Team Sahlen entered the Sahlen’s Chumpyard DOG at the Glen for the 3^rd straight season.  The event, held over Memorial Day weekend, was highly contested with 107 entries.  Team Sahlen made up 3 of those entries with their trio of Mazda RX7s: #941-Charcoal, #942-Ketchup & #943-Mustard. 

The Friday practice day provided time for the team to shake down the Rotary Racers after a 6 month layoff since the last event.  With many developments to the race cars in the off season, there was a lot to learn and sort out.  As well, drivers Joseph Sahlen and Jacob Grimm had not driven since last year’s Memorial Day race weekend.  So getting on track for these 2 Team Sahlen racers was doubly important

Saturday dawned bright and sunny for the 7 hour event.  Team Sahlen took to the track focused on staying out of trouble and running in the Top Ten.    Both Ketchup and Mustard ran comfortably in the top 5 for much of the race, running as high as 1^st overall.  A couple of reoccurring issues forced the team into an off pattern pit strategy that compromised the end result.  This resulted in a very respectable but slightly off target finish of 8^th and 10^th for Mustard and Ketchup respectively.  Charcoal had a fine run in the 1^st half of the race, running as high as 8^th place, only to have transmission difficulties.  The hard work of the Team Sahlen crew though saw the transmission changed in time to allow Charcoal to only stay stationary for 2 hours of the event.

Joe Sahlen shared his thoughts on the day – “I really enjoyed driving the Team Sahlen Mazda RX7 today.  107 cars makes for a lot of traffic.  I felt that we had excellent handling, that allowed me to make many outside, double wide passes. 

Sunday dawned just as sunny and bright as Saturday, but now the temperature was a bit warmer.  In fact, during Sunday the temperature would get as high as the high 70s.    Sunday was not to be a good day for either Mustard or Ketchup, as both Rotary Racers suffered from some electrical glitches.  Mustard suffered the worst of the situation, falling back to 24^th overall at the end.  Ketchup battled back hard from the mid race set back and climbed back to 11^th place overall.  The story of the day though was Charcoal.  Driven by Joseph Sahlen and Jacob Grimm, the duo showed that a 12 month hiatus from racing was not going to limit them in their ability to get a high result.  Charging all day, setting excellent pace and avoiding trouble as much as possible, this tag team duo secured 13^th place overall. 

Joseph Sahlen shared his thoughts after the race – “That was a lot of fun.  I really enjoyed this weekend.  With this being my third year racing in ChumpCar, I feel like I am starting to get more and more comfortable with driving the car and managing traffic.  For Jacob and I to come out of the event with a 13^th place overall out of 107 racers is just fantastic stuff.  And to top it all off, I was able to have my whole family here with me camping out at the track, which made it even more memorable. I can’t wait to get back out there and race Charcoal again in the near future.”

Team Sahlen’s next race will be the Racing Radios Grand Course Enduro with ChumpCar World Series.  The June 17^th-18^th event will be held at the recently built National Corvette Museum Motorsports Park.  The track is located just across the highway from the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky.  The Saturday race will be an 8 hour enduro with Sunday being a 7 hour enduro. Team Sahlen will be entering their 2 Mazda RX7s for this event: #942-Ketchup & #943-Mustard.

2017 Team Sahlen Campaign Partners

eEuroparts.com, Tarett Engineering, Guard Transmission, Porsche of Beachwood, Pittsburgh International Race Complex, HubstandsPRO, Brothers Grimm Landscaping, NGK Spark Plugs, CM Racing Products, Mothers Polishes, Grassroots Motorsports Magazine, Design Engineering Inc., Hard Brakes, Forgeline Wheels, Alcon Rotors, Lamin-X,