Posted (03/17/2009) -
Team Sahlen's high point to the Homestead KONI event was a fantastic qualifying run by Joe Sahlen to position the #43 Mazda RX-8 at 13th place on the 31 car grid.
The team arrived early for the event to attend the pre-event Test Day. The Test day went well with both drivers.
"Test Day went very well. The set up changes we made to the Mazda at the recent test at Kershaw certainly made a difference in the drivability of the RX-8. The crew performed very throughout the weekend. A lot of hard work went into getting to the event, everyone carried that dedicated effort into the weekend." - states Crew Chief Mike Thomas
Starting in 13th spot, Joe Sahlen wasted little time in moving up to 10th in the Street Tuner class. Unfortunately, the teething issues of the new RX-8 Transmission surfaced very early on. This forced Joe and Will to drive around Homestead with only two gears. Despite this handicap, the duo soldiered on, continually running pace with the cars in the 2nd half of the field.
"One thing that is true about this team is that we never give up the fight. We are always working hard to persist forward. I don't think anyone on this team knows the word "Give Up". Today was no different, as we didn't let a little thing like loosing 4 gears slow us down." - states Will Nonnamaker
In the end, Team Sahlen settled for 22nd on the finishing order. The next event for Team Sahlen will be the New Jersey KONI Chall