Team Sahlen arrives at Mazda Raceway – Laguna Seca for the 8^th Round of the GRAND-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 on a super high after a fantastic weekend at the recent event at Road America.  At the Road America event, Team Sahlen captured the Pole Position in GT, backed up that time with Fastest Race Lap, then finished in 2^nd place, just under 1 second behind 1^st place.  In reaching 2^nd place though, Team Sahlen endured a hectic final 2 laps of the race, that saw the #42 Mazda RX-8 go from 5^th to 2^nd. 

For Mazda Raceway – Laguna Seca, John Edwards will continue to be partnered with Wayne Nonnamaker in the #42 Mazda RX-8.  “After a great first race with Team Sahlen that resulted in a 2nd place finish at Road America, I can't wait to get back on track at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca to go for the top spot! I expect the Mazdas to be fast at this track, and I am looking forward to building on a solid start with Team Sahlen. As usual, the GT battle will be very competitive, but I am sure we will be towards the front once again this weekend.”

Wayne continues to lead the Bob Akin Sportsman Award.  For the season so far, the young Nonnamaker has won 4 of the 7 event awards.  This places him perfectly to emulate his brother Will’s accomplishment of winning the 2005 Bob Akin Award. “I have been driving lots of laps on my iRacing game, so hopefully I will be as ready for Mazda Raceway, as I was for Road America.  With this being Mazda’s home track, it would be great to have a good showing here at Laguna Seca.” Wayne will be a busy driver during the weekend, as he will be driving both the #42 with John Edwards and co-driving with his father Joe Nonnamaker in the sister #43 RX-8. 

Team Engineer Catherine Crawford Wallace shares her thoughts on the coming weekend - "Laguna Seca has a very low grip slippery surface. The Mazda is the lightest car so will struggle to get as much heat in the tyres as some of the heavier competition. We will need to focus on this to hopefully keep the momentum for Team Sahlen going."

Rejoining Team Sahlen in the driver’s seat at Mazda Raceway – Laguna Seca will be Joe Sahlen “I am excited to be back driving after being away since the Sahlen’s 6 Hours event.  The Laguna track is a really fun circuit, and it is always enjoyable to visit the Monterrey area.” Joe will be teamed with his regular co-driver, Will Nonnamaker in the #49 Team Sahlen RX-8 sponsored by the Western New York Flash Women’s Professional Soccer Team.

Currently Team Sahlen’s #42 is in 8^th place in the Team Championship, only 23 points out of 1^st place.  To emphasize the competiveness of the GT field, this margin of point difference is actually less than the gap between 1^st and 2^nd in the Daytona Prototype Team Championship. Additionally, the #43 and #49 are in 14^th and 16^th place respectively as well.

The Continental Tire Sports Car Festival Powered by Mazda at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca will be televised live on SPEED TV at 4 pm EST. on July 10^th.

The 2011 Team Sahlen GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 is supported by Mazda, Mazdaspeed, HRPWorld.com, Cool Shirt, Racetech Seats, BBS, Racing Print Media, Alcon, Mothers Polish, EMCO, NGK Spark Plugs, TheRaceSite.com, Western New York Flash, Grassroots Motorsports, Castrol Oil, Holliday Canopies, ASC Industries, Iannetti  Design Ideas, CM Racing