It’s Official – Let ‘s Start to Build a Long Island Motorsports Museum

Historic Organizations Join Forces

The Bridgehampton Racing Heritage Group (BRHG) is proud to announce their association with the

venerable Bridgehampton Historical Society. Together the two groups will share the vision of

preserving and protecting materials that commemorate nearly a century of automobile racing at

Bridgehampton NY.

Guy Frost, who founded BRHG when the hillside racing circuit was threatened by residential

development in 1981, explained the goals of this new alliance. “Working together with the Historical

Society’s Executive Director John Eilertsen, we intend to build a broad collection of memorabilia related

to the history of auto racing on Long Island. Inspired by the opening of the ‘Bridgehampton Race Course

for Sports Cars’ in 1957, we will be stepping up our efforts to archive and preserve racing artifacts, films

and artwork for the enjoyment of future generations. For over 50 years BRHG members have collected

memorabilia that illustrate the history of racing at Bridgehampton. By joining with the Historical Society,

the collection and preservation of these materials will continue with a renewed and defined purpose.”

This new alliance will better serve to illustrate a time when the best race teams from around the world

came to Eastern Long Island to compete on the 2.85 mile long hilltop circuit that became known simply

as “The Bridge”. From 1957 through its demise in 1998 (now The Bridge golf course) many hundreds of

professional and amateur racers attempted to tame the twisting ravines, and then put the “pedal to the

metal” for a long hilltop straightaway only to be confronted with a dramatic downhill curve that separated

the men from the boys – truly a spectator’s delight as well.

On the 55th anniversary of the opening of The Bridge, BRHG’s display will enhance the Historical

Society’s Annual Road Rally that celebrates an earlier era when racing took place on the hamlet’s local

roadways.

Anyone in possession of Bridgehampton racing artifacts is invited to show or donate materials for

permanent archival preservation.

Admission is free and the events take place all day long at the Historical Society grounds on Montauk

Highway in Bridgehampton village on Saturday, October 6, 2012.

Oh, Canada! Team Cadillac Looks North for More Victories

Coming off Detroit Sweep, Team Looks to Add to Driver, Manufacturer Point Leads

  • * O’Connell, Pilgrim 1-2 in Driver Points, Cadillac Leads Manufacturers
  • * It’s a Weighty Issue for O’Connell
  • * Mechanical Issue Leads to Spare Car for Pilgrim

BOWMANVILLE, Ontario – Team Cadillac driver Johnny O’Connell has always said he liked Canadian Tire Motorsport Park because it was a test of driver and machine…and mostly driver at that.

Add in the danger factor, and you’ve got one of the all-time great motorsports venues in the world.

O’Connell and teammate Andy Pilgrim will pit themselves and their potent Cadillac CTS-V Coupes against the track and the rest of the Pirelli World Challenge Series field in this weekend’s Sports Car Doubleheader, seeking to further distance themselves from same.

“I love the place,” O’Connell said. “I’m always excited to come here. This place favors a driver who not only has smooth technique, but also great confidence in his car and his abilities. Falling off [the track] here usually means a big wreck, so there’s a danger factor in there as well. It’s the biggest danger factor of any track we go to.”

O’Connell has had success on the 2.459-mile course, winning seven times in a Corvette and finishing second here last year in the return of Team Cadillac to the series.

Pilgrim, likewise a veteran of the Corvette program and Cadillac’s team leader since the program began in 2004, found that danger factor in the first practice session Friday morning. Coming into the blind, off-camber Turn 2 at speed, a mechanical issue in the right front slung his No, 8 CTS-V Coupe off the track and into the tire-and-concrete barriers.

Pilgrim emerged battered but otherwise unhurt, and the crash damage was such that the team was forced to the spare car for the rest of the weekend.

He too feels that Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is a driver’s track.

“Without a doubt,” he agreed. “It’s all about momentum here. Don’t use the brakes, stay off them as much as you can.”

Both drivers were on the podium here last year, and Pilgrim is veritable top-five machine, collecting six such finishes in seven races here for Team Cadillac since the program began in 2004.

Getting top-fives, always a good thing in a series as closely matched as the Pirelli World Challenge, is the goal every weekend for Team Cadillac. With Pilgrim’s switch to the spare car and the fact that O’Connell’s CTS-V will be carrying the maximum REWARDS weight of 224 pounds makes that problematical.

“I’m depressed coming here maxed out on weight,” O’Connell revealed after sweeping both ends of the Cadillac V-Series Challenge at Detroit three weeks ago. “The biggest problem is the fall-off you get in the car. You can get eight to 10 decent laps, but the additional weight makes you easy pickings for cars that don’t have it.”

