{"id":751,"date":"2019-09-11T19:30:25","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T19:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/?p=751"},"modified":"2019-09-11T23:51:42","modified_gmt":"2019-09-11T23:51:42","slug":"team-sahlen-has-miraculously-amazing-overall-victory-at-the-nelson-ledges-24-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/11\/team-sahlen-has-miraculously-amazing-overall-victory-at-the-nelson-ledges-24-hours\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Sahlen has miraculously amazing Overall Victory at the Nelson Ledges 24 hours"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Fast Facts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Sahlen led 23 hours and 53 minutes of the race<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The overall margin of victory was 18 laps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Total Laps was 968, for a grand total of 1936 Miles<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The #942 Porsche Boxster \u201cKetchup\u201d made 11 Five Minute Pit Stops – the Minimun allowed by the rules<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The #942 was only on pit road for an additional 3 minutes for the entire rest of the race<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This win marks the 1st<\/sup> Overall Victory by a Porsche Boxster in the Tire Rack \u2013 ChampCar Endurance Series.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All four drivers, Joe Sahlen, Joe Nonnamaker, Wayne Nonnamaker and Will Nonnamaker, each drove 6 hours each of the 24 hour event<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe Nonnamaker has now participated in 7 Nelson Ledges 24 hour events, including the inaugural event in 1980<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2011 Nelson Ledges 24 was the 1st<\/sup> event that Team Sahlen competed in the Tire Rack ChampCar Endurance Series.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you were\ngoing to write the perfect script for 24 hour race, then this year\u2019s event at Nelson\nLedges would be a blueprint.  From beginning\nto end the race was went exactly according to plan.  Of course that plan was 39 years in the\nmaking.  Flashback to 1980, and a young\nJoe Nonnamaker had entered his VW Rabbit in the inaugural event called the Longest\nDay of Nelson Ledges.  Joe proceeded to\nenter several more of these twice around the clock events at this Iconic northeast\nOhio track through the years \u2013 1981, 1982, 1996, 2011, 2012,,,,and to the\npresent year 2019.  Because of these many\nyears, Joe and his family knew exactly what to expect and to be prepared\nfor.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe shared his\nthoughts – \u201cAfter being through so many\nevents, we have really learned what emergencies to be prepared for.  This can include what spares to have at the\ntrack, back up plans, emergency repair kits, pit stop coordination, and etc..\nAnd trust me, we have learned what to do by all the mistakes we have made\nthrough the years.  We didn\u2019t leave much\nto risk this year.  Including coming to Nelson\nLedges about 4 weeks ago just to test the car and get the drivers some laps.  I think that test really helped, as made some\nset up changes, and Joe Sahlen had the chance to get his 1st<\/sup> laps on\nthis high speed sweeping track.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Practice day\nsaw the team put minimal time on #942 \u201cKetchup\u201d, in order to save the Boxster\nfor the race.  Instead the team had brought\nthe Porsche Cayman \u201cSalt\u201d to provide seat time for the drivers in advance of\nthe race.  Night time practice saw\ninitial headlight aiming perfected rather quickly, so that all could get to bed\nearly.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday night,\nand Saturday night, the Nelson Ledges Road Course had arranged for live Band\nperformances for the racers and fans.  Sahlen\u2019s\nassisted in being an associate sponsor to this wonderful event. All the bands\nwere great, but Friday\u2019s Invincible band was particularly good, with the team\ngetting to chat with the lead singer who was a Pat Benatar tribute.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the start of\nSaturday\u2019s race, Team Sahlen received the random staring draw slot of 12th<\/sup>\non the grid.  This provided starting\ndriver Wayne Nonnamaker with the opportunity to quickly hone up on his passing\nskills.  Seven minutes into the race,\nWayne had \u201cKetchup\u201d in the lead.  A\nposition the team would not forsake for the remainder of the 23 hours and 53\nminutes.