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Team Cadillac Reaches Podium in both Races at Cadillac Grand Prix of Sonoma

2011-08-28

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Sonoma, California – A logjam at the start and some tough traffic luck on the 2.2-mile layout at Infineon Raceway cost both Johnny O’Connell and Andy Pilgrim in Saturday’s ninth round of the Pirelli World Challenge.

“They just got a better jump,” O’Connell said of the start, where both eventual race winner Patrick Long and third-starting Randy Pobst got past him. “Their computers worked better than ours did for the first time this year. I felt we’ve had great starts every single race, but this is the first time the 45 car (Long) pulled me on the start.”

Trailing Pobst and Long, O’Connell kept both in his sights as Pilgrim launched well and hung out on O’Connell’s back bumper. Pobst left the lead battle with mechanical problems on the fourth lap, and it was a two-car Cadillac CTS-V tag-team on Long after that.

It stayed that way until lap 18, when the leaders were mired deep in traffic among a gaggle of GTS machines waging their own battle for position.

“It was very unfortunate,” Pilgrim said. “It was four Mustangs, running so hard, and they weren’t looking in their mirrors, I guess. I knew it was going to be tough to get through, and I was about to get pushed off the track. I had to back off and as I did, I saw Mike Skeen slide past on the inside.

“It’s very disappointing not to get a podium, but actually, it was a really good race. That lap just cost me three or four seconds, and it was terrible.”

Pilgrim caught back up to Skeen’s bumper on several occasions over the final nine laps, but had to fend off the closing Porsche of Dino Crescentini in the final two to preserve fourth.

Over the final 10 laps or so, through the ebb and flow of traffic, O’Connell kept Long on a string, waiting for the moment he could pounce. It didn’t come.

Behind Long and O’Connell came Skeen and Pilgrim, with Crescentini in fifth. James Sofronas, Tomy Drissi, David Welch, Tony Gaples and Jeff Courtney rounded out the top 10 finishers.

O’Connell, by virtue of winning the pole (worth 15 points) and finishing second, claimed second spot in the driver point standings, 124 behind Long. Pilgrim stayed fifth, opening ground on Tony Gaples for the spot.

Race 2

Andy Pilgrim started Sunday’s Round 10 of the Pirelli World Challenge in second place, and after 27 laps of hard racing, finished there behind race winner and polesitter Patrick Long.

The issue was in doubt for the final 10 laps, however, as Pilgrim closed his Cadillac CTS-V Coupe hard on the rear deck of Long’s car on several occasions. In the end, Long held him off by 1.586 seconds.

“Ah, man, that was a back-and-forth battle,” Pilgrim said in Victory Lane. “We had a really good start, and my car was working well. Patrick [Long] pulled me a little at the beginning, then in the middle we both hit traffic here and again.

“It was a see-saw battle. I just kept pushing and pushing and pushing, and I knew [James] Sofronas was coming. It was a pressure cooker in between the two Porsches, and I couldn’t afford to make one little mistake.”

He didn’t, and using a couple of GTS cars as a pick, he was able to finish a strong second ahead of Sofronas, Patrick Lindsey and Tomy Drissi.

It was the first podium for Pilgrim this season, though he has amassed six top-five and nine top-10 finishes in the 10 races. It was also the first time for him in the top three since the final race of the 2007 season at Laguna Seca in Cadillac’s first venture into the Pirelli World Challenge.

O’Connell, who was second to Long in Round 9 on Saturday, started third and held onto his teammate through a wild standing start that saw the Volvo of Randy Pobst dive outside and make it three-wide into Turn 1.

Soon after, however, the handle started to fade on his Cadillac CTS-V.

“We were so loose…” O’Connell said later. “I had it for about two laps, but after that, when I went to the power, it just got out from under me. When you’re that loose, there’s not a heck of a lot you can do.”

O’Connell, who has thousands of laps here both as a racer and a driving school instructor, was able to hold off Sofronas for the first seven laps, but the Porsche driver was able to pass off Turn 7. Three laps later, a hard-charging Dino Crescentini got past in Turn 9, pushing him to fifth.

That put him in the clutches of Lindsey, who had contact with O’Connell in Round 7 at Mid-Ohio, ruining a potential podium finish. On lap 17, Lindsey peeked to the inside in the hairpin Turn 11, and nudged O’Connell’s right rear fender.

O’Connell kept his foot in it and spun completely around, but he was nearly two seconds back of the fleeing Lindsey. He raced on, and moved back up to fifth when Crescentini pitted with clutch problems. Tomy Drissi passed O’Connell for the spot in the final two laps of the race and he ended up sixth.

O’Connell dropped back to third in the driver’s points behind Long and Sofronas. He trails Long by 185 points with two races remaining. Pilgrim solidified his hold on fifth, opening a 75-point bulge over sixth, and climbed closer to fourth-place Mike Skeen, whom he trails by 109 markers.

In the manufacturer’s chase, Porsche leads with 73 points and Cadillac is second with 45.

The next round for the Pirelli World Challenge is Sunday, Sept. 18 at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, Calif.