Angelelli's career began in Italian Formula Alfa Boxer in 1987 and continued for fifteen years. His only championship win was the 1992
Italian Formula Three title. Following that win he also raced German
Formula Three (1993–1995),
Macau Grand Prix for
Formula 3 (1996),
FIA GT Championship (1997–1998),
All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (select races in 1998), and
American Le Mans Series (1999–2002). Angelelli is nicknamed the Axe, coined by Leigh Diffey because he has a knack of closing up and "chopping" off seconds behind the leader quickly in a race to set himself up to make a clean pass for the win. Angelelli had a banner year in 2005. Angelelli and teammate
Wayne Taylor won the
24 Hours of Daytona and captured the 2005
Grand American Daytona Prototype championship. Angelelli was selected to run in the
2006 IROC series in America, along with teammate Wayne Taylor, becoming the first tandem in IROC history. Angelelli is also known for being the
safety car driver in the
1994 San Marino Grand Prix.
Ayrton Senna followed Angelelli's safety car for five laps before his fatal accident. For the past several years, Angelelli has driven for the Wayne Taylor Sun Trust Racing Team in the Daytona Prototype class of the Grand Am Racing Series, a class that requires two drivers per car. He has teamed up with Ricky Taylor, the son of team owner Wayne Taylor. For 2013, Angelelli was again with
Wayne Taylor Racing/Velocity Worldwide but Taylor's son Ricky had left to pursue another driving opportunity. This left a driver vacancy on the team which was quickly filled by Taylor's younger son Jordan. Together, Jordan and Angelelli made a potent combination and won the final Grand-Am Driver's Title, narrowly beating
Scott Pruett and
Memo Rojas who had won the championship 4 of the previous five years. In 2017, Angelelli announced that he would compete in his last career 24 Hours of Daytona for Wayne Taylor Racing alongside the Taylor brothers and
Jeff Gordon. The team went on to win
the race. ==Motorsports career results==