What he and Pilgrim do have, entering Rounds 8 and 9, is a stranglehold on the points. O’Connell, on the strength of three victories in the first seven races, leads the driver standings by 128 over Pilgrim, who has one victory at Long Beach.

On the manufacturer’s front, Cadillac leads the way with 56 points to 47 for Porsche with five races remaining.

Two victories and three podium finishes at Detroit gave Team Cadillac eight podiums in the 2012 season.

Pilgrim said this weekend’s events are an excellent chance to keep what they have and go on toward the championship.

“Johnny is in great shape for the championship, and the manufacturer’s championship is the key,” Pilgrim said. “We had a great weekend in Detroit, so we need to maintain our advantages in both areas. We need to get as many points as possible, do the best we can.”

The Sports Car Doubleheader will kick off Saturday at 1:15 p.m. EDT for Round 8 and at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday for Round 9. Both races will be streamed live.

Team Cadillac’s O’Connell 2nd, Extends Point Lead in World Challenge

CTS-Vs Continue to Pull Away in Manufacturer’s Points over Porsche

  • * Pilgrim Has Flat Tire, Finishes 10th
  • * Team Preps Backup for Pilgrim in 17-Hour Thrash
  • * O’Connell, Pilgrim Still 1-2 in Driver Points

BOWMANVILLE, Ontario –Sometimes you’re good, sometimes you’re lucky. Sometimes, no matter what you do, it’s not going to work out well.

Team Cadillac drivers Johnny O’Connell and Andy Pilgrim ran the gamut of those emotions on Saturday during Round 8 of the Pirelli World Challenge Series at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

O’Connell, racing with the maximum amount of penalty weight at 224 pounds, brought his No. 3 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe home second in the 50-minute race, capitalizing when Pilgrim’s No. 8 CTS-V Coupe had a left front tire go flat with less than 10 laps remaining.

Pilgrim got the car around the track and into pit lane, where the Cadillac Racing/Pratt Miller crew changed the offending Pirelli PZero and got back out to finish 10th, one lap down.

“I think I would have followed Andy home, but he had bad luck,” O’Connell said. “He had bad luck yesterday with the primary car, bad luck today with the flat tire. Otherwise he would have had me.”

Pilgrim said all was well until the final restart, after the second-running Volvo of Randy Pobst blew an engine and burst into flames on the back side of the 2.459-mile course. As he came down for the restart, he felt a vibration he could not diagnose.

“I had a really bad vibration on that last restart and I didn’t know what it was,” a frustrated Pilgrim said. “It happened all the way through the corner so I couldn’t really pinpoint what it was, and then I knew it was a flat tire. We had some kind of separation or something, and it just happened at a bad time.”

Pilgrim was keeping leader Mike Skeen in sight after O’Connell, who thought he had a flat tire as well, let him past just before the accident with Pobst on lap 10. Nine laps of clean-up and car removal later, the final restart of the day set in motion the drama that cost Pilgrim another podium finish at CTMP.

The car Pilgrim was driving was the backup CTS-V, after he had a mechanical issue in Turn 2 during practice in his primary machine. The resulting contact was too heavy to fix on-site, so his Team Cadillac crew spent 17 hours changing it over.

O’Connell soldiered on, keeping ahead of the Porsche duo of Steve Ott and Lawson Aschenbach over the final nine laps.

“We were good, and running third,” O’Connell recounted. “The Corvette was pulling away, the Volvo (Pobst) was pulling away, but some years you just get lucky. I thought I had a tire going down, but I might have gotten into some oil or something like that. I let Andy go by, because my car felt wrong. But then we had that long caution which brought everyone back together, and my car was good.”

O’Connell had a scare on the initial standing start, as he went side-by-side with Volvo’s Alex Figge into Turn 1. As the cars hit the apex, Figge’s car twitched sideways into O’Connell’s rocker panel, then did a 360-degree spin to the outside gravel trap.

“I thought I had given him enough room, but I came to find out later he had a problem with his car,” O’Connell said. “I was a little worried there.”

Despite Pilgrim’s struggles, it was a good day for Cadillac. Job one, staying ahead of Porsche for the manufacturer’s point lead, was accomplished, and Team Cadillac leads by 11, 63-52, with four races remaining in the season.

“[It was a] great day for Cadillac,” O’Connell said. “You win races and championships by being consistent and we are being consistent.

