![\"Lime](\"\/images\/limerock.jpg\")
\nMax Angelelli and Jordan Taylor Win GRAND-AM Rolex Finale at Lime Rock Park to Capture the Series Drivers\u2019 Championship<\/b><\/p>\n
\nMax Angelelli and Jordan Taylor Win GRAND-AM Rolex Finale at Lime Rock Park to Capture the Series Drivers\u2019 Championship<\/b><\/p>\n
Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP Scored Race Victory; Marsh Racing Whelan Corvette GT.R Took the Win in GT<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
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LAKEVILLE, Conn. \u2013 September 28, 2013 \u2013 <\/b>Chevrolet was a double winner in today\u2019s GRAND-AM Rolex Series season finale at Lime Rock Park.\u00a0 Max Angelelli and Jordan Taylor took the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette Daytona Prototype (DP) to Victory Lane and claimed the 2013 DP Driver\u2019s Championship. And Eric Curran and Lawson Aschenbach driving the No. 31 Marsh Racing Corvette GT.R were with winners in the Grand Touring (GT)P class.<\/p>\n
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It is the fifth victory of the 2013 season and third consecutive to end the final GRAND-AM Rolex Series season for Angelelli and Taylor. The trip to Victory Lane extended the team\u2019s undefeated streak at Lime Rock Park to four races.\u00a0 The performance of the Wayne Taylor Racing team culminated in the popular pair winning the Rolex Daytona Prototype Drivers\u2019 Championship by 13 points.<\/p>\n
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\u201cCongratulations to Jordan Taylor, Max Angelelli and Wayne Taylor and the entire No. 10 Corvette DP team on their win at Lime Rock Park today,\u201d said Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. \u201cToday\u2019s victory was their fifth win of the season as they clinched the Rolex DP driver\u2019s championship. While the season had itsups and downs; the team made adjustments and finished the season strong with the championship. It is extra special to see Wayne Taylor and his team win the championship in the final season of GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series. This will certainly give them momentum as they enter the Tudor United SportsCar Championship in 2014\u201d<\/p>\n
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This is the eighth win of the season for the Corvette Daytona Prototype and propelled Chevrolet to clinch the 2014 DP Engine Manufacturers\u2019 Championship.<\/p>\n
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Late-race contact ended the championship opportunities for Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney, No. 99 GAINSCO\/Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP.\u00a0 They have one win in 2013, at the Circuit of the Americas, and finished third in the final DP driver and team standings.\u00a0 The No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP team with drivers Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa finished in a tie for fourth in the DP team points with two wins during the season.<\/p>\n
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\u201cCongratulations to the entire Wayne Taylor Racing team on their Lime Rock win and the 2013 Rolex DP drivers\u2019 championship,\u201d said Jim Lutz, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager, Rolex Sports Car Series.\u00a0 \u201cThe entire team all season never gave up, and overcame adversity to triumph at the end of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Today\u2019s win was the first of the season for Curran and Aschenbach in the No. 31 Marsh Racing Corvette GT.R.\u00a0 Aschenbach was substituting for Boris Said who is the full-time driver, but was unable to attend the Lime Rock race.<\/p>\n
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\u201cCongratulations to Eric Curran and Lawson Aschenbach on winning the GRAND-AM Rolex GT race today at Lime Rock,\u201d Campbell said.\u00a0 \u201cThey have been knocking on the door of victory all season, so it was nice to see them end the GRAND-AM Rolex Series era with a win.\u00a0 The entire Marsh Racing Corvette GT.R team executed flawlessly to secure the win.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Robin Liddell and John Edwards, No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro GT.R fought back from a tire issue to finish fourth and claim third in the final GT driver and team standings.<\/p>\n
