INDIANAPOLIS (July 23, 2013) – Whenever Max “The Ax” Angelelli pulls into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as he will this week for Friday’s second running of the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series Brickyard Grand Prix with his 22-year-old co-driver Jordan Taylor and the rest of the No. 10 Velocity Worldwide Corvette Dallara DP team for Indianapolis-based Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR), the veteran Italian feels he was born decades too late.

Setting foot on the Speedway’s hallowed grounds harkens childhood memories of what he refers to as the “Golden Age” of racing. A huge fan of legendary designer Colin Chapman growing up in his native Italy, Angelelli spent hours poring through photos of Chapman’s Lotus racecars. His favorites are action and post-race celebration shots of Chapman, his Lotus Indy car and driver Jim Clark after winning the 1965 Indy 500. The young Angelelli often pretended to be racing at places like Indianapolis and, to this day, he often wishes his racing career took place during the 1960s and ’70s, when drivers were “real men who never left anything on the racetrack.”

Drivers from that era are the ones Angelelli has always admired the most, and the kind of driver he’s always tried to emulate, like five-time Formula 1 world champion Juan Manuel Fangio. The one and only photo Angelelli has on his office wall today is Fangio sliding his racecar through a high-speed corner at Monza in the 1950s.

When Angelelli competed in the Italian Formula 3 championship from 1989 to 1991, his love for the “Golden Age” of racing was fed a heavy and continuous dose of stories from his crew chief and engineer Ermanno Cuoghi, the former longtime personal mechanic to three-time Formula 1 champion Niki Lauda. Those stories solidified the notion in Angelelli’s mind that he would be a ruthless competitor just like his heroes from the past.

Fast-forward to today, and Angelelli finds himself having made quite a name for himself while trying to emulate his heroes in arguably the most competitive sports car racing series in the world. Friday’s Brickyard Grand Prix will be his 125th Rolex Series start since joining the series co-driving with three-time sports car racing champion Wayne Taylor and his team in 2004. Angelelli and Taylor dominated the series in 2005 en route to that year’s championship. And, at this weekend’s eighth of 12 events on the 2013 Rolex Series schedule, Angelelli finds himself leading the championship at the latest point in a season since he led after the 12th of 14 events in 2007, when he and the team ended up third.

His co-driver for 2013 is 22-year-old Jordan Taylor, the third Taylor Angelelli has co-driven with in his 12-plus Rolex Series seasons and one he already has enjoyed a pair of victories with through the season’s first seven races. Jordan Taylor took over this season for his older brother Ricky, who in 38 races the last three seasons co-drove with Angelelli to seven wins, 20 podium finishes, and runner-up finishes in the season-ending points in 2010 and 2011. In 42 races co-driving with Wayne Taylor from 2004 through 2009, Angelelli scored eight wins and 20 podiums.

In his previous 124 Rolex Series starts, Angelelli has co-driven with one Taylor or another 87 times, scoring 17 of his 23 career wins and 42 of his 65 career podiums on the circuit. That’s a 19.5 win percentage and a 48.3 podium percentage. Angelelli has won six of 37 races (16.2 percent) and finished on the podium 23 times (62.1 percent) when he wasn’t paired with a Taylor.

The here-and-now of it for Angelelli, however, is a return visit to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he and Ricky Taylor had a late shot at winning the inaugural Brickyard Grand Prix last July before grabbing a solid podium finish. With Jordan Taylor, he and the Velocity Worldwide Corvette DP team would love nothing more than to get all the way to the top step of the podium, the opportunity to kiss the historic “Yard of Bricks,” and hoist the first-place trophy with the team’s second Rolex Series title hanging in the balance.

Practice for Friday’s second running of the Brickyard Grand Prix begins Thursday morning with qualifying set for 4:35 p.m. EDT. Race time Friday is 5:30 p.m. with SPEED’s delayed television broadcast set for 7:30 p.m. Live radio coverage by the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and Sirius NASCAR Radio Channel 90 begins with pre-race festivities at 5:15 p.m. Live timing and scoring during all on-track sessions can be found at www.grand-am.com, and on mobile devices at m.grand-am.com and the GRAND-AM smartphone app.

Max Angelelli, co-driver of the No. 10 Velocity Worldwide Corvette Dallara DP for Wayne Taylor Racing:

Your thoughts as the team heads to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Friday’s Brickyard Grand Prix?

“I’m excited and really looking forward to it. Indy is a very special place, as we all know. Last year, there were so many different things happening in the race – rain, dry, rain, dry. It was a very nice race last year, so many variables, so much strategy, very nice. What I’m expecting is to be competitive again this year because our Corvette was fast last year. We need to shoot for another podium, at least. A win would be great. For our team, it’s a home race, so we will have all the families and everybody there. We also are going to have a lot of sponsors there. Because of that, especially, we want to look good.”

You said you had a fast racecar at Indy last year. Does that bode well for your chances this weekend?

“We’re treating everything we have from last year’s race like gold as we head back to Indy. It’s so precious. We were talking about our setup options this week and realized there are so many. We never have had so many meetings about car setup, and we realized that, getting closer to race, there are more variables than we thought we had a few weeks ago. Now, we are thinking about our different options, setup, gearing, etc. The track has a long, long straight, and an infield second that has fast and slow corners and low grip. Sometimes you get to a race and you have no options, so it’s really kind of boring. At Indy, it’s the kind of racetrack where you have to balance setting up for the long straight with what you want your car to do in the infield. And, once you get there, you have to decide what you’re going to do with very minimal practice time. You can use the simulations to determine the car setup, simulate gears, etc., and we’re using this a lot because we don’t much time on the racetrack before the race. We have a very good team, very good engineers, so I am confident we will arrive at the right decisions.”