“We helped ourselves. We are doing a good job and not making mistakes. Other guys are. That’s what you need to do. I’ve been doing this long enough…won a lot of ALMS championships, and I really would like to add a World Challenge championship to those.”

Pilgrim, who already has a World Challenge Series title to his name, agreed.

“We were having a good day, we were ahead of the Porsches and that is the key to winning the manufacturer’s title, and then we had the tire problem. The car was good, too.”

As good a day as it was in the manufacturer’s race, the driver points are even better for Team Cadillac.

O’Connell’s point lead ballooned to 191 over Pilgrim, 1,011-820, and Pilgrim leads by 60 over third-place Lawson Aschenbach.

Skeen won the race in a Corvette, making it three straight in World Challenge competition north of the border. O’Connell was second over Porsche’s Steve Ott, with Porsche’s Aschenbach fourth and Tony Gaples fifth in another Corvette.

Action on Sunday begins at 9:55 a.m. EDT with qualifying for the GT Series, and Round 9 is scheduled to begin at 2:45 p.m. Round 9 will be streamed live.

Fast & Ferocious Competition

GRAND-AM’s ROLEX SPORTS CAR SERIES DELIVERS PLENTY OF EXCITEMENT RACE AFTER RACE

The world of U.S. sports-car racing was in a disorganized state when the GRAND-AM Road Racing series was founded in 1999, with several goals; give sports-car racing enough stability to attract new teams and appeal to existing ones; offer a rules package that did not require an enormous investment to stay competitive each year; and simplify the sport so that new fans can identify favorite cars and drivers and keep up with the action.

The organization held its first race on Feb. 5, 2000, at Daytona International Speedway – the 39th Rolex 24, appropriate since the GRAND-AM series is based in Daytona Beach, Fla. with offices just down the hall from its corporate cousin, NASCAR. Since then, GRAND-AM’s Rolex Sports Car Series has delivered season after season of exciting competitive racing on street circuits and road courses across North America.

One of the appealing aspects of the series is that there are two separate races going on at the same time, with two classes competing. The faster of the two is Daytona Prototype, or DP, with purpose-built race cars that resemble nothing you see on the street. DP cars are built for speed, handling, and driver safety. The engine is mounted behind the driver and can be a six-cylinder of a V8, depending on the manufacturer, which includes BMW, Chevrolet, and Ford. The cars are built by several different chassis makers and cost about $400,000, and the engines pump out about 500 hp. Top speed on longer tracks approaches 200 mph.

Some of the DP cars and drivers to keep an eye on are the reigning champion in DP, the Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates No. 01 car, with drivers Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas. While Rojas is a relative newcomer, few drivers can match Pruett’s experience and wins record. Then there is the No. 99 Gainso/Bob Stallings Racing car, driven by John Fogarty and Alex Gumey, the son of racing legend Dan Gumey. The No. 8 Starworks Motorsport car led the DP points earlier this season and the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing car won January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona to open the season. The No. 90 Spirit of Daytona won at Barber Motorsports Park at the end of March, giving Chevrolet the first DP victory since joining the series at Daytona. The No. 10 Sun Trust Racing Corvette DP claimed the overall win in the late April at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

While the Grand Touring (GT) class of cars look familiar – Porrsche 911’s, Chevrolet Camaros, Dodge Vipers, Ford Mustangs, Ferrari 458s, BMW M3s, Audi R8s, Mazda RX-8s – make no mistake: these are real race cars. GRAND-AM’s technical staff “performance balanced” the cars to make them competitive with each other. Models that are continually faster than the competition might have to carry extra weight, for instance. The result is some of the most competitive racing on motorsports. Engines can be installed in the front, rear, or middle of the car depending on where it is in the corresponding production model. Top speed is about 180 mph on fast tracks, and engines typically product about 450 hp. Weight varies, but most cars weigh about 500 pounds more than a DP car’s approximately 2,250 pounds.

GT cars to watch indlude the No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche of drivers John Potter and Andy Lally, who incidentally, was the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup rookie of the year. That team won the GT class at the 2012 Rolex 24. Drivers Leh Keen and Andrew Davis in the No. 59 Brumos Porsche, were the 2011 GT season champs.

The No. 69 FXDD Ferrari 458 driven by Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato won at Homestead in April. And, on a tight track such as Belle Isle, don’t discount the No. 70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 of veteran Sylvain Treblay and Jonathan Bomarito, who won the GT class at Barber Motorsports Park earlier this season.