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\u201cCongratulations to Marsh Racing for their win by the Whelan Corvette in the GT class,\u201d said Lutz. \u201cAnd to Stevenson Motorsports drivers Robin Liddell and John Edward for achieving third place in both the driver and team championships in the GT class.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In the final Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race of the season, the Stevenson Motorsports No. 9 Camaro GS.R finished second, and moved to second in the final team and driver standings.<\/p>\n
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Chevrolet Racing will return to competition in 2014 as the inaugural season of the Tudor United SportsCar Championship begins with the 52ND<\/sup> running of the Rolex 24 Hour at Daytona International Speedway on January 24-26, 2014.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n PRESS CONFERENCE: MAX ANGELELLI, JORDAN TAYLOR AND WAYNE TAYLOR, NO. 10 VELOCITY WORLDWIDE CHEVROLET CORVETTE \u2013 RACE WINNERS ROLEX SPORTS CAR SERIES OVER-ALL AND DP,\u00a0 AND 2013 DAYTONA PROTOTYPE GRAND-AM ROLEX SPORTS CAR SERIES DAYTONA PROTOTYPE DRIVER\u2019S CHAMPIONS:<\/b><\/p>\n CONGRATULATIONS YOU ARE THE 2013 DAYTONA PROTOTYPE CHAMPIONS.\u00a0 TELL US WHAT THAT MEANS TO YOU:<\/b><\/p>\n JORDAN TAYLOR:<\/b> \u201cThat is pretty crazy.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been coming to watch my dad all these years and GRAND-AM was really the place that I kind of grew up and started to understand racing and understand that I wanted to be in the sport.\u00a0 First of all to win the final GRAND-AM season is pretty crazy just because it\u2019s kind of where I grew up and watched Max (Angelelli) and my dad (Wayne Taylor) over the years and kind of grew up as a driver and made a career out of it. \u00a0It\u2019s a little special, but after the past few races it\u2019s obviously come down to the team.\u00a0 Every single time we have won a race they have put us out in front.\u00a0 All Max or myself had to do was keep everyone behind us and when you have track position it\u2019s a lot easier.\u00a0 I think we have passed like two or three cars all year on track and everything else has been done in the pits.\u00a0 It\u2019s definitely a team championship.\u00a0 It\u2019s unfortunate that the team didn\u2019t win the championship the driver\u2019s did, but we can\u2019t really complain too much.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n MAX ANGELELLI:<\/b> \u201cIt\u2019s special I mean it\u2019s a lot because I did it with Wayne (Taylor) when he was a lot younger and now I\u2019m doing it with his younger kid.\u00a0 So I\u2019m very proud of them Jordan and Ricky.\u00a0 It\u2019s been an amazing journey for me and the Taylor family and Chevy obviously.\u00a0 It\u2019s been great and finally clinch the championship.\u00a0 Wayne are you going to be relaxed I hope for the next 24 hours and looking forward to a new challenge and more races to win.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n CAN YOU COMPARE THE FEELINGS OF WINNING THE CHAMPIONSHIP WITH MAX YOURSELF AND WINNING IT WITH YOUR SON JORDAN?<\/b><\/p>\n WAYNE TAYLOR:<\/b> \u201cWell you know I\u2019m sure everybody knows this, but the relationship between Max and I goes back to 1998.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how many driver pairings that have existed for the length of time that Max and I did.\u00a0 It was great him and I winning the 2005 championship as well as my second Daytona win.\u00a0 Obviously he\u2019s been so supportive of both Ricky and Jordan and nurtured them and brought them up as good as we can.\u00a0 Both of these guys did unbelievable jobs but there are so many people behind the scenes the team has just been superb.\u00a0 Then at the end of the day none of this can happen if somebody doesn\u2019t pay for it.