Andy Moves to 3rd After Two SPEED GT Races in Canada

Aug. 8, 2004 article by: Dave Arnold Bowmanville, Ontario Andy Pilgrim had the most-consistent results of the three Cadillac/Mobil 1/Motorola/Bose/Cadillac CTS-V drivers in the SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT series at Mosport International Raceway over the weekend. Of the two results, Saturday’s fifth place gave him more personal satisfaction than did the fourth place on Sunday. Cadillac is now two points behind Audi in the chase for the Manufacturers’ Championship, with three races remaining on the season.  “The Manufacturers’ Championship is Cadillac’s focus for 2004,” Andy said, “and it is our job to win it for them.  If any of our three drivers win the Drivers’ Championship along the way, that’s nice too, but it isn’t as important as a title for Cadillac.”  Team Cadillac normally has two CTS-V cars in each GT sprint race, one for Andy and another for teammate Max Angelelli.  But John Heinricy was a guest driver at Mid-Ohio in June and put his car on the podium; that car was driven at Mosport by Ron Fellows, lead driver for Team Corvette in the American Le Mans Series and Canada’s best-known road racer. Two GT Championship races were held at Mosport. Andy qualified eighth and finished fifth in Saturday’s race, and “straight-lined” the results sheet Sunday, starting and finishing fourth. Audi driver Michael Galati won on Saturday, while Fellows led wire-to-wire on Sunday. Fellows’ win in the CTS-V was Cadillac’s second of the season; Angelelli won the season-opener at Sebring. “Saturday’s race was as hard as I’ve raced for a fifth place finish,” Andy said. “Along with two Corvette drivers, Leighton Reese and Phil McClure, we did 45 minutes of the side-by-side, bumper-to-bumper driving you could ever ask to see. It was incredible racing, but it was all done very clean. Leighton and I were laughing hysterically about it after the race ended.” Andy followed the pair for half of the 30 laps, until Reese slipped two spots on lap 17. On lap 20, with rain drops starting to fall and lap times dropping by two seconds a lap, Andy got past McClure for sixth place, but one lap later, Andy was passed by Tommy Archer’s Viper. Andy and McClure swapped positions on both laps 24 and 25, still running four seconds out of the overall lead.  With only three laps remaining, the top nine cars were separated by only 3.5 seconds, but Andy was up to fifth place by that time, only a half-second behind Angelelli’s Cadillac, and a half-second ahead of Reese. Andy is now third in the points for the driving title, 12 points behind Galati, and 14 behind Archer. There were separate qualifying sessions for each race. Under the SCCA’s policy of adding weight to the top five finishers in each race, those cars from Saturday’s race weighed between 15 and 75 pounds more on Sunday, affecting their performance. “The additional 15 pounds didn’t make that much difference on Sunday,” he said, “but you could definitely see a difference in the Audis who finished 1-2 on Saturday. “Plus, since qualifying for Sunday’s race was held early Sunday morning, the top six cars all qualified faster than Saturday’s pole speed, just because of the cooler weather.”  Pilgrim’s qualifying speed on the 2.459-mile track for Saturday’s race was 105.131 miles per hour; he improved to a 106.289mph lap Sunday. “Mosport is the fastest track the series races on,” he said. “Some of the bends are blindingly-fast sweepers, but because the rules of the series equalize a great variety of engine designs, it really makes it hard to get by anybody under power. You need to distract a car ahead of you into a driving mistake, or maybe get brave and stick your nose inside him going into a sharp turn where braking is involved.” Both races will be televised on the SPEED Channel, Sunday, August 15. Saturday’s race airs at 1 p.m. EST, and Sunday’s at 3 p.m. EST. # # #

