Angelelli makes early exit in Rolex 24

By: The associated Press | The Associated Press
Published: January 29, 2012

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. --

One former Grand-Am champion was knocked out of the Rolex 24 at Daytona less than an hour into the race, and another lost several laps a quarter of the way through.

Max Angelelli took the No. 10 Chevrolet to the garage with an engine issue 25 minutes into the race. The team sent the car back out after a few minutes, but Angelelli was back in the garage for good moments later in the 50th running of the prestigious sports-car race.

About five hours later, Alex Gurney took the No. 99 Chevrolet behind the wall after hitting something on the 3.56-mile road course and puncturing the radiator.

Gurney, a two-time series champion and two-time race champion along with co-driver Jon Fogarty, lost four laps during repairs. Their Gainsco Racing team is the one five-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson has driven for in recent years. Gurney, Fogarty and Johnson finished 15th last year.

Angelelli started second in the race that began Saturday afternoon.

He and teammate Ricky Taylor will still get points because Angelelli completed 30 minutes of racing, but it will leave them in a hole after Grand-Am's season-opening race.

"We've never had an engine problem in all the time we've run the Chevrolet engine program, so this is the first time," team owner Wayne Taylor said.

"There was truly nothing we were worried about. In fact, this is probably the one 24 Hour I think we all felt — the only thing we were worried about was traffic, and we didn't have any issues. Really caught us by surprise."

The engines are made by NASCAR's Earnhardt Childress Racing organization. Taylor said the problem was in the valve train, and was "catastrophic."

Angelelli and Wayne Taylor won the Grand-Am championship in 2005, and have finished second in the standings the last two seasons to the Chip Ganassi Racing team of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas.

The SunTrust team also won the 24-hour race in 2005.

Ricky Taylor said it will be difficult for the SunTrust team to get back into the championship race because the Daytona Prototype class is so large in this race, adding that the last-place finish will hurt more than if it happened in another event.

"There's 14 cars. It is hard to make up points," he said.