We know you appreciate racing history, so competing at a place like Indy has got to be extra special for you. No?

“I love racing history. I’m European, so among the first things that come mind when I think about Indy is (legendary racecar designer) Colin Chapman. I was always a fan of Lotus cars and Colin Chapman when I was a kid, and I still remember those years very well. He won Indianapolis in 1965 and I remember seeing pictures of him at Indy with his driver Jim Clark and his Lotus on the racetrack and victory circle. It makes me feel like I was born way too late. I feel like I missed a really good era of racing. When I go to Indy, I like to dream like I’m driving in the 1960s era. If you come to my office, there is only one picture in the entire office on my wall, and that is Juan Manuel Fangio sliding his car sideways in the middle of a corner at Monza. That is the only racecar picture I have in the entire building. Those were the days when it comes to racing. Those drivers were real men, not like so many drivers today who are just too sensitive about everything. The drivers back in the day were in a whole different dimension. They left nothing on the track. When I started my single-seat career, my engineer was Niki Lauda’s former engineer, a guy named Ermanno Cuoghi, and Niki is all he ever talked about. Back then, the chief mechanic was also the car engineer. When Niki left Ferrari, this is the only guy he brought with him. I was with Ermanno for three years and all he talked about was 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, and Formula 1. I’m suddenly feeling very nostalgic.”

Jordan Taylor, co-driver of the No. 10 Velocity Worldwide Corvette Dallara DP for Wayne Taylor Racing:

You’ve had a good bit of time off since the six-hour race at Watkins Glen four weekends ago. Safe to say you’re anxious to get back in the Velocity Worldwide Corvette DP at Indy?

“It’s been a pretty long break, almost a little offseason in the middle of the year. Everyone is definitely excited to get going for the final stretch of the season. We’ve had a good car at every track this year and it shouldn’t be different this weekend at Indy. It’s a three-hour race, a little longer than our typical two-hour of two-hour and 45-minute race, so we’ll get to make more pit stops and have more chances to make up positions if we need to, or extend our lead if we’re out in front. That’s worked in our favor all year, and the guys are in top form, for sure. I’m really looking forward to this weekend, moreso than usual.”

How special for you is the opportunity to race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?

“Indy is very, very special. It was cool driving there last year after watching on TV all those years growing up. You really don’t realize the size of the place when you see it on TV. When you see Indy cars there on TV, the straights don’t seem so long. But when we get there, going 40 mph slower, the straights are definitely very, very long. It’s really an impressive place. It’ll be even cooler to be able to drive the Corvette DP there this time around. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

How would you describe the 13-turn, Formula 1 layout?

“Obviously, the oval section is the coolest part about Indy. Once you get on the infield part of the track, it’s just another road course. There is very low grip on the infield part, so the car slides around a lot. But once you get onto the oval, it’s pretty cool. The car just keeps accelerating around what’s turn one for the Indy cars, turn 13 for us. The front straight is the longest straight we have on our calendar, and it’s a cool feeling to drive almost the entire length of it with the grandstands on both sides. There are a number of places to pass, so I’m optimistic that if we need to pick up positions late in the race that we can get it done.”

Wayne Taylor, team owner of the No. 10 Velocity Worldwide Corvette Dallara DP for Wayne Taylor Racing:

You scored a solid podium finish in the inaugural Brickyard Grand Prix last year. You’d probably love to get all the way to the top step of the podium this year in your team’s hometown event. What are your thoughts about Friday’s race?

“It’s a very big weekend for our team, for our series, for our sponsors, everybody involved. It’s always great exposure for us when we run with NASCAR. And whenever we run at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, there is just so much tradition and history there, and your thoughts are immediately about all the legendary drivers and teams who have competed there. I absolutely love it. We’re going to be extra busy because we’re bringing in a lot of our corporate partners, but it’s a good kind of busy. We had a really good car there last year and had a really good shot to win it at the end. But a solid podium finish in your first visit to a place like Indianapolis still is something that is truly special. I really want to kiss that yard of bricks, though, come Friday night.”

The team dodged a bullet by staying in first place in the championship despite the 10th-place finish at Watkins Glen four weeks ago. What needs to happen in the final five races in order to win your first championship since 2005?

“Yeah, we certainly dodged a bullet. We had our problem that we almost totally rebounded from by making up four of the five laps we lost at the beginning of the race. The other teams we’re fighting with for the championship also had issues, so we got out of Watkins Glen with the lead intact, although it’s very, very close among the top teams in the points. This is the latest we’ve been leading the championship in a good many years and we know how hard we have to work if we’re going to close the deal. Anything can happen in any given race, but we’ve proven we have a very good racecar at every track we go to. Max and Jordan have hardly put a wheel off this year and they’ve certainly worked well together. Our team manager Simon (Hodgson) and our engineering department led by Brian (Pillar) have been on top of their game, as has been the absolutely stellar work on pit stops and car preparation by our crew, led by our crew chief Travis (Houge). We just need to stay focused and keep doing what we’ve been doing. We need more wins, and we need to eliminate those 10th- and sixth-place finishes, which we’ve had too many of already this season, although not necessarily of our own doing.”


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