Racing Technology Industry Leader in Detroit’s Backyard

Pratt Miller: The Wizards behind the curtain at Chevrolet

THE GRAND-AM ROLEX Sports Car Series’ usually has few rules changes, allowing team owners to invest in cars that should be competitive for multiple seasons, rather than having to buy new equipment every year.

However, that changed a bit for 2012, and a Detroit-area company – Pratt Miller Engineering of New Hudson – has been at the forefront of taking GRAND-AM into the future.

GRAND-AM’s Daytona Prototype class debuted on the track at the 2003 Rolex 24 at Daytona. Rules changes were minor until 2008, when small updates were allowed. For

2012, GRAND-AM in1roduced the second generation of DPs.

The cars were referred to previously by the names of the chassis manufacturers, such as Riley, Fabcar, Lola, or Crawford, but for 2012, latitude was given in the exterior design to allow for manufacturers to style them to resemble road-going cars.

Chevrolet is the first to take advantage. It introduced the Corvette DP at this year’s Rolex 24 and has been racing the car since.

When Chevy decided to join the DP class – Corvettes and Camaros already compete in the production-based GT division – it turned to Pratt Miller to develop and build the car.

After all, Pratt Miller boasts a long relationship with General Motors; it is responsible for the 24 Hours of Le Mans class winning Corvettes that race in the American Le Mans Series.

Additionally, Pratt Miller spearheaded Cadillac’s championship-winning program in the Pirelli World Challenge Series. The company also has experience

in GRANO-AM. A Pratt Miller built Corvette took the overall win at the Rolex 24 in

2001, a major upset after all of the Prototype cars experienced problems. The race

was also notable for the other plunge into the series.

“We like this connection and between the race car and the on the street car,” said Jim Campbell, vice president of Chevrolet Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “When the rules got adjusted, we were able, from a design perspective, to give the race car a sleek look that really lines up nicely Corvette. This was our opportunity.”

The timing, though created a real challenge for Pratt Miller: It had only eight months to develop and build the first one.

Such tight deadlines aren’t unusual for the company founded in 1989 by Gary Pratt and Jim Miller. Though best known for its motorsports work, it also offers classic-car restoration and has done engineering work on everything from motorcycles to military missile systems.

With Pratt Miller at the helm, it is no surprise that success came quickly to the Corvette DP. Three of the five fastest qualifiers at the Rolex 24 were Corvettes, and just one race later, at Barber Motorsports Park, the Corvette owned by the Spirit of Daytona team won- as did Sun Trust Racing’s Corvette DP at Homestead Miami Speedway on April 29.

As Campbell said, “When a trip to victory lane comes so quickly after the introduction of a new race car, it’s a tribute to those who worked to bring the vision to reality.”

O’Connell Delivers Detroit Sweep for Team Cadillac

O’Connell Delivers Detroit Sweep for Team Cadillac in Cadillac V-Series Challenge at Belle Isle

Mid-Race Pass Leads to Detroit Double for Johnny O; Pilgrim Solid in Fourth during Round 7 of Pirelli World Challenge Series

  • * Wily Veteran Passes Porsche for Third Victory of Season
  • * CTS-V Pushes Manufacturer Points Lead to Nine
  • * O’Connell, Pilgrim Running Away with Driver Points

DETROIT – If you drive a Cadillac in the Pirelli World Challenge Series, there’s no place you’d rather win than in Detroit.

Johnny O’Connell and Team Cadillac did it twice in 24 hours.

“Maybe this is a good time to start talking about next year,” O’Connell cracked in Victory Lane, playing to a crowd that included General Motors President Mark Reuss, Cadillac VP of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports Jim Campbell, Cadillac Vice President of Marketing Don Butler, Cadillac Global Marketing Director Jim Vurpillat and Cadillac Director of Racing Mark Kent, among others.

“You always want to win in Detroit, especially when the president of General Motors comes up to you before the race and wishes you luck,” O’Connell said. “That doesn’t add any pressure at all. But we got it done in Detroit!”

O’Connell, by virtue of setting fastest race lap in Saturday’s event, started from the pole but lost out on the initial start to Lawson Aschenbach, who beat O’Connell’s No. 3 Cadillac CTS-V to Turn 1. From there, it was a waiting game, as O’Connell plotted his strategy.

“Sometimes racing is a chess match, where you’re studying one guy and he’s studying you,” O’Connell said. “There were two corners where I thought I was better than he was and one was the one where he made a mistake and allowed me to get by.”

