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

Pratt Miller Expanding Beyond Racing into Defense Contracting

New Hudson-based Pratt Miller is wildly famous as an auto supplier and aftermarket and motor racing firm, but its perhaps less famous as a defense contractor.

Nonetheless, P&M has been making great strides on the defense industry front.

Just last week at the big, two-day NDIA/Michigan Defense Industrial Base Expo at Macomb College in Warren, Pratt Miller had a recruiting booth among 30 or more contractors displaying at the show.

Staffing the booth for Pratt were recruiter Sandy McKinnon and Sara Blackmer, director, Government Markets.

Blackmer discussed Pratt Miller’s progression from being an original auto supplier to now both auto and military.

Asked if there was synergy between auto and defense for P&M, she said, “There’s absolutely synergy.

“Pratt Miller Engineering’s heritage is in motorsports, we’ve been exclusive to GM Racing since 2005.

“From that winning tradition that we have, we’ve been able to translate some of the smart technologies into advanced automotive, and also defense applications.

“So, vehicle lightweighting, reliability, durability, rugged-izing things like suspensions, redesigning chassis and body work are the kinds of things we do for vehicles.”

Pratt Miller’s engineering and analysis work for defense includes a wide range of tools including packaging/architecture design, 3D Solids/Parametric CAD, reverse engineering, industrial design, structure optimization, weight reduction, durability/fatigue analysis and much more.

Their defense applications apply to Tactical Wheeled Vehicles, Tracked Vehicles, Robotics/Unmanned Systems, Trailers, Fleet Resetting, Missile Systems and the like.

“So our facility is soup to nuts: clean-sheet design, to development, to concepting and prototype manufacturing.

“We do not do commodity work, we also do not do volume-anything. But if you’re looking for a full-system prototype or a piece-part prototype, we can absolutely do that. Small quantity volume we can do.”

Asked which was busier, defense or automotive, Blackmer replied:

“We started as racing, we’ve been in racing since 1989 but exclusive to GM since 2005.”

“We still do probably 60 percent of our business is racing, and the other 40 percent is split between advanced automotive and defense.

“Say it’s more defense this year than automotive, but that fluctuates depending on market needs.”

Jake vs The Snake – Viper Returns

From Badboyvettes.com:

It was announced at the 2012 New York Auto Show that the Viper would return to ALMS competition some time in 2012, and full season 2013 with a 2 car full factory effort team.

Here are the facts:

  • -ACO regulations define the minimum engine displacement as 5.5L, but have given SRT Viper a waiver to run a 8.0L engine. This is not an ALMS only waiver, this is a full ACO waiver.
  • -SRT Motorsports is partnering with Roush Industries on the development of the 8.0L V10.
  • -As of the announcement, Riley Technologies had no real race cars built yet.
  • -Other than 3 drivers, Kuno Wittmer, Dominik Farnbacher and Marc Goossens, there is no team in place yet.

As for the engine, this is obviously a sore spot in everyone’s side, especially since Corvette was forced from 7.0L down to 6.0L then down to 5.5L. Our guess is that they will be restricted on revs, as well as intake size, and probably weight for at least a while until their true performance is observed. But with operating at lower revs, means less wear and tear on the engine. This is exactly what the 5.5L rule was made to prevent.

In addition, it has also been rumored that SRT has been in talks with the FIA and ACO to change the GTE regulations for 2014 to allow up to 8.0L. Since Oreca, the French motorsport company, isn’t running the program this time, we are not sure if the French will want to make that drastic of a change to its most balanced class.

Of course this isn’t the first Viper to race in the ALMS in recent years. The Primetime Viper from a few season back was heavily restricted. So much so that they could not be competitive even mid-pack. But on the other hand they were not a factory effort.

SRT has not said it directly, but we know their main goal is to beat Corvette. They have taken a few small stabs at GM/Corvette here and there, but no blood has been drawn…yet.

Graham Henckel – Chief Engineer for SRT Viper claims they will not put the SRT badge on anything that isn’t racetrack proven. Our question is: How many races have the Jeep, Ram, Neon, Charger, 300, Crossfire, and Caliber entered or won?

As for Corvette…..do we really need to make a list?

Regardless, we welcome the competition. The more competition there is, the better the victories are.

http://badboyvettes.com/695

Pilgrim Podiums for Team Cadillac; O’Connell Seventh in Round 5 at Laguna Seca

Pilgrim Podiums for Team Cadillac; CTS-V Coupe Still Leads Manufacturer, Driver Points in World Challenge

O’Connell Finishes 7th in Cadillac Sports Car Grand Prix of Monterey

  • – Team Cadillac Drivers 1-2 in Driver Points after 5 Races
  • – Pilgrim Holds Off Porsche for Podium Finish
  • – Detroit Up Next on World Challenge Series Schedule

MONTEREY, Calif. – Andy Pilgrim had to keep track of a lot of information in the closing laps of Friday’s Cadillac Sports Car Grand Prix at Laguna Seca Raceway.