\u00a0 I have to say a special thanks to Ryan Stockman, Enda McShane and Paul Blakely.\u00a0 Paul and I met and instantly we thought there was a way to work together.\u00a0 Toshiba has been with us since 1997, General Motors, Chevrolet and I couldn\u2019t be happier.\u00a0 Imagine having my teammate win the championship with me and then he wins the championship with my youngest son.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t have written a script any better.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n YOU GUYS HAVE THE MOST WINS THIS YEAR, FIVE, BUT YOU ALSO HAD THAT STRETCH IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEASON WHERE YOU HAD FOUR PRETTY BAD RACES IN A ROW.\u00a0 TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THAT AND WHAT YOU FELT THEN VERSUS HOW YOU FEEL NOW:<\/b> <\/p>\n IT LOOKED LIKE YOU GUYS WERE SORT OF IN A COMMANDING PERFORMANCE AGAIN TODAY.\u00a0 DID YOU FEEL ANY PRESSURE FROM ANYBODY BEHIND YOU OR WERE YOU JUST RUNNING YOUR OWN RACE? <\/p>\n TODAY WAS A LOT HOTTER THAN YESTERDAY.\u00a0 CAN YOU TALK A LITTLE ABOUT TIRE MANAGEMENT AND HOW THAT WENT TODAY? <\/p>\n LAST GRAND-AM RACE LAST RACE AT LIME ROCK WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT?<\/b><\/p>\n JORDAN TAYLOR:<\/b> \u201cI actually won my first ever or my only other championship here in Skip Barber in 2007.\u00a0 So it\u2019s kind of cool to win my only other one here.\u00a0 It\u2019s a cool track.\u00a0 When you think of American road courses you think of Lime Rock.\u00a0 It\u2019s very traditional.\u00a0 I was happy to drive on the old surface and now the new surface. Obviously a little sad to see it go, but I\u2019m sure it will be back on the schedule sometime in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n THE TWO OF YOU HAVE WON THE LAST FOUR RACES HERE AT LIME ROCK.\u00a0 WHAT IS REALLY THE DIFFERENCE IN DOING IT BESIDES BEING UP FRONT AND HAVING TRACK POSITION?\u00a0 WHAT IS YOUR SECRET?<\/b><\/p>\n WAYNE TAYLOR: <\/b>\u201cIf you have watched the races this year the competitiveness is at an all-time high.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know any other series that there is not even a second that separates 15 cars.\u00a0 When you have that situation it\u2019s impossible to pass on the track.\u00a0 So everything has to get done in the pit.\u00a0 We had to put all the drivers in the best position.\u00a0 The first three wins we had here was Max and Ricky and obviously we know that the car worked really well here and track position was everything yet again and we were able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n PRESS CONFERENCE: LAWSON ASCHENBACH AND ERIC CURRAN, NO. 31 WHELEN ENGINEERING\/TEAM FOX\/MARSH RACING CORVETTE GT.R\u2013 RACE WINNERS ROLEX SPORTS CAR SERIES GT CLASS<\/b><\/p>\n YOU STARTED THE DAY PUTTING THE NO. 31 CORVETTE ON THE POLE AT A RACE YOU WEREN\u2019T REALLY EXPECTING TO RACE.\u00a0 TALK ABOUT THAT AND HOW IT FEELS TO BE SITTING HERE IN VICTORY LANE:<\/b><\/p>\n LAWSON ASCHENBACH:<\/b> \u201cWell first and foremost I really want to say thank you to everybody at Whelen Engineering, Team Fox, Marsh Racing the Chevrolet Corvette was just fantastic.\u00a0 It rolled off the trailer fast.\u00a0 We barely really made that many changes to it and it was just fantastic all weekend.\u00a0 Secondly, obviously I\u2019ve got to thank them for the opportunity.\u00a0 I know Boris (Said) obviously wanted to be here and would have done a fantastic job in the car as he always does.\u00a0 I\u2019m really proud to be able to race with Eric (Curran).\u00a0 Getting the pole this morning was really cool.\u00a0 It felt good and I knew we had a shot at it, just had to put the lap together and fortunately it worked our way.\u00a0 I had a decent start there.\u00a0 I got kind of blocked up on the restart.\u00a0 I got the green flag a little bit late and John (Edwards) got by me, but I was able to get back by him and take off from there.\u00a0 Eric did a fantastic job.\u00a0 With all the restarts and everything he had to go through I mean that is a superb drive.\u00a0 That is exactly what you want in a teammate.