Posted (02/04/2008) -
Team Sahlen entered the KONI Challenge Series opener at Daytona with hopes of assisting Mazda in winning the Street Tuner class Manufacturer Title.
At the January Test Days, Team Sahlen ran very competitive times with their HRPWorld.com Mazda RX-8, setting 11th fastest time over the 3 day event. At the start of practice, Joe Sahlen secured the 10th fastest time of the 51 Street Tuner competitors. In Practice 2, Team Sahlen focused upon fuel mileage and race set up. Then for Qualifying, Joe Sahlen solidy placed the #43 into 13th in the field. On Friday morning, Will Nonnamaker got his first laps of the weekend behind the wheel, and placed 15th in the morning warm up.
"I had a really great tow on my hot lap. I think there might have been a bit more left on the track, but I am happy with 13th on the grid. It places us well for the race. Certainly being at the forefront of the Street Tuner pack should help us at the start." - states Joe Sahlen
At the start of the race, chaos broke loose in turn 4, with Street Tuner cars fighting for every last inch of the road. Acuras and Mazdas were spinning everywhere. Joe steered the HRPWorld.com Mazda clear of the commotion and progressed forward. As the initial 1/2 of the race settled in a groove, Joe found a nice steady pace in 15th spot.
Then a yellow flag came out at the 1 and 20 minute mark. Team Sahlen pitted, fueled and Will Nonnamaker jumped in the car. The amazingly quick pit stop placed Will in 8th place in the Street Tuner Class. As the race went back to green, continued mayhem followed on track. Will used his years of racing experience to pick his way through traffic.
By lap 63, Will had battled up to 6th place in Street Tuner. Then a miscalculation on fuel caused the Mazda racer to run out of gas. A great run ended with the car stranded on the back straight, with only a few short laps to go. A bitter ending to a fantastic run.
"With over 90 Grand Sports and Street Tuner cars combined on course, there was never a dull moment on track. You were either passing someone, or being passed,,,or sometimes passing while being passed. Joe did a fantastic job. The HRPWorld.com Mazda was excellent. I can't wait to get to a non power track, where our handling can play out. It was a gamble on the fuel that didn't work out. Usually there are a lot more yellows at the end of these Daytona races. I know we were headed for a Top 10 run, which would have been great for Mazda in the Manufacturer's chase. Lime Rock is next, and it should be a lot of fun." - states Will Nonnamaker
The 2008 Team Sahlen KONI Challenge Series Campaign is support by HRPWorld.com, GOJO, HAWK Performance, TheRaceSite.com, TheRaceMarket.com, Grassroots Motorsports, Holliday Canopies, CM Racing, Genesis Technologies and Mazdaspeed.
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