Pilgrim Wins Long Beach GP
 · Cadillac Takes Lead in Manufacturer Points with Result
· O'Connell Leads, Pilgrim Second in Driver Standings
· Pilgrim's Victory his 11th in Series Competition, First since '09
LONG BEACH, Calif. – Andy Pilgrim delivered a solid victory in one of the nation's most legendary street races on Sunday, driving his No. 8 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe past Volvo's Randy Pobst on the ninth of 31 laps and leading the rest of the way.
'I've never won at Long Beach,' Pilgrim said in Victory Lane after the caution-free event. 'I've finished second here a couple of times, but it's very good to win it and I'm really happy to have done it.'
Pilgrim qualified second for the 31-lap Pirelli World Challenge race on the 1.968-mile street circuit and held that position on the standing start. Polesitter Pobst rocketed away by virtue of his car's all-wheel-drive, but Pilgrim and teammate Johnny O'Connell, who started third in the No. 3 Cadillac, stayed close through the first eight laps.
On the ninth, Pilgrim edged to the inside approaching the left-hand Turn 1 and turned in before Pobst could, sliding his silver Cadillac into a lead he would never give up.
'Randy got stuck in traffic on the hairpin, and I think I surprised him a little bit,' Pilgrim said of the winning pass. 'I had been studying him for the first several laps, and it seemed like he was backing up his braking point a bit. I noticed that, and I waited as late as I possibly could, the door was open and it went through.'
From there, it was a matter of managing traffic and hitting his marks, which the Englishman did with aplomb. The gap stretched from one second to five seconds at times, and it ended with Pilgrim crossing the line 6.337 seconds ahead of the 2010 series champion.
'The Cadillac ran very, very well, and it was consistent, and I think the fact that we were green the whole time helped us,' he said. 'We're very happy, Team Cadillac is very happy, and we'll take it.'
O'Connell kept contact with the lead pair throughout the race, but had to contend with traffic and could not gain. He finished third, 10.430 seconds behind Pobst, to give Cadillac its second straight double-podium finish. O'Connell finished second and Pilgrim third in Round 2 at St. Petersburg last month.
'If you're not going to win it, it's nice to see your teammate disappearing into the distance,' O'Connell said. 'I was chasing Randy Pobst and studying him, and I kept hoping for traffic, but I never got the opportunity I wanted, and I knew he wasn't going to make a mistake.
'I'm very proud of everyone on the Cadillac team, and through engineering and hard work, they gave us good cars.'
The victory was Pilgrim's 11th in the series and first since 2009, when he won at Road America.
It was also a good day in the points. O'Connell leads with 374 after three rounds, and Pilgrim jumped to second with 361. 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.
Behind O'Connell came a bevy of Porsches, led by James Sofronas in fourth and Aschenbach in fifth. The 911s of Tommy Drissi, Dino Crescentini, Justin Marks and Steve Ott were sixth through ninth, and the Ferrari F430 of David Welch rounded out the top 10.
'It was a great day for Team Cadillac here in Long Beach, and we could not be more proud of Andy and Johnny,' said John Kraemer, Cadillac V-Series Racing and Marketing Manager. 'The development of this car over the past year has been phenomenal, and our team is putting in a lot of effort toward that end.'
Round 3 of the Pirelli World Challenge Series will be broadcast on NBC Sports, Sunday, April 29 at 3-4:30 p.m. EDT.
Next up for Team Cadillac is the Utah Grand Prix at Miller Motorsports Park on April 27-28.
|
| Recent Articles |
 TOP DRIVERS SPARKLE IN SUNDAY SUNSHINE FROM THE WEATHERTECH® CHICAGO REGION SCCA JUNE SPRINTS® AT ROAD AMERICAELKHART LAKE, Wis., June 16, 2013 - The Eight races, including repeat performances from Saturday's four groups, highlighted Sunday's SCCA WeatherTech Chicago Region June Sprints at Road America. All 12 of the weekend's races were a part of the SCCA Northern Conference Majors Tour Championship. The morning opened with an overall runaway win from Tom Sloe's Touring 1 No. 97 Hutter Racing Engines/Hoosier Chevrolet Corvette, but the small yet mighty Super Touring Under class entertained .... |
 Piquet Jr. Returns To Road America Looking To Capture The Magic Once AgainELKHART LAKE, Wis., June 12, 2013 - Nelson Piquet Jr. will be making his return to Road America June 22, looking to capture back-to-back wins at the famed 4-mile, 14-turn road course. During last season's shootout, Piquet Jr. won the pole, then went on to lead a total of 19 laps to become the first Brazilian to score a victory in one of NASCAR'S top-three series. The win also helped set Piquet Jr. up for a strong finish to the 2012 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series campaign and provided a.... |
 50 ANNI DI PASSIONE FERRARI CLUB OF AMERICA RETURNS TO ROAD AMERICA FOR 50th ANNIVERSARYELKHART LAKE, Wis., June 11, 2013 - This summer the Ferrari Club of America is returning to Elkhart Lake, Wis., and Road America to celebrate its 50th Anniversary with a special International Meet. From July 30 to August 4 the club will honor its heritage as the oldest recognized and, by magnitudes, the largest Ferrari club in the world with over 5,200 members from across all of Canada and the US. 50 Anni di Passione, 50 years of passion, is the year long theme for the Ferrari Club .... |
 California Mille 2012 InformationThe 2012 running of the California Mille will take place April 29th to May 3rd over 1,000 miles of twisty back roads in California Gold Country, Lake Tahoe and historic Nevada.The 22nd annual running of the California Mille will begin Sunday, April 29th with a public car show at the Fairmont Hotel atop San Francisco's Nob Hill, with 65 historic race cars on display from 11am to 6pm. Participants depart at 8:30am the following morning for a four-day, 1000-mile adventure that will take them a.... |
 KIA RACING AND COLIN BRAUN CAPTURE FIRST PIRELLI WORLD CHALLENGE PODIUM FINISH ON THE STREETS OF LONG BEACH• Newlywed Braun Qualified Third in the No. 38 Infinity Audio Optima and Avoided Traffic by Staying Near the Front of the Field On His Way to a Third Place Finish• More than 200 Kia Motors team members and guests from the company's Southern California headquarters witnessed Kia Racing's historic milestone • Just eight days after his wedding, Braun's impressive Long Beach weekend included podium finishes in both the American Le Mans Series and Pirelli World Challenge events[/LI.... |
 THE VIPER GTS-R IS BACK IN 2012•Two identical SRT Viper GTS-R race cars will compete in this weekend's American Le Mans Series event at the 2.54-mile Road Atlanta circuit.•The driver lineup for Petit Le Mans: Tommy Kendall and Marc Goossens will be joined by Jonathan Bomarito in the No. 93 Pennzoil Ultra Viper GTS-R. Dominik Farnbacher and Kuno Wittmer will share driving duties with Ryan Hunter-Reay in the No. 91 Hewlett Packard Viper GTS-R. •This is the first on-track, factory-based participation for the SRT Viper GTS-R.... |
 KIA RACING ANNOUNCES DRIVER LINE-UP FOR 2013 PIRELLI WORLD CHALLENGE SEASONNic Jönsson and Mark Wilkins To Pilot Grand Touring Sport (GTS) Class Turbocharged Optimas In Kia's Sophomore World Challenge Campaign•Former Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge champion and multi-time race winner with Kia's Grand-Am Forte Koup program Nic Jönsson moves over to the No. 36 turbocharged Optima •Mark Wilkins returns to the No. 38 turbocharged Optima having contributed a pole, a win and two podium finishes to Kia Racing's strong rookie effort in the Pirelli World Challenge la.... |
| A MAD MARCH FOR MAZDA MOTORSPORTS-- 15 Races in Seven Series at Three Race Tracks in Two States in One Month -- March 1, 2013 (IRVINE, Calif.) Mazda is ramping up the 2013 professional racing season with their usual hectic month of March, starting with races on March 1st in Austin, Texas, before two busy weekends in Florida. For Mazda, racing is not just a single series, but the majority of all sports car and open wheel road-racing classes in North America. 2013 highlights on the professional level will include: .... |
