The Wayne Taylor Racing duo of Max Angelelli and Jordan Taylor head to Laguna Seca with the slimmest of leads at the top of the Grand-Am Sports Car Series.
Angelelli and Taylor top the standings by just two points with only two rounds remaining in the season, having clawed back a 12 point defecit to head an extremely tight championship run-in, with just five points separating 10 drivers.
Action Express Racing‘s Christian Fittipaldi sits two points behind the Wayne Taylor Racing duo, Ryan Dalziel and Alex Popow of Starworks BMW are three points off the top, while Fittipaldi’s team-mate Joao Barbosa and the Gainsco/Bob Stallings duo of Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty. Reigning champions Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas sit five points off the series leaders.
“The way the season has gone, it almost looks like nobody wants to win the championship because of all the crazy incidents that stir up the championship at just about every race” said Angelelli. “Seriously, it’s incredible how Grand-Am has changed the last three or four years. If you look back, anyone with as many as three wins by this point in the season, like we have, would probably have clinched the championship by now. This year, it’s nowhere near enough. So, that says a lot as far as how tough the Grand-Am championship is and how important it is to be consistent. It’s all or nothing, win the race, or else.
“There seem to be many incidents all through the race, lately, that change the complexion of the championship as it goes along. Whoever can do the best job of not getting caught up in these incidents these last two races, that’s who will win the championship. I think that’s great for the fans. For me, it’s not stressful like you might think. I actually enjoy this situation because I know we will have fans watching and fans wondering who’s going to win the race, who’s going to win the championship, it’s impossible to say, right now. Actually, it’s very hard to say any weekend in this series because anybody can win. Think about the last race in Kansas, where the 01 and the 9 were running first and second. Who would ever have thought they would crash each other out within 20 minutes of the start of the race. It’s Grand-Am. This is how a championship should be.”