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Angelelli And Valiante Score First Rolex Series Victory In 2008

Sonoma, Calif. – Max Angelelli and Michael Valiante were peerless at Infineon Raceway Saturday afternoon as they thrashed the competition en route to victory in the Armed Forces Grand-Am 250, the 12th Rolex Sports Car Series race of the 2008 season.

Driving the Sun Trust Pontiac Dallara, the duo raced to victory for the first time since August, 2007. Prior to today’s victory, their best previous finish had been a third place at Watkins Glen in June.

Angelelli now has gone to victory lane 12 times while Valiante won for the first time in Rolex competition. And it was the first victory for the Dallara Company and company officials came from Italy to witness the race.

The winners led 80 of the 102 laps around the 12-turn, 2.52-mile road course.

“It is a huge relief to get my first win, but my win is small scale compared to what my team has done,” Valiante said. “I had a great start in the race, and I thought we would be challenged more than we were. It was a textbook race for us.”

Angelelli stated, “We had a lot of guests here and I am very happy for the win.”

2007 champions Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty brought their GAINSCO Auto Insurance Pontiac Riley home in second place.

“I pushed hard at the start of the race but I could not stay with the winners,” Fogarty said. “My race was difficult as I had abused my tires during qualifications.”

Gurney was pleased that his team scored its fourth runner-up position of the season, but he would have preferred to be a winner. “Our finish was good but I don’t like finishing second. I miss winning,” he noted. “The car was at its best near the end, but the pace of the winners was hard to keep up with.”

Third went to the AIM Autosport Ford Riley driven by Brian Frisselle and Mark Wilkins, who won the last two races. The team had taken the pole position on Friday but they were relegated to the last starting position after their car failed its technical inspection.

Said Wilkins, “More yellow flags would have helped us. Brian (Frisselle) drove a tremendous race at the beginning, and I tried to keep the tires under our car as the race wound down. It is good to be on the podium again.”

The Brumos Porsche of J. C. France and Joao Barbosa finished fourth with the Krohn Racing team of Nic Jonsson and Ricardo Zonta coming home fifth.

Point leaders Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas bounced back from a drive-through penalty to finish in sixth place in their TELMEX Chip Ganassi Lexus Riley. They now have a 42 point advantage over the GAINSCO team.

Seventeen Daytona Prototypes started the race and all were running at the end.

The series travels to New Jersey next weekend for the inaugural race at Thunderbolt Raceway.

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