[Racer Duck]

Daytona Beach, Fla. (Feb. 7, 2008) - If you ask Max Angelelli about his favorite racing season, 2005 would have to come to mind. He took five wins and ten podiums that year on his way to the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 Daytona Prototype championship with co-driver Wayne Taylor. The worst finish of the duo's SunTrust Racing Riley-Pontiac in 2005 was sixth - a position most teams would be proud of. So it might come as a surprise that this was Angelelli's first American championship. But in a career spanning from Italian hill-climb races at age 18 to his first 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1999, Angelelli accomplished plenty before even thinking about America. He's tackled Formula 3 in Italy and Germany, GT cars in Japan, and various sports cars across Europe.

Somewhere during his globe hopping, Angelelli acquired the nickname "Max the Axe" for his ability to "chop" seconds off a leader's gap during races.

The media and fans instantly fell in love with this moniker, even though both parts of the name are flawed. First off, Masimiliano is the Italian's real first name, not Max. And anyone will learn that his personality is not that of an axe if they just talk to Angelelli about his most personal driving object: his helmet.

Angelelli's current helmet design was developed in 1989, the year he took the rookie of the year title in the Italian Formula 3 series. Gianni Morbidelli, a 1990's Formula One pilot, drafted the design. Even though Angelelli and Morbidelli both drove racecars, both were from Italy, and both were only a year apart, they were acquainted through an unlikely source. Angelelli's sister happened to be dating Morbidelli at the time, and he offered to design Angelelli's helmet.

"Morbidelli made my helmet [design], as well as helmet designs of other Italian drivers," Angelelli said. "[Before that] I had just [designs] I made by myself. They were horrible."

Morbidelli's design was fairly straightforward. His first color pick was an easy choice: Italy's national color of blue.

"If you know Italy's soccer team or all the Italians in the Olympics, [they are] blue," Angelelli said. "It is a light blue, not a dark blue [and] it is our national color."

Combine that with the colors of the Italian flag (red, white and green), and you have Angelelli's helmet. He liked the simple, patriotic design so much that he kept it for the next 18 years and counting.

"I really liked it, and I've kept it the same [ever since]," he said. "I would never change it."

Angelelli lived by this philosophy so strictly that he refused to change his design even to accommodate sponsors. Unlike most drivers who will mimic the colors of their sponsor in their helmet or add a band in their design for logos, Angelelli rejected any alterations.

"[I've] never changed it," he said. "The sponsors are going to adapt themselves to my helmet, not the other way around."

This sense of independence in Angelelli's personality is showcased in the final aspect of his helmet. The shape in which Italy's colors spear towards the back of his helmet is meant to mimic Angelelli's aggressive spirit. And he relates that spirit to a more lethal weapon than an axe.

"It's like when you touch something sharp," he said, feeling the endpoints of the paint marks. "[Other drivers] need to know when they touch me that [it's] like [touching] a sword."

Drivers beware: goodbye "Max the Ax," hello "Max the Sword."