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Contact Laz Denes with True Speed Communication
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SunTrust Team’s Strategy Works Perfectly for One-Stop Race in Rolex Series 250,
But Mishap While Leading Just Seven Laps from Finish Leads to Third Straight DNF

Date: June 23, 2012
Event: GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series 250 (Round 7 of 13)
Series: Daytona Prototype division of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series
Location: Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis. (4.048-mile, 14-turn road course)
Start/Finish: 6th / 7th (Accident, completed 42 of 49 laps)
Winner: Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas of Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (BMW)

Lightning isn’t supposed to strike the same place twice, much less a third time. But it certainly did for the No. 10 SunTrust Corvette Dallara DP of Wayne Taylor Racing in Saturday’s GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series 250 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.

The SunTrust team gambled on a one-stop fuel strategy for today’s two-hour sprint race around the 4.048-mile, 14-turn road circuit, and everything had apparently fallen perfectly into place when, on the day’s final restart with seven laps remaining, Ricky Taylor lost control of the No. 10 Corvette as he was leading to field to the green flag. The 22-year-old winner of six career Rolex Series races spun around, rear-ended a concrete barrier, and did enough suspension damage for his team to have to call it a day.

It was the third consecutive DNF (did not finish) for the SunTrust team and its fourth in seven events this season after having a grand total of just eight DNFs in the previous eight seasons. The seventh-place result left Taylor and his veteran Italian teammate Max Angelelli still in sixth place in the standings, but now 25 points behind the series-leading No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates BMW Riley of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, the two-time-defending series champions who won today for the first time this season.

“The SunTrust Corvette was surprisingly good with all the challenges we had to deal with yesterday and even this morning, so I was really happy,” said Angelelli, who drove a solid opening stint from the sixth starting position and had the SunTrust car in the lead by lap 14, 40 minutes into the race. “The (one-stop) strategy worked well. We were lucky in every sense – no rain, enough yellow, and we took a risk that paid off. So we had everything covered.”

Angelelli turned the SunTrust car over to Taylor at the one-hour, four-minute mark and his third-year co-driver resumed in sixth place behind a quintet of competitors who pitted well before the one-hour mark. One by one, the five cars in front of Taylor peeled off to make their final stops of the day over the next 23 laps, and Taylor inherited the lead on lap 37 with some 33 minutes remaining.

The SunTrust team was not out of the woods quite yet, however, as it needed at least three laps of yellow in order to have enough fuel to get to the finish. Lo and behold, that yellow came on lap 39 with 25 minutes to go when a GT-class competitor littered the track with debris. After five laps of yellow, Taylor was leading the field to the restart. He was scrubbing his tires to clean them off and generate heat in them for the restart with seven laps to go. The rear end of the SunTrust Racing machine came around, and the rest was history.

“That’s happened to me, so I definitely understand how bad Ricky feels,” Angelelli said. “In any driver’s life, you go through these things. I did. I just feel so bad for him because it happened so close to the last time (at Detroit’s Belle Isle two races ago). That is the sad part. If it’s happening just once, it’s a lot better. I hope I will be able to help him in the next week and, ultimately, the only medicine that will fix this is going out and winning the next race.”

Next up for the Rolex Series competitors is next Sunday’s annual Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen endurance marathon at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, a race the SunTrust team dominated by winning from the pole last season. The race kicks off at 11 a.m. EDT with live flag-to-flag television coverage by SPEED. Live radio coverage by the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM Channel 117 begins at 12:45 p.m.

- SunTrust: The Official Bank of Motorsports –

SunTrust Banks, Inc., headquartered in Atlanta, is one of the nation’s largest banking organizations, serving a broad range of consumer, commercial, corporate and institutional clients.  As of March 31, 2012, SunTrust had total assets of $178.2 billion and total deposits of $130.0 billion.  The Company operates an extensive branch and ATM network throughout the high-growth Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states and a full array of technology-based, 24-hour delivery channels.  The Company also serves clients in selected markets nationally.  Its primary businesses include deposit, credit, trust and investment services.  Through various subsidiaries the Company provides mortgage banking, insurance, brokerage, investment management, equipment leasing and investment banking services. SunTrust’s Internet address is suntrust.com.