For the 3^rd straight race, Team Sahlen ran in the Top 5 in the GT class of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16.  At the New Jersey Motorsports Park event, the #43 Mazda RX-8, driven by Andy Wallace and Wayne Nonnamaker, ran a consistent and error free race.  And at the ¾ mark in the race, Team Sahlen had risen all the way up to 4^th place. 

“With the ROLEX GT field being so competitive, pit strategy can make a big difference in the race results.  We had just completed our last pit stop, and then 15 minutes later a full course yellow came out.  Had the Yellow came out either just before our pit stop, or after the rest of  the GT field had pitted, we would have been placed right up at the front.  That is the bad breaks.  But it is very nice to continue to be in a position where we are right at the thick of the action. In the end we had to settle for 13^th place.” Stated Wayne Nonnamaker

Earlier in the weekend, Wayne placed the #43 RX-8 in 10^th place on the grid for Qualifying.  Joe Sahlen set his fastest time of the weekend by qualifying the #42 RX-8 in 17^th position.

For the race, the #42 Mazda was shared by three drivers of Joe Sahlen, Joe Nonnamaker and Will Nonnamaker.  The extra hot summer weather meant that this 3 driver strategy was a wise choice.  Joe Sahlen started the car, and an early yellow flag saw the chance for a wave by to get the #42 back on the lead lap.  Unfortunately this did not occur, and saw the team go down a lap early in the race.  The three drivers though proceeded forward and brought the RX-8 home in one piece in 16^th slot in GT.

“It was amazingly hot today. It’s hard to explain how hot it was in the car.  The SPEEDTV announcers were showing temps of over 150 in the cockpits at the start of the race.  I can’t imagine what our body temperature was under all the suits in the heat of battle.  We finished without hardly a scratch on the car, and on this tight circuit, that is quite an accomplishment.” – stated Joe Nonnamaker

The next event for Team Sahlen will be the Crown Royal 200 at the Glen.  SPEED TV will televise the race live 6 pm, EST.

The 2010 Team Sahlen GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 & GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Campaigns will be supported by Mazda, Mazdaspeed, HRPWorld.com, HAWK Performance, Cool Shirt, Racetech Seats, BBS, Racing Print Media, Alcon, Mothers Polish, EMCO, TheRaceSite.com, Grassroots Motorsports, Holliday Canopies, Alcon, CM Racing, Genesis Technologies, Endurance Karting, Bell Helmets, Castrol, Ianetti Design, and SpeedSource Engineering