WNY Auto Racing

Sahlen still smiling over seventh in Rolex 24

Elma's Joe Sahlen sat in his Sahlen's Packing Co. office last Tuesday still beaming about Team Sahlen's best ever performance in the 48th Rolex 24 at Daytona on Jan. 30-31. The race is America's premier annual sports car endurance event.

The driving team of Sahlen along with Ohio's Joe Nonnamaker and his sons, Will and Wayne Nonnamaker, endured the 24-hour grind and finished a respectable seventh in its No. 43 Mazda RX-8 in the GT class. They ran as high as fourth.

"I'm very upbeat about what happened at Daytona and about this season and so much more upbeat than any previous season that we have competed in Grand-Am," Sahlen said. "We took both cars to Daytona and pretty much used the No. 42 car as a practice car where we could gain additional feedback to put into our No. 43 entry. In fact, I was never in the No. 43 car until the race itself."

Sahlen started the race in the No. 42 car but parked it early so the team could concentrate its effort in the No. 43. The event went as planned except at one point when the team replaced a brake caliper and when Sahlen spun on the banking.

Team Sahlen switched this season from Corvettes to Mazda.

"The car ran great but we just didn't seem to have quite the speed that some of the other teams had. But we've got our computer data from the race that we will analyze and that will help us as we move forward," Sahlen said.