As race fans and teams converge at Barber Motorsports Park this weekend for the Porsche 250, two drivers of the SunTrust Pontiac Dallara team, Max Angelelli and Michael Valiante, are looking forward to returning to a place where they’ve been very successful.The pair knows the best way to maneuver the 2.3-mile labyrinth of twists and turns as they have finished on the podium every time they’ve competed at the track.
“Barber is a racetrack that has been very good to us, so far,” Angelelli said. “We learned at Daytona that they new Dallara is a very good racecar. So that combination should mean we could get another very good result at Barber this weekend.
“Unfortunately, things have kept happening to us this year and we have not gotten the results our guys have worked so hard for.”
The SunTrust team has qualified well in 2008, boasting an average starting position of 3.75, but the drivers are still searching for their first win of the season. SunTrust’s average finish is 11.87 so far this year.
“It has been very unusual for this team,” Angelelli said. So, realistically, I don’t know what to expect at Barber, even if the track really suits us and we know we’ve always had really good races there. We just need to get some good breaks. Actually, what we need is a race with no issues. If that happens, we will be up front at the end.”
The team debuted a new Dallara chassis at the race at Daytona International Speedway a few weeks ago. The new chassis seemed to work well at Daytona, but a punctured tire spoiled a possible good finish.
Angelelli found out the dangers of the Alabama heat first-hand last year when the series came to Barber. The driver passed out after the race and had to be treated at the track medical center for heat exhaustion.
“The problem was that we made the driver change pretty early (on lap 11 of 99), and my coolsuit never worked,” he said. “On top of that, there was very little water left in the driver drink bottle, so I finished that pretty quickly. But I just continued to do my job and, somehow, we stayed ahead of the Brumos Porsche and the Ganassi car and finished third.
“It was pretty scary because I don’t remember very much about the last part of the race. But the doctors and everybody did such a good job taking care of me that I was back in the car testing the next day.”
While he doesn’t want to experience the heat exhaustion again, Angelelli does hope the new chassis and his experience at Barber will propel the team to victory on Sunday.
“Certainly, the Dallara has been one of the cars to beat at all the tracks we have been with it so far,” he said. “For sure, I believe we have a top-three car at Barber this weekend.”
Angelelli and Valiante as well as all the other competitors in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series take to the track today for practice in the morning. Teams will qualify at 11:45 a.m.
