Grand-Am

VIR: SunTrust Racing qualifying report

The SunTrust Racing driving duo of Michael Valiante and Max Angelelli will start Sunday's Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Bosch Engineering 250 from the pole after qualifying Saturday at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) near Alton, where the ...

Published: Apr 29, 2008, 10:47 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

The SunTrust Racing driving duo of Michael Valiante and Max Angelelli will start Sunday's Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Bosch Engineering 250 from the pole after qualifying Saturday at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) near Alton, where the SunTrust team is the defending race-winner.

Valiante was awarded his first career Rolex Series pole after clocking a fast lap of 1 minute, 43.329 seconds (113.927 mph) around the scenic 3.27-mile, 17-turn road course just a stone's throw above the North Carolina-Virginia state line. The lap was actually the second-fastest lap of the 20-minute qualifying session. But Memo Rojas's bid to win his second consecutive pole in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates entry was disallowed after its rear wing was found to be too high in the post-qualifying technical inspection. The No. 99 Bob Stallings/Riley-Matthew Racing entry of Jon Fogarty, which clocked the third-fastest lap of the session, also was found to have a rear wing that was too high. Both the No. 01 and No. 99 will start Sunday's 250-mile race from the back of the Daytona Prototype grid.

Valiante's second front-row qualifying effort in the last three events (he qualified second in the all-new Dallara chassis' historic first start at Homestead, Fla., in March) was all the more incredible as it suffered heavy crash damage in the Mexico City event last Saturday and underwent a complete rebuild at the Wayne Taylor Racing shop in Indianapolis on Wednesday and Thursday before turning around and heading to VIR.

"I think it's a big, big accomplishment for this team because a week ago this car didn't even have four wheels on it," Valiante said. "The crew guys did a great job and the car's been great ever since we rolled it off the trailer, which was encouraging to them because they put so much time into it. Considering this car is so new and we haven't even had a full test day, it's a huge accomplishment for the SunTrust team. During the session, I actually went off once because I was pushing so hard with it being such an important race for SunTrust. I gave it everything I had trying to get everything I could out of the car. It's a great day for SunTrust. It's a great accomplishment for SunTrust to be on the pole, so I'm quite pleased. The team deserves it after all it's been through. It's amazing. I'm happy for them."

The pole position is the seventh for SunTrust Racing since it joined the Rolex Series in 2004, and the second since Wayne Taylor Racing took on the responsibility of carrying the SunTrust banner just prior to the 2007 season. Jan Magnussen qualified the No. 10 car on the pole at Homestead in March of last year. Magnussen and Angelelli co-drove the SunTrust car to its first of two victories here last year.

"I'm ecstatic," said Taylor, whose 18-year-old son Ricky Taylor is also in the field, making his second career Rolex Series start this weekend after qualifying fifth today in the No. 19 Beyer Racing entry. "I think this whole team -- all the guys, Michael, Max, SunTrust -- have done something incredible by coming here and starting on the pole. I'm also ecstatic that Ricky is starting fifth. It's the first time he's run that car. What a great car and deal that Jeff Beyer gave to them and Max Crawford.

"These SunTrust guys have gone through a really hard time this year, and I've kept telling them it's going to turn around. With the amount of work and energy that everyone's put in, things eventually will come around for you, and this is just proof. After all the hard work -- push-push-push -- they deserve it. The team deserves it, Michael deserves it. No matter how they got it, they deserve it."

-credit: str

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article VIR: Farnbacher Loles Racing qualifying report

Next article VIR: Alex Job Racing qualifying report

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Winners and losers from MotoGP’s contentious Qatar Grand Prix

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Qatar GP

20 min

Winners and losers from MotoGP’s contentious Qatar Grand Prix

Five things we learned at MotoGP's controversial Qatar Grand Prix

MotoGP

Qatar GP

Five things we learned at MotoGP's controversial Qatar Grand Prix

Who slept worst last night: Fernando Alonso

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Sao Paulo GP

1 h

Who slept worst last night: Fernando Alonso

Carlos Ezpeleta: Qatar GP “noise” left MotoGP unnecessarily exposed

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Qatar GP

2 h

Carlos Ezpeleta: Qatar GP “noise” left MotoGP unnecessarily exposed

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts