Team Cadillac Focus Is On Pilgrim, Sweep of Driver’s Championship

Team Cadillac Focus Is On Pilgrim, Race for 2nd in Driver’s Championship at Sonoma Finale

One More Goal to Meet in Dream Season for Team Cadillac

• * Manufacturer Title All But Clinched
• * Pilgrim Holds 53-Point Lead over Third Place

SONOMA, Calif. – Entering the final race of the Pirelli World Challenge Series on Saturday, Team Cadillac has one more bit of business to attend to.

Having already clinched the Driver’s Championship with Johnny O’Connell and in unassailable command of the Manufacturer’s Championship, the key piece of the weekend’s racing activity is to make it a 1-2 finish in the Driver’s Championship.

Andy Pilgrim holds a 53-point lead over Volvo’s Randy Pobst for second place in the driver standings, and since Pobst will start second and Pilgrim’s Cadillac CTS-V Coupe will start fourth on Saturday, it is vital to the mission to stay close.

“I really want to get second in the points, no doubt about it,” Pilgrim said. “All we can do is make sure that our stuff is as good as it can possibly be. It’s going to be very difficult. The Volvos, if they run flawlessly, they just walk away. Here, with the three slow corners and the fact that they have all-wheel-drive, it’s going to be very difficult.

“I’m going to be giving 150 percent, and we have a great race car. If I can race with them, I’m going to push as hard as I possibly can. It’s an uphill battle, but I’m going to go for it.”

O’Connell said the Volvo advantage is in the all-wheel-drive, which is suited to some of the slower corners at Speedway Sonoma.

“Our Cadillac is good on fast tracks with long, sweeping corners,” he said. “When you have tight stuff, second-gear corners, it certainly doesn’t work to our advantage because we’re a long wheelbase car. The fact that we qualified third and fourth is good, and the strength of this team is our preparation, our engineering and how we perform in the race.”

O’Connell is committed to helping Pilgrim nail down second place in the points.

“Anything we can do to help Andy in his bid for second in the driver’s standings, we’re going to do.”

The Cadillac Grand Prix of Sonoma kicks off at noon today, and will be streamed live at www.world-challengetv.com. The race will be broadcast on NBC Sports Network on Sept. 9 at 3 p.m. EDT.