Italian racecar driver
Max Angelelli
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Nationality
| Italian
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Born
| (
1966-12-15
)
15 December 1966
(age 57)
Bologna
,
Italy
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Years
| 1994, 1999?2002
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Best finish
| 9th (
2002
)
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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
[
edit
]
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
[
edit
]
24 Hours of Le Mans results
[
edit
]
WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results
[
edit
]
(
key
)(Races in
bold
indicate pole position, Results are
overall
/
class
)
* Season still in progress
International Race of Champions
[
edit
]
(
key
) (
Bold
? Pole position. * ? Most laps led.
)
1
Ride shared with
Wayne Taylor
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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- run as the Daytona 3 Hour Continental (1962?63)
- Daytona 2000 (1964?65)
- 6 Hours of Daytona (1972)
- 24 Hours of Daytona (1966?71 / 1973 / 1975?present)
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Five-time
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Four-time
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Three-time
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Two-time
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One-time
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