Team Cadillac Invades Utah with Full Head of Steam

Team Cadillac Invades Utah with Full Head of Steam in Pirelli World Challenge GT Series

Long Beach Winner Pilgrim Leads Charge to Miller Motorsports Park

• • O’Connell Leads Point Standings, Pilgrim 2nd After Three Rounds
• • CTS-V Coupes Tackle First Permanent Road Course of 2012
• • Added Weight the Price of Success for Pilgrim, O’Connell

TOOELE, Utah – Team Cadillac enters this weekend’s Pirelli World Challenge PrivacyStar Utah Grand Prix at Miller Motorsports Park with a head of steam, coming off Andy Pilgrim’s Long Beach victory in the last round and still building off the season-opening triumph by Johnny O’Connell at St. Petersburg.

The 3.048-mile Miller Motorsports Park course is the first permanent road course of the season for the drivers and their Cadillac CTS-V Coupes after two straight street courses to open the season. As such, it will present different challenges.

To begin with, both cars are carrying additional weight by virtue of the Pirelli World Challenge rules. O’Connell, who finished third at Long Beach, is carrying 144 additional pounds of REWARDS weight, while Pilgrim is carrying 96 for the same reason.

REWARDS stands for Rewarding of Equalized Weight Assigned to Reduce Driver Sensitivity, and its goal is to equalize competition among the top third of the field.

“The additional weight is going to play a role here this weekend,” said Pilgrim. “There are high-speed corners here, 100-mile-per-hour corners, and there are slower corners here too.”

O’Connell, who leads the points after three rounds, has always liked Miller Motorsports Park.

“Even though it is out in the middle of nowhere, I have always liked racing here,” he said. “It’s high-speed, rock-and-roll. The high-speed corners are really fun and challenging, especially Turns 1-5 It’s also the first time this year we’ve been on a permanent road course, and that’s always good.”

O’Connell leads the GT series points with 374 after three rounds, and Pilgrim jumped to second with 361 after winning at Long Beach. Lawson Aschenbach, the Round 2 winner, is third with 342. In the Manufacturer’s race, Cadillac leads Porsche, 25-20, with Volvo in third with 13.

Pilgrim said that consistency was going to be the key in the season-long points battle.

“With me, it’s all about top-fives,” he said. “If we can come out of every weekend with a top-five finish, we’ll be fine. In practice here, we were dealing with 30-mile-per-hour winds, and we might have that for the race, so it’s going to be all about setup this weekend.”

This weekend’s Pirelli World Challenge Championships races from Miller Motorsports Park will be streamed live online at www.world-challengeTV.com. The online feed for the GT/GTS Round 4 race is scheduled to start at 2:25 pm Mountain/ 4:25 pm Eastern Saturday, April 28.

Watch Team Cadillac win at Long Beach at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday on the NBC Sports Network.