\u00a0 I expect nothing less of him every time he is in the car.\u00a0 Had a fantastic weekend I can\u2019t thank them enough for doing it and really happy for everybody on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n HOME RACE FOR YOU, HOME RACE FOR THE TEAM, LAST RACE FOR THE CAR, PUT IT ALL TOGETHER FOR A WIN HERE:<\/b><\/p>\n ERIC CURRAN:<\/b> \u201cI mean it\u2019s truly unbelievable for us really.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting to think back and 19 years ago I was winning IT races in SCCA at Lime Rock Park.\u00a0 This is my home track.\u00a0 I used to come here as a kid and sit in the outfield with my father.\u00a0 This is home track I\u2019m from Massachusetts and it couldn\u2019t be better to put this all together here this weekend.\u00a0 Most importantly Sonny Whelen is sitting up in that white tent right above us right there and all of his Team Fox members, but most importantly Sonny Whelen we wouldn\u2019t be here without him.\u00a0 He supports this team through all the stuff that we have been through continues to support it, a superb guy and it\u2019s just amazing to get the pole and to lead a bunch and then to win the race at Lime Rock Park.\u00a0 It\u2019s the last race for us in the GT car and it really has good momentum going into our Corvette DP direction that we are going to do for next year.\u00a0 This is just awesome.\u00a0 Lawson (Aschenbach) did an amazing job.\u00a0 Lawson and I are teammates on a regular basis anyway in the Continental CKS Camaro.\u00a0 It\u2019s fun to jump over here and do a race here together and it really couldn\u2019t have went better.\u00a0 Pole, win, home track, Sonny Whelen is here on the hill, Team Fox all the members.\u00a0 Have to thank Marsh Racing, Teddy (Marsh) all the guys working so hard to get us here and we\u2019ve got a big road ahead next year with the DP.\u00a0 To finish here home track Whelen Engineering all the folks at Whelen Chester Connecticut right up the road.\u00a0 All my family, friend, everybody it couldn\u2019t be sweeter to pull this off together here.\u00a0 I have to thank Lawson and Marsh Racing and Sonny Whelen and everybody that helps put this together.\u00a0 Awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n DID YOU FEEL ANY CHALLENGE THERE COMING ON AT THE END FROM PAT LONG BEFORE HE HAD HIS INCIDENT?<\/b><\/p>\n ERIC CURRAN:<\/b> \u201cOh yeah for sure.\u00a0 I think the No. 63 Ferrari put the pressure on me pretty hard.\u00a0 I just wanted to keep him behind me and not burn the tires off the car which is easy to do here.\u00a0 The No. 63 was tough and yeah you never want to have Pat Long in your mirror (laughs).\u00a0 I mean that is no fun.\u00a0 The traffic kind of helped me some.\u00a0 The DP stuff is really tricky here.\u00a0 These guys will tell you too the DP\u2019s are passing you in crazy places and you are just trying to work with them the best you can.\u00a0 The track is so narrow and it\u2019s tough.\u00a0 The No. 63 pressured me and Pat Long definitely put the pressure on.\u00a0 The traffic kind of helped me.\u00a0 It looked like Pat got tangled up with somebody at the end.\u00a0 I hate to see that for Pat he is a good friend of mine, but it made it a little easier for me I\u2019ve got to say.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n MATT BELL, NO. 9 STEVENSON CAMARO CHEVROLET GS.R \u2013 FINISHED SECOND IN CONTINENTAL TIRE SPORTS CAR CHALLENGE RACE: <\/p>\n CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE EFFORT OF THIS TEAM THIS YEAR? Max Angelelli and Jordan Taylor Win GRAND-AM Rolex Finale at Lime Rock Park to Capture the Series Drivers\u2019 Championship Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP Scored Race Victory; Marsh Racing Whelan Corvette GT.R Took the Win in GT \u00a0 LAKEVILLE, Conn. \u2013 September 28, 2013 \u2013 Chevrolet was a double winner in today\u2019s GRAND-AM Rolex Series […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[196,163,195],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-lime-rock-park","category-road-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nJORDAN TAYLOR:<\/b> \u201cI think everyone was very hopeful in the middle of the year.