Posted (04/30/2007) -
Team Sahlen came into Round 4 of the 2007 ROLEX Grand American GT series with high hopes. The crew had an opportunity to make several enhancements to the HRPWorld.com Corvettes. Those enhancements were evident as soon as the team took to the race track on the Friday Test Day.
"The #42 HRPWorld.com Corvette was running strong from the very start of Test Day. We were able to work on making some set up adjustments that really assisted in making #42 work event better." - states Joe Sahlen
The team also used their #41 Pontiac GTO to gain valuable track time on Friday's Test Day. The GTO ran like clock work, and allowed Joe Sahlen and Joe Nonnamaker to get more and more laps around the challenging Virginia International Raceway. Team Sahlen will continue to utilize the #41 Pontiac GTO, until the 3rd HRPWorld.com Corvette is completed in mid summer. At that time, the Pontiac will be retired, and the 3rd HRPWorld.com Corvette will be put into active service as #41.
"The GTO ran great, and it was good to get some extra laps around VIR. This track takes a long time to get around, and in a 1 hour session, laps are very valuable." - states Joe Nonnamaker
At the start of the Saturday afternoon race, Joe Nonnamaker mounted a mighty charge up through the pack. Having started 22nd out of 27 cars in the GT class, Joe passed GT car after GT car. Eventually, at the halfway point in the race, he had risen up to 10th place. This strong continued as Wayne Nonnamaker sloted into the finishing role. Running a strong 13th with only 20 minutes to go, a minor mechanical failure forced the #43 HRPWorld.com Corvette to slow the pace and settle for 16th position.
Team Sahlen's #42 HRPWorld.com Corvette faced a minor set pack on the pace laps that forced Joe Sahlen to start the race late. Despite this mishap, the Team Sahlen crew pressed forward, with a significant portion of the race still to run. This persistence paid off with a 20th place finish, in a 2 1/2 hour race that saw zero cautions.
The next round of the ROLEX Sports Car Series will be at Laguna Seca Raceway on May 19th. The race will be tape delayed on May 26th at 8 pm on SPEED Channel
The 2007 Team Sahlen ROLEX GT Campaign is support by HRPWorld.com, GOJO, Kempthorn AutoMall, HAWK Performance, Forgeline, Cool Shirt, TheRaceSite.com, TheRaceMarket.com, Grassroots Motorsports, HOTSEAT, Holliday Canopies, Alcon, CM Racing, Joe Gibbs Motor Oil, Genesis Technologies, Endurance Karting, Racetech Seats and Zip Corvette.
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