For Immediate Release
Contact Laz Denes with True Speed Communication
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Broken Suspension Piece Midway Through Six-Hour Endurance Classic
Leads Angelelli, Taylor to Early Retirement at Watkins Glen

Date: July 1, 2012
Event: Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen (Round 8 of 13)
Series: Daytona Prototype division of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series
Location: Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International (3.4-mile, 11-turn road course)
Start/Finish: 4th / 11th (Handling, completed 100 of 182 laps)
Winner: Darren Law and Joao Barbosa of Action Express Racing (Corvette DP)

It’s a race SunTrust Racing’s Max Angelelli and Ricky Taylor thoroughly dominated a year ago at a racetrack where nobody, but nobody could catch them in their last two GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series outings.

But a successful defense of their 2011 Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen title and their third consecutive win at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International simply was not in the cards during Sunday’s 31st renewal of the Rolex Series’ second-longest race.

The 22-year-old Taylor, who with the veteran Angelelli led a whopping 205 of 274 race laps at The Glen in 2011 en route to victories from the pole position in the June six-hour race and the August sprint race, felt the right-rear of the No. 10 SunTrust Corvette Dallara DP of Wayne Taylor Racing give way while negotiating the high-speed esses just short of the race’s halfway mark. Taylor was running fourth at the time but gave up that position and proceeded to fall nine laps off the pace as the SunTrust Racing crew replaced broken suspension pieces on pit lane.

Taylor rejoined the race in ninth, nine laps down to the leaders, completed 10 more laps over the next 18 minutes, but the team opted to call it a day with roughly two hours and 30 minutes remaining as a safety precaution.

“These are the kinds of races, when you plan for the championship, you almost expect to have some sort of mechanical issues at one point or another,” Taylor said. “But this just makes me feel worse about the mistakes made over the last few races because we were really hoping to fight our way back into the championship here this weekend. If we wouldn’t have made those mistakes, maybe we would’ve been right there in the championship. But now we’re just falling further and further behind. I guess all we can say is let’s take the next few weeks to regroup and come back strong at the next one, the team’s home race in Indy, and we can start building a really good comeback story.”

Today’s DNF (did not finish) was the SunTrust team’s fourth in a row and fifth in eight races this season, leaving Angelelli and Taylor 33 points behind the championship-leading duo of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas of the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates BMW Riley team, which started on the pole today but finished fourth after puncturing a radiator in the latter stages of the race.

It won’t be known until the team conducts its detailed inspection back at the race shop in Indianapolis, but the broken suspension piece may have been a result of left-rear contact Angelelli encountered on a lap-19 restart 45 minutes into the race. In that incident, Angelelli made an inside move to get by David Donohue of the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP in the fast, right-hand sweeping turn one. Donohue clipped Angelelli’s left-rear quarter panel as the Italian was completing his pass and ripped the piece right off the car. Angelelli pitted for a new rear wing and spoiler assembly and managed to stay on the lead lap, albeit in ninth place.

He made his way up to fifth by the time he pitted for tires and fuel under yellow on lap 36, an hour and 17 minutes into the race, and appeared to have a fast racecar underneath him.

All was not well beneath the surface, however, as over the course of a longer run, Angelelli noticed the handling to deteriorate in a rather odd way. Still he was able to keep the SunTrust car in the top-six until he pitted on lap 65, two hours and 10 minutes into the race, to turn the driving duties over to Taylor.

Taylor was turning fast laps of his own during his scheduled middle stint of the race, moving from sixth to fourth over the next 35 laps before reporting the problem in the right rear that he said caused him to have “a huge moment” negotiating the high-speed esses.

“I think it is impossible to get philosophical about what happened today,” Angelelli said. “The car was good. Really good, at times. It was very difficult to pass people out there today, so it’s tough to say whether we had a winning car or a podium car. But we had some contact out there and it seemed so weird to have such a big problem after so little contact.”

The No. 9 Action Express Racing Corvette DP of Joao Barbosa and Darren Law went on to score its second victory in the last four races. Barbosa made a spectacular pass of the No. 99 Gainsco/Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP of Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty for the lead 11 laps from the finish. Gurney and Fogarty took second while the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Ford Riley of Ryan Dalziel, Enzo Potolicchio and Sebastien Bourdais grabbed the final podium spot.

“I just don’t know what to say,” team owner Wayne Taylor said. “When we went back to take a closer look at the left-rear tire from Max’s early incident, the wheel was completely bent, so that means it was a much bigger hit than Max seemed to think it was. We won’t know until we get back to the shop, but the right-rear A-arm issue might have been a result of that. And if that’s the case, who knows what else under the car might be cracked or broken. So, on this track in particular, it’s not worth the risk trying to finish the race with a potential problem on our hands. It’s a fast track. The best thing to do is to get us home in one piece and get ourselves ready for a very special race that’s coming up next.”

Next up for the Rolex Series competitors is the inaugural Brickyard Grand Prix on Friday, July 27, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The three-hour road-course race that kicks off NASCAR’s Super Brickyard Weekend will be televised live on SPEED beginning at 4 p.m. EDT. Live radio coverage by the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM Channel 117 also begins at 4 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.