Posted (07/09/2005) -
(Picture by Juha Lievonen. Pictured are the eight Team Sahlen Porsches and our talented crew)
It has been a while since we last posted a Diary on-line (February after the 24 Hours), but this year has been a hectic one to say the least.
We are now midway through the season and we are looking towards the second half of the 2005 season to be a change of luck for us in both the Grand Am Cup and Grand American Rolex Series.
Our Grand Am Cup season has been one of close misses and unlucky situations. Joe, Will and I's father, and I are teamed up in this series in one of our stable of five Grand Sport Team Sahlen Porsche 996s. From the very first race we have had nothing but bad luck, and with over 40 entries in the Grand Sport class, bad luck of any kind takes you out of contention for a podium.
After Daytona we had a pylon be thrown in front of our car causing a radiator leak at California, a car overheat and lose power in the Dominican, another car hit us during the Laguna Seca race causing a flat tire, and while running sixth at the Glen we were taken out by an overly aggressive competitor. Our best finish of the season came at Mosport where we got an eleventh place finish, and once again we had some suspension problems caused by someone hitting us early in the race.
Joe Sahlen and Will Nonnamaker have also co-drove together this season in our Team Sahlen Porsche 996s. They have had some really great showings including a seventh place at California. Sahlen started the car and after a lengthy stint, Will took over at the end and held off the very talented Andy Lally in the RPM Porsche 996. Sahlen has had some great runs and has continually improved every race.
In the Grand American Rolex Series I am co-driving with Will while dad has had a rotating cast of co-drivers throughout the season. After Daytona we had a slow start to the season as we continued to develop our Team Sahlen Porsche GT3 Cups for the increased competition in the GT class. With factory teams from BMW and Pontiac, the stakes are increasingly high in the class that will field 25-35 cars a race.
The development work we have put into the GT Porsches has paid off recently as Will and I have had two seventh place finishes in the two most recent races. At both races we were unlucky on some yellow flag conditions and lost a lap to the GT leaders or we might have had some stronger runs. At the last race at Daytona, we held off a hard charging Kelly Collins during the last 30 minutes of the race. Collins, a factory BMW driver, was driving one of the four factory BMW M3s from the Team PTG stables, last year's GT Champions.
Will and I are tied for 13th in the Driver Points in a very competitive class. We are 56 points out of the lead, making a championship highly improbable for us, but with seven races still remaining we are highly optimistic we can move up in the points.
In the Team points we are sitting in sixth place and only 37 points out of the lead. We are ahead of all of the TPC Racing entries, last year's SGS champions, and all but one of the PTG entries, last year's GT Champions. We are hopeful that with some good finishes in our #43 Team Sahlen Porsche, we can move forward into a possible top three finish by the end of the season.
Joe, our dad, has had a rotating cast of drivers with him this season including Tomy Drissi, Keith Fisher, Eric Lux, and Kurt Roehrig. Despite the rotating cast, Joe still sits 24th in points. In the only two trouble free runs Joe has had (California and Watkins Glen) he scored two ninth place finishes.
This season Grand American has created a new award, the Bob Akin Award. The award is intended to recognize the best driver in the series that doesn't earn any part of his living from driving race cars. Drivers are rewarded for their finish in the race as well as how many miles they drove in the race. This format was established to avoid gentleman drivers who allow their professional<
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