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the race\ndrew into the late afternoon, a significant wreck and oil spill saw the entire\nrace come to a stand still red flag.  The\nred flag lasted for about 40 minutes. \nOnce racing resumed, Team Sahlen continued to roll along collecting laps.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon the day\nturned into night,  and Team Sahlen\u2019s\ndrivers vast experience of driving in the dark became a very valuable asset.  While many struggled have consistent lap\ntimes and even some having off track incidents, the #942 \u201cKetchup\u201d just kept\nrolling along.  And when it was time for\na pit stop, the Team Sahlen crew was there to perform perfect service each\ntime.  Not only did each pit stop require\na driver change and fuel, but often times there was tire pressure checks, oil\nchecks, tire changes, windshield tear offs, and brake pad checks.  Yet, in spite of all that can occur in the pits,\nand on track, the #942 Ketchup spent exactly 58 minutes on pit road the whole\nrace.  This included the required 11 Five\nMinute Fuel Stops.  Added and subtracted\nup, this equals only 3 additional minutes on pit road.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team member Allen Wells shared his thoughts \u2013 \u201cWe had thoroughly prepared for this race to be execute in the pit stops.  Everyone at Team Sahlen did their part to ensure that we were as close to perfection as we could.\u201d<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the evening\nturned into night and then into early morning, many competitors had\ndifficulties with their car\u2019s performance and reliability, as well as just pure\nfatigue.  Will Nonnamaker shared his\nthoughts on this time of the race \u2013 \u201cIt\nsaw a lot of crazy stuff on track in my last shift from 4-6 am.  Cars dragging parts and kicking up sparks.  Cars locking up and going straight off\ntrack.  The craziest was a car that\ndropped its wheels and flipped down the road in front of me.  The good news is that I found out later on\nthe driver was ok, which was the best news, even if the car was a right off.\u201d <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As dawn broke, the skies were clear and blue. And Team Sahlen found themselves with an astonishing 20 lap lead.  With such a lead, everyone on the team knew that bringing the car home across the finish line was the essential goal now.  Extra attention was paid to looking \u201cKetchup\u201d by the crew on each pit stop.  The drivers too extra caution in passing.  Shifts were handled more delicately.  All in the effort to get to the end at 10 am <\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The honor of\nfinishing the race went to Joe Sahlen, bringing the #942 \u201cKetchup\u201d across the\nfinish line with a margin of 18 Laps.  Joe\nshared his thoughts – \u201cWhat a thrill to\nbe driving those last few laps.  I have\ncompeted in many 24 hour events before, but never at Nelson.  Will had been prodding me that I needed to\nrun this race for several years.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wayne Nonnamaker\nshared his thoughts at the end of the event \u2013 \u201cI can\u2019t believe it, I just can\u2019t really believe it.  Ever since Dad ran the 1st<\/sup> event\nhere way back in 1980, it has been our family\u2019s mission to win Overall\nhere.  We have come so close to winning\nhere before.  Each of those past races\nhad a story of what could have and should have been.  But now, the wait is finally over, and here\nwe are in Victory Lane, the Overall Winner. If there ever was such as thing as\na perfect race, this would be it.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2019 Team Sahlen Campaign\nPartners<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

honeybeeBase.com, Porsche Beachwood, Audi Mentor, ECS Tuning,\nTarett Engineering, Guard Transmission, Pittsburgh International Race Complex,\nHubstandsPRO, Maxima Racing Oil, Brothers Grimm Landscaping, NGK Spark Plugs,\nCM Racing Products, Mothers Polish, Grassroots Motorsports Magazine, Design\nEngineering Inc., Hard Brakes, Forgeline Wheels, Optima Batteries, All-Fit\nAutomotive, Mazdaspeed, MSI Racing Products, Winding Road Racing, & WIX\nFilters.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fast Facts: Team Sahlen led 23 hours and 53 minutes of the race The overall […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-751","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\/751","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=751"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":764,"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions\/764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teamsahlen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}