“Once I got past I knew where I needed to focus on driving fast and once the tires started going off and he started coming back to me, I kind of thought he might get an opportunity to take a peek at me. He did, but again, it was knowing where to push and where not to because you can overdrive the car.”

O’Connell drove a technical race and kept the former Cadillac driver behind him the rest of the way. A crash in Turn 7 with less than 10 minutes remaining in the race sealed the deal, and O’Connell emerged with his third World Challenge GT Series victory of the season and the 46th of his career for Chevrolet and Cadillac.

“Talking with my engineer, knowing what we needed to do with it, and on top of that, the added weight (72 pounds) that we had to put in, there was no way I thought I was going to be able to hold onto that car,” O’Connell said later. “Athletically, it was trying to be just as soft with my inputs as I could, just slow and precise.”

It capped a dream weekend for the Cadillac program, with two victories and three podium finishes in the Motor City. It was the eighth podium finish for Team Cadillac in the 2012 season, and it increased Cadillac’s lead in the Manufacturer’s points to nine, 56-47, over Porsche with five races left in the season.

Andy Pilgrim started third in Sunday’s Round 7 and had a solid day, losing third on the start to the Volvo of Alex Figge and chasing him home in fourth.

”It was disappointing,” Pilgrim said after the race. “Alex got me on the start and they’ve got good power. I had a couple of times where I was side by-side with him, but I couldn’t get him. He drove a good race. Traffic played a part for both of us.

“It was a good race, great for the team, great for Johnny.”

O’Connell continues to lead the driver points over Pilgrim and the margin is now 128, 895-757. Aschenbach is back in third with 675 points.

James Sofronas rounded out the top five finishers, ahead of fellow Porsche drivers David Welch, Tomy Drissi and Madison Snow, the rebuilt Volvo of Randy Pobst and Tony Gaples’ Corvette.

Next action for Team Cadillac is June 20-22 at Canadian Tire Raceway in Bowmanville, Ontario.

Both races of the Cadillac V-Series Challenge from Detroit will be broadcast on NBC Sports, Saturday, July 7 at 5-7 p.m. EDT.

Cadillac V-Series Challenge in Detroit a ‘Home Game’ for CTS-V Racers

Cadillac V-Series Challenge in Detroit a ‘Home Game’ For Team Cadillac CTS-V Coupes

Enter Detroit Rounds 6-7 as Driver, Manufacturer Point Leaders

  • * O’Connell, Pilgrim 1-2 in Driver Points, Cadillac Leads Manufacturers
  • * Wet Weather Plagues Practice, Run-Up to Racing
  • * Team Cadillac Races in Sight of Global HQ

DETROIT – Team Cadillac Racing returns to home ground this weekend for the Cadillac V-Series Challenge on the street course at Belle Isle, not far from its worldwide headquarters at the Renaissance Center.

If that’s not enough incentive for the twin Cadillac CTS-V Coupe race cars driven by Johnny O’Connell and Andy Pilgrim, then defending their winning streak on street courses could serve as well. And then, there’s the fact that Cadillac leads the manufacturers’ standings in the Pirelli World Challenge GT Series and O’Connell and Pilgrim are 1-2 in the driver standings.

In other words, there’s no pressure this weekend, right?

“Any time you’re doing a lap on the track and you can see headquarters, you know the boss is watching,” O’Connell joked. “It’s an important deal for us to get back here, since Cadillac is very involved in the promotion of this race. It’s a race track we expect to do well on.”

O’Connell won the first race of the season on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., and Pilgrim followed with a victory in the streets of Long Beach, Calif. Belle Isle’s 2.080-mile temporary course presents a different challenge, said Pilgrim.

“The thing with street courses is they have variables,” he said. “This is not St. Petersburg, and it’s not Long Beach. You’ve got concrete going to sealer, going to tarmac, going back to concrete, back to tarmac…you’ve got all sorts of surface changes here. When it rains, they have different grips. Sealant can be like ice in the wet, or it can be reasonable. Depends on what kind of sealant they use. Likewise, concrete, if it’s really smooth, can be very slick in the wet or it can be reasonable. You just don’t know.

“You don’t want to be the first one through the wet corners.”

With rain in the forecast Friday, there’s a chance that all the practice sessions Team Cadillac will have will be in wet conditions, and going from wet practice to dry racing conditions is a handful.

“There’s not much practice time, and it seems like all of our practice could be wet, so going from a wet practice to a dry race is going to put a ton of pressure on the team and the engineers to come up with something that can work in the race,” Pilgrim added.

That puts a premium on qualifying, set for 10:15 a.m. on Saturday.

