Max Angelelli
Angelelli at the New Jersey Motorsports Park in 2008
Born (1966-12-15) 15 December 1966
Bologna, Italy
Racing licence FIA Bronze
Nationality Italian
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years1994, 1999–2002
Best finish9th (2002)
2011 Daytona Prototype with Ricky Taylor

Massimiliano Angelelli (born 15 December 1966) is a retired Italian racecar driver.[1] He won the 2005 and 2017 24 Hours of Daytona and the 2001 Six Hours at the Glen. Also he was the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series champion in 2005 and 2013, as well as runner-up in 2010 and 2011.

Angelelli was co-founder of Wayne Taylor Racing, where he drove until his retirement in 2017.[2] In 2020 he left WTR and began working at sports prototype projects for Italian manufacturer Dallara.[3]

Career

His career began in Italian Formula Alfa Boxer in 1987 and continued for 15 years. His only championship win was the 1992 Italian Formula Three title. Following that win he also raced German Formula Three (1993–1995), Macau Grand Prix for Formula 3 (1996), FIA GT Championship (1997–1998), All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (select races in 1998), and American Le Mans Series (1999–2002).

Angelelli is nicknamed the Axe, coined by Leigh Diffey because he has a knack of closing up and "chopping" off seconds behind the leader quickly in a race to set himself up to make a clean pass for the win.

Angelelli had a banner year in 2005. Angelelli and teammate Wayne Taylor won the 24 Hours of Daytona and captured the 2005 Grand American Daytona Prototype championship.

Angelelli was selected to run in the 2006 IROC series in America, along with teammate Wayne Taylor, becoming the first tandem in IROC history.

Angelelli is also known for being the safety car driver in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.[4] Ayrton Senna followed Angelelli's safety car for 5 laps before his fatal accident.

For the past several years, Angelelli has driven for the Wayne Taylor Sun Trust Racing Team in the Daytona Prototype class of the Grand Am Racing Series, a class that requires two drivers per car. He has teamed up with Ricky Taylor, the son of team owner Wayne Taylor.

For 2013 Angelelli was again with Wayne Taylor Racing/Velocity Worldwide but Taylor's son Ricky had left to pursue another driving opportunity. This left a driver vacancy on the team which was quickly filled by Taylor's younger son Jordan. Together Jordan and Angelelli made a potent combination and won the final Grand-Am Driver's Title, narrowly beating Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas who had won the championship 4 of the previous 5 years.

In 2017, Angelelli announced that he would compete in his last career 24 Hours of Daytona for Wayne Taylor Racing alongside the Taylor brothers and Jeff Gordon. The team went on to win the race.

Motorsports career results

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
1994 Sweden Strandell
Germany Obermaier Racing		 Sweden Anders Olofsson
Switzerland Sandro Angelastro		 Ferrari F40 GT1 51 DNF DNF
1999 United States Panoz Motorsports United States Johnny O'Connell
Denmark Jan Magnussen		 Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S LMP 323 11th 9th
2000 United States Team Cadillac South Africa Wayne Taylor
Belgium Eric van de Poele		 Cadillac Northstar LMP LMP900 287 22nd 12th
2001 France DAMS South Africa Wayne Taylor
France Christophe Tinseau		 Cadillac Northstar LMP01 LMP900 270 15th 5th
2002 United States Team Cadillac South Africa Wayne Taylor
France Christophe Tinseau		 Cadillac Northstar LMP02 LMP900 345 9th 8th

WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results

(key)(Races in bold indicate pole position, Results are overall/class)

Year Team Make Engine Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Rank Points
2014 Wayne Taylor Racing P Dallara Corvette DP Chevrolet 5.5L V8 DAY
2		 SIR
7		 LBH LS DET S6H
5		 MSP IMS ELK COA PET
1		 20th 121
2015 Wayne Taylor Racing P Dallara Corvette DP Chevrolet 5.5L V8 DAY
16		 SIR
2		 LBH LS DET S6H
6		 MSP ELK COA PET
4		 12th 104
2016 Wayne Taylor Racing P Dallara Corvette DP Chevrolet 5.5L V8 DAY
2		 SIR
12		 LBH LS DET S6H
4		 MSP ELK COA PET
3		 14th 113
2017 Wayne Taylor Racing P Cadillac DPi-V.R Cadillac 6.2 L V8 DAY
1		 SEB LBH COA DET WAT MSP ELK LGA PET 28th 35

* Season still in progress

International Race of Champions

(key) (Bold – Pole position. * – Most laps led.)

1 Ride shared with Wayne Taylor

References

  1. ↑ "Wayne Taylor Racing". waynetaylorracing.com. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
  2. ↑ Angelelli departs Wayne Taylor Racing - John Dagys, Sportscar365, 5 October 2020
  3. ↑ Angelelli joins Dallara in new senior-level role - John Dagys, Sportscar365, 17 November 2020
  4. ↑ Ciccarone, Paolo (27 April 2018). "Ricordando Senna. Quel giorno a Imola, con la morte in pista" [Remembering Senna. That day in Imola, with death on the track]. AutoMoto Italia (in Italian). Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  5. ↑ "Max Angelelli – 2006 IROC Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.