The start of the Daytona Brumos event for the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 started off very wet.  Only the last 20 minutes of practice were in the dry, making for some very interesting times for all teams on the track.

For Team Sahlen it was especially interesting as the new driver Andy Wallace was thrown in at the deep end of learning a new car in the rain.  Although Andy is fully capable of getting the maximum out of the Mazda, but rain always makes for a difficult time for any driver to be introduced to a race car.  And for Andy this problem was compounded in practice session 2.  As Andy was on his cool off lap in #42, with Wayne Nonnamaker in the #43 Team Sahlen Mazda just behind, he found himself sideswiped by a charging Daytona Prototype.  

Wayne recollects, “The Daytona Prototype passed me in the brake zone. I was surprised when he tried the move on me.  But then the Daytona Prototype went even further and tried to make it a double play by passing Andy as well.  Unfortunately,  this resulted in the DP backwards, hitting the #42 in the right rear.”

For Qualifying, Joe Nonnamaker suffered a very rare occurrence bearing failure on the right front. “I was coming down the front straightaway, and the pedal went straight to the floor.  Thankfully this happened on the front straightaway.  If this would have occurred on the infield, it would have been really, really bad.”

At the start of the race, Joe Nonnamaker and Will Nonnamaker took their time in traffic, and avoided any early laps incident.  An early yellow flag at the 30 minute mark allowed  Team Sahlen to pit both cars and put Wayne Nonnamaker and Andy Wallace in the driver’s seat.

Another yellow flag followed 15 minutes later.  Team Sahlen choose to split the pit strategy on the two Mazdas to cover the odds.  Wayne pitted the #43 Mazda for fuel and tires.  Andy Wallace continued around.  Uniquely, in this race, the pace laps were going especially quick.  This made for the interesting result that those that pitted never caught back up to the pack.  In fact, the leader in GT, who had received a wave by, actually never caught the back of the Daytona Prototype field when the pack retook the green flag. This strange set of circumstances saw Andy Wallace come around the track in 2^nd place in GT, with a considerable lead over 3^rd Place.

“It was very strange how the yellow flag laps were this race.  In fact, even on the pace laps, we were cruising a quite a brisk pace, that I was up to 5^th gear on the banking, keeping pace.” – states Will Nonnamaker

As the rotation of pit stops worked their way through during the race, Wayne rose up to 4^th.  The #43 was turning very competitive laps.  When the time came for the last pit stop, #43 came in and back out in good form.  A loose in handling at the end put Wayne’s lap times off of his previous stint, which put him to 10^th place in the very competitive GT class.

Having pitted at the 45 minute mark, the #42 Team Sahlen Mazda tried to stretch the fuel mileage out.  This almost worked out, as the RX-8 made it to within 2 laps from the end before a dash for fuel.  “Had their been another yellow at the end of the race, we would have been good on fuel, and would have most certainly had a chance at a top 10.” Shared Team Manager Jay Chapman.  In the end, #42 finished in 12^th place.

“I am very proud of the team today.  Everyone worked very hard during a very hot and tightly scheduled event.  The crew’s pit stops were excellent, and the race strategy was very wise and crafty to get both Mazdas into the Top 5 during the race.” – stated Joe Sahlen.

The next event for Team Sahlen will be the New Jersey Motorsports Park 250.  The Team Sahlen Mazdas will take the green flag on Sunday, July 18^th at 1 pm, and be Televised live  on SPEED TV.

The 2010 Team Sahlen GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 & GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Campaigns will be supported by Mazda, Mazdaspeed, HRPWorld.com, HAWK Performance, Cool Shirt, Racetech Seats, BBS, Racing Print Media, Alcon, Mothers Polish, EMCO, TheRaceSite.com, Grassroots Motorsports, Holliday Canopies, Alcon, CM Racing, Genesis Technologies, Endurance Karting, Bell Helmets, Castrol, Ianetti Design, and SpeedSource Engineering