It’s a Wrap for SunTrust at Rolex 24 Test Days
For Immediate Release
Contact Laz Denes
True Speed Communication
www.TrueSpeedCommunication.com
It’s a Wrap for SunTrust at Rolex 24 Test Days
Season-Long Regular Drivers Angelelli,
Valiante Joined by Father-Son Duo
Of
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan. 6,
2008) – The No. 10 SunTrust Pontiac Riley team of Wayne Taylor Racing wrapped
up a successful three-day test session on the Daytona (Fla.) International
Speedway road circuit this afternoon as preparations continue for the Jan.
26-27 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona. And,
as has been the case during its previous efforts at the
twice-around-the-clock marathon, the SunTrust Pontiac appears to be one of the
cars to beat in perhaps the most competitive field in event history.
Max Angelelli and Michael
Valiante, his recently named season-long co-driver in the SunTrust Racing
machine for 2008, were joined this weekend by team owner and two-time Rolex 24
winner Wayne Taylor, with whom Angelelli co-drove the SunTrust Pontiac to the
2005 Rolex 24 victory enroute to that year’s series championship, and Taylor’s
18-year-old son Ricky Taylor, who took his latest turns behind the wheel of the
familiar, blue No. 10 prototype in what has been a nearly year-long testing
program with the team.
True to form, the SunTrust
Pontiac clocked top-five laps around the 3.56-mile, 12-turn Daytona road
circuit in four of the eight test sessions over the past three days among 67
car-and-driver combinations that took to the track.
Angelelli’s lap of 1 minute,
41.855 seconds (125.826 mph) during Saturday’s afternoon session was the team’s
fastest of the weekend and was the seventh-best lap of the entire weekend among
all competitors as the SunTrust team rotated through the driver lineup and
alternated between qualifying and race-pace setups each day. While regular
drivers Angelelli and Valiante made short work of posting some of the fastest,
most consistent race laps in the field, both Wayne and Ricky Taylor made full
use of the considerable amount of seat time available to the father-son duo.
“I think we had a lot of
things to accomplish,” said Wayne Taylor, who won the Rolex 24 for the first
time in 1986. “We had a new driver in the car. We also had Ricky in the car. We
wanted to give Ricky as much mileage as possible. Michael showed he’s clearly
the best choice we could have made in a co-driver for Max this season. He’s
going to be an asset. Max, as usual, ran up front. Ricky did a pretty good job
right up until this morning. He made a little mistake. But there was a lot
thrown at him and he did pretty well. I think, overall, it was a positive
weekend.”
Angelelli, who qualified the
No. 10 SunTrust Pontiac Riley on the front row in the first-ever race for Wayne
Taylor Racing here last year – his third front-row qualifying effort for
SunTrust in four Rolex 24s – felt thoroughly confident he had another potential
front-running car to work with when the team returns for race weekend later
this month.
“We went through our
checklist and, when you have four drivers, such limited time, and a lot of
things to test and try, it’s not always very easy to get maximum seat time for
everyone,” Angelelli said. “But we’re happy with the car. I think we have a
competitive car. I’m pretty optimistic for the race weekend. One priority was
to give Ricky as much time and experience in the car as possible. Daytona is a
very difficult track. The Daytona Prototype class is very competitive. He did
very well and I’m very happy about that, among other things that went well for
us this weekend. We’re going to be a very good team here once again.”
Valiante, who closed out the
2007 season with the No. 19 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates entry,
enjoyed another successful Daytona test to go with his successful on-track
debut with the SunTrust team during a two-day Pirelli tire test in November.
Like Angelelli, Valiante did not need an abundance of laps this weekend to
prove his ability to run up front.
“Daytona’s always like that because you have so many drivers who aren’t regular (season-long) drivers, you have to get them in the car and get them comfortable with it,” said Valiante, who will be making his fourth Rolex 24 start. “The great thing is the SunTrust car’s been quick pretty much every session. We have a really good balance and I think we have a car that can qualify up front and will be really strong for the 24 hours. In general, the more seat time, the better. I think any driver will tell you that. Fortunately, I’ve been able to get up to speed quickly without being too comfortable in the car, so I’d consider it a good test. We made some gains before we even came here. The car rolled out pretty good, so I think all the usual things like finishing the race and staying out of traffic are going to be our main c