SunTrust Racing duo Michael Valiante and Max Angelelli will start Sunday's Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series Bosch Engineering 250 from the pole after qualifying at the front of the field at Virginia International Raceway.
Valiante was awarded his first career Rolex Series pole after clocking a fast lap of 1min 43.329secs around the scenic 17-turn road course.
The lap was actually the second-fastest lap of the 20-minute qualifying session, but Memo Rojas' bid to win his second consecutive pole in the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates entry was disallowed after its rear wing was found to be too high in the post-qualifying technical inspection. The #99 Bob Stallings/Riley-Matthew Racing entry of Jon Fogarty, which clocked the third-fastest lap of the session, also was found to have a rear wing that was too high and both cars will start at the back of the field.
Valiante's second front-row qualifying effort in the last three events was all the more impressive as the SunTrust team suffered heavy crash damage in the Mexico City event last Saturday and underwent a complete rebuild on Wednesday and Thursday before turning around and heading to VIR.
“I think it's a big, big accomplishment for this team because a week ago this car didn't even have four wheels on it,” Valiante said. “The crew guys did a great job and the car's been great ever since we rolled it off the trailer, which was encouraging to them because they put so much time into it. Considering this car is so new and we haven't even had a full test day, it's a huge accomplishment for the SunTrust team.
“During the session, I actually went off once because I was pushing so hard with it being such an important race for SunTrust. I gave it everything I had trying to get everything I could out of the car. It's a great day for SunTrust. It's a great accomplishment for SunTrust to be on the pole, so I'm quite pleased. The team deserves it after all it's been through. It's amazing. I'm happy for them.”
