New Jersey Motorsports Park is the site of Mazda’s capstone event of the 2011 ROLEX season.  In this event last year, Mazda was able to not only secure their one and only victory of the season in ROLEX, but doing it in style by finishing 1-2-3. Right smack dab in the middle of this success was Team Sahlen assisting in this amazing achievement.  Team Sahlen started of the event by qualifying on the Pole Position, and leading much of the race, then finally coming home in 2^nd place behind the similar #70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8.

Curiously in that same event, Team Sahlen’s current driver Dane Cameron secured the 3^rd place finish for Mazda while driving for Dempsey Racing.

Now partnered with Team Sahlen, Dane hopes for an even brighter New Jersey event in 2012 – “I am looking forward to NJMP. The past few years it has seemed to be a good track for the Mazda RX-8 so I am confident of achieving a good result. We made some gains with the car at homestead and I think we will have a very strong package at New Jersey no matter what conditions we face. I think we got enough rain at Homestead to last the rest of the season so hopefully the weather will be better!”

Co-Driving with Dane in the #42 Team Sahlen Mazda RX-8 will be Wayne Nonnamaker.  Wayne is the current leader of the Bob Akin Sportsman Award in the GT Class.  Wayne’s goal is to secure repeat in this prestigious award – “I am very excited about being back on top in the Sportsman Award.  This is a very competitive group that are involved in this award.  2^nd place in the standings is John Potter and Emil Assentato, whom have both won a race already in 2012.  Winning this award is almost as tough as winning the Driver’s Championship.”

Driving in Team Sahlen’s #43 Mazda RX-8 will be the father and son duo of Joe & Will Nonnamaker.  Currently the #43 is in 14^th place in the Team Championship, 7 places behind the #42 Team Sahlen racer.

Team Engineer Catherine Crawford Wallace shares her thoughts leading into New Jersey -  “Coming of the 2^nd place at Homestead we are looking forward to New Jersey. We showed good speed there last year and hope to keep the momentum going. It is earlier in the year so the track will not be a hot which works against us but the multitude of turn should work in favour of the lighter Mazda chassis.”

The Global Barter 250  at New Jersey Motorsports Park will start at 1 pm on Sunday, May 13th.  Live TV coverage will air on SPEED TV.

Check out the latest Team Sahlen news at:

 www.TeamSahlen.com

The 2012 Team Sahlen campaign in the

GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series is supported by:

 Mazda, Mazdaspeed, SimXperience, Alcon, Racetech, NGK, Cool Shirt, Racing Print Media, Mothers Polish, TheRaceSite.com, Western New York Flash, Grassroots Motorsports, ASC Industries, Iannetti Design Ideas, CM Racing, Quarter Master, BBS Wheels, MSI Racing Products, Endurance Karting and Akron Aeros