“You have to qualify well,” O’Connell said. “The circuit is going to be very difficult for passing, so you need to be up near the front, the first two rows. Any time you are street racing, you have to come up with a good setup quickly, and you can’t allow yourself to overdrive the car to where you can hit a wall and take yourself out. It’s kind of a controlled aggressiveness.”

Pilgrim agreed.

“I think qualifying will be absolutely critical,” he said. “It’s supposed to rain this weekend, and that tends to favor the all-wheel-drive cars. I say this every week; if we come out of here with top-fives, then I’ll be happy. Street races…get out of one street race alive is good, get out of two street races alive is even better. Street races are tough, we can be fast here, I believe, if we can get a setup.”

Getting that ideal setup is going to be critical to the success of Team Cadillac this weekend, O’Connell said.

“The Cadillac is a long-wheelbase car and it’s heavy,” he said. “On the higher-speed circuits, you expect to do well. On street courses, we were thinking that if we got on the podium we were doing great. I think we surprised ourselves with our performance at St. Pete and Long Beach, but this is one of the tracks that might favor the all-wheel-drive cars or the Porsches because of the shorter wheelbase. You never know what’s going to happen, but we expect to do well because we’re Cadillac.”

The Cadillacs have done well this season, earning two victories in the season’s first five races. O’Connell leads Pilgrim by 14, 573-559, in the driver point standings. Volvo’s Randy Pobst, winner at Laguna Seca Raceway last time out, is third with 502.

In the Manufacturer’s race, Cadillac stands four points higher than Porsche, 37-33, after five races. Volvo leaped into the battle in third place with 25 points.

The Cadillac V-Series Challenge will kick off Saturday at 2:45 p.m. EDT for Round 6 and at 11:45 a.m. on Sunday for Round 7. Both races will be streamed live and will be broadcast on NBC Sports, Saturday, July 7 at 5-7 p.m. EDT.

Team Cadillac Finishes First, Third in Cadillac V-Series Challenge

Team Cadillac Finishes First, Third in Cadillac V-Series Challenge Race at Belle Isle in Detroit

O’Connell Wins, Pilgrim Third in Round 6 of Pirelli World Challenge Series

  • * Start-Line Crash Enables O’Connell to Get Away Clean
  • * Cadillac Increases Lead in Manufacturer Points
  • * O’Connell, Pilgrim Still 1-2 in Driver Points at Halfway

DETROIT – In the shadow of Cadillac’s headquarters, Johnny O’Connell delivered a homecoming victory for Team Cadillac in the Cadillac V-Series Challenge on Saturday at Belle Isle.

O’Connell led all 22 laps in his No. 3 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe and earned his second victory of the 2012 season in the Pirelli World Challenge GT Series, and teammate Andy Pilgrim wound up third in his No. 8 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe.

The race itself started with a bang, as polesitter Randy Pobst’s Volvo suffered a mechanical problem on the standing start. O’Connell leaped away into the lead, while Pilgrim and eventual runner-up Lawson Aschenbach struggled to miss the stationary vehicle.

Aschenbach got through first and took off after O’Connell, with Pilgrim sliding into third.

Nearly the entire field missed Pobst’s car, which had broken a driveshaft, but the GTS cars of Roger Miller and Bill Ziegler did not. The impact sent the Volvo left to the wall, where it was hit by rookie Robert Stout.

Pobst and the other three drivers emerged unhurt, but the accident required significant cleanup. The race finally went green on lap 12.

O’Connell immediately started putting distance on Aschenbach over the next five laps until another crash on lap 17 put the field back under yellow.

The cleanup for that accident put the race over the 50-minute time limit, and O’Connell took the white and checkered flags while under the caution.

“When you’re racing in front of headquarters, you want to do well,” O’Connell said. “This was a race that in many respects was won in qualifying. I really put in one of my better laps this morning in qualifying and that allowed us to get on the front row.”

On the initial standing start, O’Connell launched well and concentrated on the first turn, but noticed that Pobst hadn’t moved.

“Out of my peripheral vision, I saw that Randy didn’t go, and I knew that was a bad thing for him,” he said. “When I got to Turn 2, I took my first good look around. Lawson was the only one there.”

That was the race, for all intents and purposes. Pilgrim kept the top two cars honest, and the top three pulled away by about eight seconds in the five laps of green-flag racing they managed before the second yellow flag ended the day.

