For the Nonnamaker family, Canadian Tire – Motorsport Park holds fond memories.  Back in the 1990s the track then known as Mosport Park. 

Will Nonnamaker shared his thoughts and memories from the track – “We have had a lot of good times at this track.  I think the 1^st race I ever drove at Mosport Park was my favorite. This was the last 24 Hour race ever held in the Continental Sports Car Challenge Sports Car Series.  At the time there were 3 classes, Grand Sports (GS), Sports (S), Touring (T) and Compact (C).  We were in the Touring class racing our Mazda MX-6 racers.  At the time we were racing the Honda Prelude.  This car was known for being super reliable.  Our strategy for the race was to just go as hard as we could from the get go and see what would happen.  The driver lineup was Alistair Oag, Bill Pate, my Dad Joe, and myself.  Alistair put the car on pole.  The Honda racers didn’t seem to care, because they didn’t figure we would be around at the end.  When the green flag flew, we were off and running, charging hard.  On the 3^rd driver stint, our car went into the tire barrier in turn 2 and flipped over.  They tried to put my Dad in the Ambulance, but he would have none of that.  He got the corner workers to push it back on all 4 wheels and he drove it back to the pits.  I was the very next driver in the car, and jumped in not knowing if the car was straight, bent or crooked.   Fortunately, it was just fine.  In fact, I was turning lap times equal to the leaders.  Then as night fell, we kept up the pace, knowing that we had a few laps to make up.  When I got up in the morning to fill in for Bill & Alistair, we were in 2^nd place in ST.  In fact, we were in 2^nd place overall. We were beating all the Sports class cars, and the overall Grand Sports class racers.  At the end of the race, we had clawed all but one lap back from that early roll over to finish 2^nd overall and 2^nd in class.  Who would ever imagine that you would finish 2^nd overall, and not win your own class.”

Will continued with his least favorite races at Canadian Tire – Motorsport Park – “ I would say my last trip to the track in 2005 was my least favorite.  At that race, we were competing the GS class, and the Power Steering unit started to fade in and out on my Porsche 911.  This meant that you would turn the wheel, and at some random point the car would start to turn, and then you would have to auto correct if it caught sooner than you expected.  In fact I would have been much happier to have had no Power Steering. At least then I would have known when the steering would kick in.  But we did finish the race, albeit 22^nd out of 33 in the GS class.”

Although over 10 years later, much is the same with Team Sahlen.  Just like in 2005, the team will be competing in Porsches. This time they will be Caymans in the ST class.  The familiar Red paint scheme with Yellow lightning bolts are still are prevalent, with the famous Sahlen’s logo flying on the hoods. And just like 2005, the drivers will be Joe Sahlen, Joe Nonnamaker, Wayne Nonnamaker and Will Nonnamaker.  But for this season, the driver pairing has changed to Will & Wayne together, with Joe & Joe teamed up. 

Currently, Team Sahlen comes into the weekend on a fine run.  This includes 2 straight 2^nd place finishes at Kansas and Watkins Glen. 

Wayne Nonnamaker shared his thoughts – “The Canadian Tire Motorsports Park event marks the start of the 2^nd half of the race season.  I am looking forward coming back here.  This is one of my favorite tracks.  It is very flowing, and it takes great courage to get around here fast.  We just keep doing what we have been doing and hopefully the results will follow."

The Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race will start at 1:15pm on Saturday July 12^th.  The 2 hour and 30 minute race will be tape delayed on FoxSports1 for July 20^th at 10 am est.

2014 Team Sahlen Campaign Partners:

Turbo Performance Center, Tarett Engineering, MOMO, Guard Transmission, Forgeline, Porsche of Beachwood, Pittsburgh International Race Complex, HubstandsPRO, MSI Racing Products, NGK Spark Plugs, TheRacingInsiders, CM Racing Products, Mothers Polishes, Winding Road Racing, Grassroots Motorsports Magazine, Maxima Oil, CV Products, Design Engineering Inc., Hella, Racing Print Media, Hard Brakes, CRC Chemicals, Penske Shocks, Alcon Rotors, Lamin-X, Optima Batteries and TheRaceSite.com.