Before cars even take to the track for Friday morning's first practice session at Watkins Glen, SunTrust and the entire Wayne Taylor Racing organisation already know that Saturday's Grand-Am Rolex Series round will be one they will never forget.
Just making it to the Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen represents the mother of all victories for the team, and all involved know that it could not have been done without a tremendous amount of support from the entire Rolex Series community.
Fifteen days ago, the WTR transporter - carrying the #10 SunTrust Pontiac Dallara race car and almost everything else the organisation carries to races - burned to the ground while travelling back to base from the last Rolex Series event at Laguna Seca. No-one was hurt in the incident, and truck drivers Larry Harmon and Buddy Johnson were able to save the tractor unit, but everything else was destroyed. Since then, the second-year team has had to perform above and beyond the usual call of duty to re-assemble, piece-by-piece, its entire travelling roadshow.
“It's been busier than you can imagine, and very, very difficult to understand," lead driver Max Angelelli admitted, "It's been a lot of work, to say the least, talking to people, arranging everything that needs to be arranged for us to go racing again.
"We all had our areas of responsibility. I had my stuff to do, like contacting our technical support people, our international sponsors, and all of our suppliers outside the US. I'll tell you something, everybody has been so amazing. And I thought I knew about our guys and how good they are at what they do, but I now have a whole, new feeling about how good they are. They're like gold.”
Within hours after the fire, sponsors, suppliers and even the team's fiercest competitors began to step forward with offers of equipment and support to help get the #10 SunTrust Pontiac back on track in time for Watkins Glen. Sitting on the shop floor – prepped for sale – was the familiar blue Riley chassis that Angelelli, Michael Valiante, team owner Wayne Taylor and Taylor's 18-year old son Ricky drove to fifth place in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and, while the team works with Dallara to replace the chassis that was lost in the fire, the trusty old Riley will be temporarily pressed back into service.
“It brings out the best in everybody, for sure," Angelelli said of the rescue effort, "I know, if anything ever happens to somebody in our community, I will be jumping at the chance to help them.
"This is the great thing about America. I think it's the American culture. This is why the European drivers who come over here to race don't ever want to leave. It's a relaxing, family atmosphere. Everybody is completely open. Political games don't really exist. This makes it so good to be a part of it, when people offer to help so much, unconditionally. This is what we have seen the last couple of weeks.
"I'm very happy to be part of this Grand-Am community. Unfortunately, good things like this are never breaking news. So I hope this time the world will listen when we tell them how great of a community we are part of.”