Chief among them was the position of one Lawson Aschenbach.

Aschenbach, who had to start 15th in the field because he missed qualifying, rocketed through the field to fourth place late in the 50-minute Pirelli World Challenge Series event on the 2.238-mile layout, and had he passed Pilgrim in the final four laps, he would have wrested the Manufacturer’s point lead from Team Cadillac.

He didn’t, and Pilgrim hung on to finish third in his No. 8 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe, keeping Cadillac’s lead intact and cutting the distance to the driver point lead to just 14 points.

“Manufacturer points is all we care about,” an enthused Pilgrim said on the podium after the race.

Pilgrim had a couple of chances to put a car between himself and Aschenbach, but missed by inches on both. The Volvos of race winner Randy Pobst and second-place Alex Figge were just too stout off the corners to get it done.

“It was an elastic band effect with Volvo,” Pilgrim said. “They were slow going into the corners and rockets coming out. I had the best shot on restarts, to try and get Alex. He was very clean; we were bumping, but it was clean. He gave me room and I gave him room. But once I got to the end of the corner, they took off. “

Having that buffer between himself and Aschenbach was tops in his mind.

“I tried, really, because I wanted to put him [Figge] between me and Lawson,” Pilgrim said. “Having Lawson behind me, holy smoke…I had to just be perfect for those four or five laps at the end. Luckily, we were. It just really kept me focused. Lawson raced me fair and really close.”

Pilgrim said he had an advantage on Aschenbach under braking with his Brembo brake system.

“The brakes on our car made it for us. He didn’t make anything on us on brakes.”

Pobst ran away with the victory, crossing the line .699 seconds ahead of his teammate, Figge. Pilgrim was third, 1.58 seconds back, and Aschenbach came home fourth, 1.711 seconds behind.

Johnny O’Connell had rough going in the No. 3 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe, starting seventh and finishing there. He was carrying 196 pounds of sanctioning-body-mandated weight, and had a struggle to stay with the lead group.

O’Connell, a master of the restart, had a couple of chances on late restarts to improve his position, but couldn’t close the deal before Turn 3.

Despite the extra weight he carried, O’Connell was pleased with the day.

“Restarts were good today,” he said. “The guys did an amazing job; the race car was the best car I had all weekend. But that much weight was murder here. Not just in the momentum I had to carry up the hill, but in the way my car was handling. You want to win, but you’re glad that Andy had a really good run in third. It was a good event for Cadillac.”

After Pobst, Figge, Pilgrim and Aschenbach came the Porsche of Steve Ott to round out the top five. Mike Skeen came from 16th to finish sixth, followed by O’Connell and the Porsches of Justin Marks, Tomy Drissi and Bret Curtis.

O’Connell still leads the driver points by 14, 573-559, over Pilgrim, with Pobst now third at 502. James Sofronas, who was third coming in, retired midway through Friday’s race and finished 15th in GT. Aschenbach is fourth at 427.

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

Next race for Team Cadillac is on home turf June 1-3 at the Cadillac Detroit Grand Prix on the Belle Isle course in the middle of the Detroit River.

Friday’s Cadillac Sports Car Grand Prix of Monterey is set for broadcast May 27 at 11 p.m. EDT on the NBC Sports Network.

View live streaming on the day of the races and continuously on demand after races.

Cadillac Sports Car GP Offers Good Chance for Team Cadillac to Pad Lead

Cadillac Sports Car Grand Prix Offers Good Chance for Team Cadillac to Keep the Pressure On

Leaders in Driver, Manufacturer Points Look to Strengthen Hold

  • Laguna Seca Raceway Site of Round 5 of Pirelli World Challenge
  • Pilgrim Qualifies 2nd, O’Connell Eighth for Friday’s Event
  • Slippery Surface, Weight Make Things Difficult

MONTEREY, Calif. – Entering the Cadillac Sports Car Grand Prix, Round 5 of the Pirelli World Challenge Series, Team Cadillac’s outlook is pretty rosy.

That can change in a heartbeat inside a series that matches performance vehicles from around the world.

For the moment, Team Cadillac drivers Johnny O’Connell and Andy Pilgrim sit first and second in the driver point standings and Cadillac is atop the manufacturer standings. O’Connell has 49 points in hand over Pilgrim, and Long Beach winner Pilgrim has 94 more than third place, which is good…but there’s plenty of racing left to go before the trophies are handed out.

This weekend’s race, set for Friday afternoon on the 2.238-mile course at Laguna Seca Raceway, will play a role in how it turns out.

