Team Sahlen announces 2007 plans

Team Sahlen to practice with Harrell GTOs and Arnold Corvette before racing their newly commissioned Hoerr GBM Corvettes.

North Canton, OH --- Team Sahlen recently commissioned Georgian Bay Motorsports to build two Hoerr Chassis Corvettes. These Chevrolet Corvettes will be used for Team Sahlen's full time return to the Great American ROLEX series. They will be racing in the Grand Touring (GT) Class after many successful years of full time racing in Grand American's Grand-Am Cup series for street production race cars.

With a long and victorious history in the sports car racing, including a victory at 2001 ROLEX 24 Hours, the Corvette is a perfect fit for the 7-time Team Champions.

And while the Team Sahlen drivers: Joe Sahlen, Joe Nonnamaker, Wayne Nonnamaker and Will Nonnamaker, all have experience in the Rolex series, they know they have to get a good feel for tube frame technology before the race season gets in full swing.

That's why while the team waits for their custom Corvette Z06 race cars, they purchased three other cars strictly for practicing purposes. Two of the cars are Pontiac GTO's from the now obsolete Horizon Motorsports. The third car was obtained in a trade with ASC Motorsports for one of Team Sahlen's Grand Am Cup Porches.

"We are very serious about showing strong results next season. We made the investment in the three cars so that we could get both drivers and crew up to speed in driving these new cars. Even though we have all had Rolex success and we have four professional titles among us, we don't except to just jump in these cars without experience and have success. Therefore these cars will allow us to adapt to the different feel of the tube frame technology," said Will Nonnamaker.

Team member Wayne Nonnamaker also appreciates the opportunity these three cars bring to the team, and understands the importance those vehicles have on Team Sahlen's success during the 2007 racing season.

"The crew's experience with these three cars has allowed us to further develop their understanding of the tube frame technology before we take delivery of the Hoerr GBM machines. We are learning all about the new suspension geometries, transmission technologies, and general workings of these cars. Our team has been focused on production based cars since we began twenty-two years ago. Even though we have fifty pro wins and seven driver championships, we realize that we are jumping into new territory and are grateful for the opportunity to learn more."

While this may be "new territory" for the Team Sahlen crew, the excitement of new opportunities, the handling of new cars and the new information learned with these practice cars, the crew will be ready once their Corvettes are ready and will no doubt be looking forward to taking them for a spin during the Rolex Winter Test Sessions at the beginning of January.

-credit: ts