, Mazdaspeed, Winding\nRoad Racing, Performance Friction Brakes, WIX Filters & Capri Tools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2022 marks the 30th Anniversary of racing for Team Sahlen\u2019s Will Nonnamaker.  For Will, he always […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2831,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2830","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\/2830","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=2830"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2862,"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2830\/revisions\/2862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}