\u00a0 Going into Watkins Glen I think we had a lead and then the car was great during the race, but we had an unfortunate break, but we still left there within I think two points of the lead.\u00a0 We still knew there was a shot.\u00a0 I think we went to Indy and then Road America two consecutive bad races.\u00a0 I think from then on we kind of thought we were basically out of the championship.\u00a0 Then that is when we kind of made a few changes and we were going to start going for race wins. Just fortunately for us everyone else had their own issues.\u00a0 Starworks had a couple of bad races, GAINSCO, Ganassi, so we were just kind of doing what we were trying to do and that\u2019s win races and the other guys kind of lost their championships.\u00a0 I think everyone had their issues throughout the year we just kind of maximized those races that we didn\u2019t have problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nJORDAN TAYLOR:<\/b> \u201cI think when we I got in the car Max was saying how good the car was.\u00a0 He was just stuck behind (Justin) Wilson who was pretty aggressive.\u00a0 We knew we had a decent car, but we didn\u2019t know how good it was because it\u2019s obviously hard to pass here.\u00a0 Running behind someone you are going to lose a lot of lap time.\u00a0 Max didn\u2019t take any risks which was good for the championship.\u00a0 When I got in we just had clear track and we were saving fuel for the whole middle stint.\u00a0 When it went to that restart that was the only time we really had an idea of how competitive we would be compared to everyone else.\u00a0 I really didn\u2019t know how fast we were going to be, but when we went green and we could gap them pretty easy I was pretty happy to see that.\u00a0 I thought Gustavo (Yacaman) was going to do a good job holding off (Scott) Pruett and everyone so I was happy he was the one in between us he\u2019s pretty hard to get by.\u00a0 We were able to gap them and kind of maintain it so I was pretty happy out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nMAX ANGELELLI:<\/b> \u201cTires performed really well.\u00a0 Continental Tires did really well for the tires during the weekend.\u00a0 When they were cold they were good, quick to pick up grip and the race there was no problem.\u00a0 They were really good all the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nYOU DEFINITELY GAVE A VALIANT EFFORT THERE AT THE END.\u00a0 TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY:<\/b>
\n\u201cI don\u2019t get a chance to finish many races so this is a lot of fun and that is just trial by fire.\u00a0 It was very tough.\u00a0 I said over the radio it felt like I was driving in the wet and everyone else was in the dry.\u00a0 It\u2019s not completely true, but it was very difficult.\u00a0 I would understeer turning in and big oversteer coming out.\u00a0 My best bet was to just kind of park them at the apex.\u00a0 I would just watch my mirror every time he would pop out and try to get a run I would be like \u2018well I\u2019m pushing too hard anyway.\u2019\u00a0 Back off get under my tire and try to power on.\u00a0 That worked for a while, but he had such a good car off the final corner which is obviously the most important turn on the track.\u00a0 I just could only last so long.\u00a0 Unfortunate couldn\u2019t hold on for just one more lap.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>\u201cIt\u2019s been an unbelievable season actually.\u00a0 We have had a lot of difficult seasons, a lot of breakages.\u00a0 Really trying to cut our teeth with this car and we really didn\u2019t feel like we were done.\u00a0 We had a bunch of issues and we really felt or personally I felt like this is the first year we\u2019ve really had a handle on this car. It\u2019s not for not trying.\u00a0 The effort they have put in between running the car through CAS technologies and just everything that Chevy gives us it\u2019s been a huge effort and as sad as I am to see Charlotte (referring to the car) here go I\u2019m very excited to see what Chevy brings us next year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"