It’s a bonus for O’Connell for tomorrow’s 50-minute race as well. He set the fastest lap of the day on Saturday, earning the pole for Sunday’s race. Pilgrim will start third behind Aschenbach’s Porsche.

It was an interesting start for Pilgrim, as he was directly behind Pobst when the latter’s car broke on the start.

“I was lucky to miss Randy,” he said. “On the standing start, when somebody stalls, you’re just thankful to get by. Lawson got a great start, and I’m really glad I didn’t hit Lawson, because he went right and I went left. We could have come together right in the middle and that would have been really bad.”

Pilgrim said that the lack of green-flag racing was a shame, and that the Detroit crowd would see better action from the Pirelli World Challenge Series on Sunday.

“It’s a shame for the fans, and we will do better,” he vowed. “We have a great racing series, and I hope they stick with us and we’ll give them a much better show tomorrow.”

For Cadillac fans, and the hundreds of employees, family and friends who attended the Cadillac V-Series Challenge, it was a pretty good show all around, with the victory and a double podium.

The victory, Cadillac’s third in six races so far this year, gave Cadillac a six-point lead over Porsche in the Manufacturer’s points, and O’Connell stretched his driver points lead to 72, 735-663, over his teammate Pilgrim.

After O’Connell, Aschenbach and Pilgrim came the Volvo of Alex Figge and Steve Ott’s Porsche in the top five. David Welch, James Sofronas, Tomy Drissi, Madison Snow and Anders Hainer rounded out the top 10. All but Hainer (Audi) among the second five were Porsche drivers.

Round 7 of the Pirelli World Challenge Series will take place Sunday at 12:05 p.m. on the 2.080-mile Belle Isle street course. Both races will be streamed live and will be broadcast on NBC Sports, Saturday, July 7 at 5-7 p.m. EDT.

Team Chevy Racing Display and Test Drive Visits Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Plenty of Fun for Entire Family; Q&A Sessions with Team Chevy Drivers, Including Pole-Sitter Ryan Briscoe and 2012 3-time Race-Winner Will Power

DETROIT – Race fans visiting Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend for the Indianapolis 500 will have the opportunity to experience the Team Chevy Racing Display, filled with show cars, production vehicles, Chevrolet Performance Parts crate engines, parts and accessories, test drive Chevy’s new lineup and participate in question-and-answer sessions with Team Chevy drivers Ryan Briscoe, Will Power, Ed Carpenter, JR Hildebrand, Rubens Barrichello, Tony Kanaan, EJ Viso, James Hinchcliffe, Ana Beatriz, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti and Sebastian Saavedra.

“The Team Chevy Racing Display will have something for everyone in the family – including appearances by Team Chevy IZOD IndyCar Series drivers who will be racing in the Indianapolis 500 and the opportunity to compete with other fans on video race simulators,” said Terry Dolan, Manager, Chevy Racing. “Fans will also have the opportunity to experience Chevrolet’s newest cars, trucks and crossover vehicles, including a fan favorite – the Corvette 427 60th Anniversary Edition. They can spend time with product specialists in the display to learn more about Chevrolet’s lineup, and also check out Chevrolet Performance Parts crate engines and an assortment of accessories and performance parts that fans can purchase from their local Chevy dealer. IMS is a special place, and we look forward to seeing race fans during their visit to the track.”

The Team Chevy Racing Display – where fans can see and learn more about vehicles like Sonic 5-Door, Camaro 45th Anniversary, Silverado Crew 1500, Cruze ECO, Traverse LTZ, Equinox 2LT, Tahoe 4WD LTZ, Corvette Grand Sport Convertible, Corvette Coupe, Sonic Sedan, Malibu ECO, Camaro SS Coupe, Camaro Convertible, Silverado 2500 HD, Silverado ZL1 Short Bed, Cruze LTZ, Volt and Suburban ½ Ton – will be located near the museum, and will be open 8 a.m.-6 .m. on Thursday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. on Friday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. on Saturday, and 7 a.m.-12 p.m. on Sunday.

Past and current Indianapolis 500 pace cars – including the 2013 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 – also will be on display.

Fans who sign up with Team Chevy will receive a special Chevrolet t-shirt.

Fans can test drive Sonic 5-Door, Cruze ECO, Malibu, Volt, Camaro SS, Camaro Convertible, Corvette Grand Sport Convertible, Equinox LT, Traverse LT and Silverado 1500. The Team Chevy Test Drive, which will be located adjacent to the display, will be open from 8 a.m.-5:30 p.m. on Thursday, and from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday.