In qualifying on Thursday, Pilgrim put his No. 8 Cadillac CTS-V second in line with a lap at 1:26.682, just .321 seconds off the pole-winning run by Volvo’s Randy Pobst. O’Connell was eighth with a lap at 1:27.397 in his No. 3 CTS-V.

“All the credit goes to the team,” Pilgrim said. “They have worked really hard on all the things that we needed, and we’re a lot better than when we started here this week. This place is really slippery now. It’s so slippery that it’s monstrously difficult to put a setup underneath it.”

Typically, tracks like Laguna Seca present difficulties for Team Cadillac, as Pilgrim explained.

“Laguna Seca has low grip, and a lot of middle-speed corners, similar to Mid-Ohio,” said Pilgrim, who posted the quickest time in Thursday’s first practice session. “It’s not an ideal track for our Cadillac CTS-V Coupe. If we can come away with top-five this weekend, we’ll be really doing something.”

The combination of grip level and some tight corners mixed with sweeping corners and some truly breathtaking changes in elevation gives the Cadillac drivers some opportunity for compromise in the setup. Getting off the corners fast is critical at Laguna Seca.

O’Connell, who is driving with an additional 196 pounds of REWARDS weight from the sanctioning body, had some struggles during the test session on Wednesday, but found a handle he liked during the two Thursday sessions.

“After the last session, I was pleased with the car,” said the St. Petersburg Round 1 winner. “All the weight is a disadvantage, but we are dealing with it as best we can. In qualifying, I thought I was going to be fast, but I was wrong again.”

Both drivers are very familiar with the Laguna Seca layout, having run here for years in a variety of series, and that experience could play a role in Friday’s main event.

One of the chief contenders to knock off the Team Cadillac duo, Lawson Aschenbach, will have to start from the tail of the GT field on Friday because he missed qualifying on Thursday.

Rounds 4 and 5 of the Pirelli World Challenge Series will be telecast on NBC Sports, Sunday, May 27 at 11 p.m. EDT. View live streaming on the day of the races and continuously on demand after races.

Virtual Cadillac CTS-V, Cadillac Cup Splash Onto Sim Racing Scene with iRacing.com

Feel the Thunder, Hear the Noise as CTS-V Coupe Racer Invades Digital Spectrum

DETROIT – With the release of the Cadillac CTS-V virtual race car from Cadillac and iRacing.com, race fans the world over can now feel the thunder of Cadillac’s powerful coupe and race it for prizes all year long.

The digital version of Team Cadillac’s potent hot-rod, driven in real life by superstar drivers Johnny O’Connell and Andy Pilgrim, features the same heart-pounding acceleration and hard-core performance characteristics of the real thing…and you don’t need an SCCA Competition license to race it.

O’Connell and Pilgrim are currently first and second, respectively, in the driver’s point standings for the Pirelli World Challenge GT Series, and Cadillac is atop the Manufacturer’s points as well.

Cadillac joins iRacing’s base package of cars and tracks, making the CTS-V an integral component of all 30,000+ iRacers’ online racing experience. The virtual Cadillac CTS-V will be featured in the Cadillac Cup, a series of online races at precision-modeled versions of many of the tracks on the 2012 Pirelli World Challenge GT Series schedule including Infineon Raceway, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and Mosport International Raceway.

For a preview of the Cadillac Cup action, click here. In addition to enjoying the challenge of door-to-door racing in their digital 520- horsepower CTS-Vs, iRacers will compete for a variety of iRacing- and Cadillac-branded prizes.

“With Johnny O’Connell’s victory in the opening round of the Pirelli World Challenge GT Series in St Petersburg and Andy Pilgrim’s win in Long Beach, the Cadillac CTS-V has already proven to be very a competitive proposition on the real race tracks of North America,” says Cadillac V-Series and Racing Marketing Manager John Kraemer. “Thanks to our partnership with iRacing.com, Cadillac is delighted to enable sim-racers around the world to enjoy the same incredible performance that Johnny and Andy experience every time they buckle in to their CTS-Vs on the race track.”

“We’re excited to be able to make one of the world’s most advanced racing sedans available to our members,” says iRacing.com President Tony Gardner. “We’re proud to partner with Cadillac, not only in creating the virtual CTS-V but through the Cadillac Cup. iRacing and Cadillac have some exciting programs in the making, and we’re all looking forward to making the most of our dynamic partnership for Cadillac, iRacing and iRacers.”

Visit www.cadillaccupracing.com to register for a complimentary iRacing membership code and see more information on the Cadillac CTS- V.

Pratt Miller Quality Assurance

Zeiss Video Interview

Please click the link below to view a video interview that covers our use of the Contura G2 CMM and CALYPSO software and how the Ziess partnership has benefitted us

here at P&M.

http://www.prattmiller.com/engineering/quality_assurance.php