Team Sahlen continued a fine string of Top Ten Finishes with a fine 10^th place finish by Joe & Will Nonnamaker in the #42 Mazda RX-8 at Lime Rock Park.  This tally of 15 Top Ten Finishes in 2012 places Team Sahlen as tops in Top 10s in the Grand-American ROLEX Series GT class for 2012.

The 2 day season finale became even more compacted when the Friday Practice was essentially rained out.  This placed every ROLEX GT competitor in the same position – With little to no dry track time. 

Thus going into race day, every competitor was lost as to what to expect for Qualifying.  With 2 Black Flags in the 15 minute session limiting cars to 3 flying laps, hardly any questions were answered.

“I was expecting to be placed a bit higher than 6^th place.  But our light weight RX-8 just couldn’t build any heat into the tires to get the grip necessary to rip off a good time, at least not without risking putting the car off.  And with the race all in the same day, that risk just didn’t seem worth” – Shared Wayne Nonnamaker, who qualified the #43 Mazda

The early part of the race saw many cautions, including a strange one that occurred before the field even took the green flag, when a fellow GT competitor spun off under pace laps. Several more cautions followed in the early laps of the race.  While the #43 choose to wait until the 30 minute mark to pit and exchange drivers, the #42 choose a reverse strategy of topping off at each caution, and leaving in starting driver Joe Nonnamaker

Dane Cameron continued Wayne Nonnamakers’ strong charge to the front and maintained a Top 4 slot in the running order.  Then at about the 1 hour mark in the race, the rough curbing of Lime Rock Park caught out the #43 RX-8 with a broken halfshaft.  Although the crew was able to repair the Mazda and get it back out for the finish for a credible 12^th place, the race was a “what could have been”

Dane Cameron summarized his feelings on the event - “Well lime rock was not the send off we were hoping for in our last race in GT. while it was disappointing to have a mechanical failure take us out of podium contention I am still incredibly proud off the effort everyone at Team Sahlen has put forth during this season. It has been trying at times but nobody ever gave up and it was a great feeling to achieve 3 podiums and our first victory this season. Now the focus shifts 100% to our Daytona Prototype program which is shaping up nicely!”

The #42 entry also did not go without mishap, as Joe Nonnamaker was sideswiped by a Daytona Prototype, that flattened both his right side tires.  This forced a very slow lap into the pits.  The unexpected pit stop lost valuable green flag seconds while the tires were changed and drivers exchanged.  Will Nonnamaker go into the Rotary Machine and drove his 1^st dry laps of the weekend in the middle of the race.  Will persevered with steady and strong laps to secure Team Sahlen their 15^th Top Ten finish of the year with ironically a 10^th place finish.

“It was a great race.  I didn’t know what to expect having no dry laps before the race.  I think we lost a bit of handling from the incident with the DP, as it really didn’t want to turn left.  But despite that, we were within a few tenths off all the other Mazda competitors, so I was very happy with that pace.  And to secure our 15^th Top Ten of the year was just fantastic.” – shared Will Nonnamaker

At the conclusion to the season, Team Sahlen placed the #42 & #43 in 7^th and 9^th in the Team Championship respectively.  The “Wayne & Dane Show” placed a very respectable 6^th in the Driver’s Championship.  Wayne Nonnamaker was denied repeating as the Bob Akin Sportsman Champion, finishing in 2^nd Place in the standings.

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