Oriol Servia will participate in a question-and-answer session at the Team Chevy display at 9:30 a.m. on Friday. Ed Carpenter will make an appearance at 1:30 p.m., followed by JR Hildebrand at 3 p.m., 2012 Indianapolis 500 pole-sitter Ryan Briscoe and three-time 2012 IndyCar race winner Will Power at 3:15 p.m., Rubens Barrichello at 3:30 p.m., Tony Kanaan at 3:45 p.m. and EJ Viso at 4 p.m.

James Hinchcliffe and Ana Beatriz will be at the display at 8:15 a.m. on Saturday, followed by Ryan Hunter-Reay and Marco Andretti at 2:15 p.m. and Sebastian Saavedra at 2:45 p.m.

Also, Chevrolet is supporting Cell Phones for Soldiers by providing locations at the display for drop boxes. Cell Phones for Soldiers raises money through the collection of gently used cell phones, and has provided since 2004 more than 1 million pre-paid calling cards and 60 million minutes of calling time to soldiers overseas. For more information, please visit www.chevrolet.com/phones.

The Secret to Corvette’s Success

Harris: It all started as a leap of faith, Fehan says

That name has had magical qualities for me since the day in 1964 when my dad and brother split the cost and bought a Stingray.

It was love at first sight for me. My family kept our car keys in a jar by the door and I used to get up early – something few teenage boys really like to do – just to beat my brother out the door and be able to drive his beautiful red Stingray to school. That didn’t make him happy, but it sure gave me a boost.

Now, these many years later, I split my time between a minivan and a compact, but the sight of a Corvette still brings a stirring in my chest and happy memories to mind. Of course, I’m certainly not alone. In its 60th year of production, GM’s Corvette brand remains one of the great success stories in the up-and-down world of American auto production.

In recent years, Corvette Racing, with its iconic sports cars, has been a major force in keeping the sleek Chevrolets that way. Going into this season, Corvette Racing had won 75 races in the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón, eight ALMS manufacturers and team championships, and seven drivers’ championships. Add to that record seven class victories since 2001 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and you have an honest-to-goodness automotive success story.

Doug Fehan, program manager for Corvette Racing, says the success of the current program was at least partially a matter of faith.

“The (Corvette Racing) program started as an idea in the fall of 1996,” Fehan (right) explained. “We spent 1997 and 1998 developing a race vehicle based on the C5 Corvette that was introduced to the public as a 1997 model.

“The concept for those two years was to put together what we thought was a bona-fide GT race car. Then, when we got to that point, we’d look at the road-racing world and see if there was a spot that we could plug in and compete.”

Fehan pointed out that, with American road racing in a state of flux in the late ’90s, there was no guarantee the new Corvette would ever race. The other part of that equation, he noted, was that the program was so secret that only a handful of people with GM knew it was happening. Fehan said the thinking was that, if the car that was being developed was not competitive or representative of the brand, the new race car would never compete.

Obviously, the project turned out to be a rousing success, in part thanks to the development of the super-competitive ALMS GT class where Corvette continues to shine, winning the last two races with its latest model – the C6.R.

This program has been so successful that not even the bleak recent economic challenges faced by GM put a damper on it. Of all the racing programs fielded by the company before the great downturn, only NASCAR and Corvette Racing survived.

And only the Corvette program came out of it unscathed.

“NASCAR took a significant cut,” Fehan (right) said. “Our program continued on and, quite frankly, received no cut. It was a testament to how we laid this program out to begin with, proving to have inarguable value to the corporation.”

The relationship with the ALMS, which began competition in 1999, has also been a strong factor in Corvette Racing’s success story.

“When you look through this paddock and you see Corvette, Aston Martin, BMW, Ferrari, Porsche, Lotus … at no point in my lifetime, at this level of professional racing, have you seen that wide a range of manufacturers taking what they build and sell and putting it in the challenging world of road-racing,” Fehan said. “We have more manufacturer involvement at a level that has never been realized in my lifetime.

“That tells you how important this series is and what it represents,” he added. “This is a series that you’re going to see technology. You’re going to see the latest in thinking, in materials, in aerodynamics and performance. You’re going to see it here because the manufacturers recognize the relevance. They see the importance of racing what you’re selling, and I’d like to think that Corvette kind of led the way on that.”

Mike Harris is the retired Auto Racing Writer for The Associated Press and remains a frequent contributor to a variety of racing outlets. He will file periodic reports on the American Le Mans Series to ALMS.com.

Source:

Mike Harris

http://www.alms.com/articles/secret-corvette%E2%80%99s-success