Birmingham: Team Shalen race report

Joe Nonnamaker wins Bob Akin winner at Barber Park

As the 2007 ROLEX race season draws to a close, The Bob Akin Sportsman Award for GT drivers is starting to heat up. Team Sahlen's Joe Nonnamaker is right in the thick of the title chase, only 61 points behind Emil Assentato's 3793 points.

Joe greatly improved his title hopes by having a strong run at Barber Motorsports Park, with a 13th place finish. Joe also drove 75% of the race. With each mile driven by the Sportsman driver counting in conjunction with finishing position, this was invaluable to the chase for the Akin Award.

The event was not without drama, as Joe finished the Barber ROLEX GT race in crossing the finish line on fire. Excess rubber build up had caused the exhaust to catch the bodywork on fire. Thankfully Joe was able to escape the car and the crew was able to extinguish the flames.

"This was a very tough race due to the heat and humidity. The crew worked hard all weekend to get us to this point. Wayne did a great job providing me with a break in the middle of the race." - stated Joe Nonnamaker

Finishing in 14th position was the #42 HRPWorld.com Corvette of Joe Sahlen and Will Nonnamaker. Unlike the #43 HRWorld.com Corvette, #42 did not catch fire once, it caught fire twice. Both Joe and Will shared in the wonderful experience of being on fire. Neither driver felt the experience was worth experiencing again.

"Today was good for getting some valuable track time and a solid points run. This experience will be beneficial when we come back to Barber in 2008." - stated Joe Sahlen

The next event for the ROLEX Grand American GT series will be at the Circuit Gilles - Villenueve in Montreal. This is the track used for the Canadian Grand Prix. The ROLEX series will be sharing the track during the weekend with the NASCAR Busch Series. The Montreal race will be televised same day tape delayed at SPEED TV on August 3rd, at 8 pm.

-credit: team sahlen