Cadillac: reborn to go racing

A virtual test drive with Andy Pilgrim of Team Cadillac  By Kate Shaw BOWMANVILLE, Ontario  (August 6, 2004)  When I was growing up, a Cadillac in the driveway was considered the badge of  having Made It in the world, and in our neighborhood was driven mainly by doctors. Well, take it from Andy Pilgrim, GM's driver extraordinaire, the Cadillac CTS-V is not your doctor's Cadillac. Andy Pilgrim has been a GM factory test driver for long enough to know a great race car when he meets it. And he has no doubt at all that the Cadillac CTS-V is one great race car, especially on a track like Mosport. This car loves a challenging track like Mosport, he said. This is my favorite kind of track fast track, fast corners  and the outstanding braking and cornering abilities of  the CTS-V are such that even with the extra REWARDS weight we carry, we can do very well here. Last time we saw the Cadillacs racing in the SPEED World Challenge, the temperatures were a good 40 degrees higher than they are this weekend at Mosport. I asked Andy if the cooler temperatures would be more comfortable for both the driver and the car, and to my surprise he said that likely they would not. Our car actually has the advantage in hotter weather, he said, unlike the other cars that we race against. And as for me, some people think I must be a reptile  I don't use a cool suit when I race; the heat doesn't really bother me that much. I do use a cool suit when testing somewhere likes Sebring, where the weather is hot, but I don't notice it that much during a race. Since the matters of REWARDS and competition ballast have been much discussed recently,  I wondered how the extra weight the Cadillacs had to carry had changed the cars from their debut in Sebring. You'll probably recall that in that race, Max Angelelli kept his Cadillac on pole from flag to flag  but the real story of that race was watching Andy Pilgrim, who had problems getting off the line and fell all the way to the back in the first lap, cut through the field like the proverbial hot knife through butter. He was in 2nd place and catching his teammate when time and laps ran out, but a 1-2 finish in the team's debut race was the stuff of legends. Since that race, various competition adjustments have been made to the Cadillac, and of course the more races they finish well up the grid, the more weight they have to carry. The car is slower accelerating, Andy explained, and we can't keep up with traffic so well on the straights. In the last race, several back markers were waving my by as they saw me coming up behind them in the mirrored and knew I was a faster car than they were  and I couldn't catch up with them! I could imagine them thinking what is he playing at back there But I had to wait til we got to a corner and then do my move. After the race I went to them and thanked them for waving me by, but I explained that I had been pedaling as fast as I could and because of the weight I just couldn't get by til the corner! However, even with the extra weight, the Cadillac is not a slow and careful driver. The outstanding brakes and balance in this car, Andy said, more than make up for what we lose on the straight. And on a track like this one with a lot of fast corners, I have no worries about braking way deeper than I could have with one of the other cars we race against. Andy's time this morning in practice was not as quick as teammate Max Angelelli's time, but he explained that this was not due to the fact he had not driven the Cadillac on this track before. Max has driven here before in this car and the team had plenty of data to use in setup. I was on new tires which made a big difference, and we had a small problem with the steering in the car, which we think we have corrected now. That's the main reason for the difference in the speeds between our two cars. That and the extra weight I am carrying, which I think was good for about 8 tenths [of a second] between us. I had first met up with this species of Cadillac at the Toronto International Auto Show, where it was much admired as a top line road car. Since Andy has had so much time in the car, I asked him, Would you buy a CTS-V for a road car? Absolutely! he said with great enthusiasm. The CTS-V is a great street car. It's my  favorite of all the high end luxury sedans, and I have driven them all. You mentioned that you had thought of the Cadillac as the doctor's car  well, my dentist has a CTS-V and he bought it because I told him it would outrun his Audi RS6 any day of the week. He has never regretted trading up his Audi at all. Although you can put the kiddies in the back seat (this being a 4-door car) and drive it on shopping expeditions, anyone who buys this kind of car will sooner or later want to take it onto a closed track and find out what it can do. According to Andy, this is much easier for the CTS-V Cadillac owner to do, because the car comes as a complete package, ready for track day. The weak point of high end performance cars, he explained, is usually the brakes. After you have had them out for a lap or two, you start noticing that the brakes are going away  not what you want when you're driving at those speeds! For other cars in this class, an add-on braking system would have to be put in place. Not with this car! You can have it out on the track all day and the brakes will not fade. I have had it on a number of tracks like Laguna Seca for example, and I do not drive a car slowly  I want to know what it can do and I put it on the ragged edge right from the beginning. And at the end of the day, when I bring that car in, the brakes are still good to go. And if I can do that , then anyone who bought it off the showroom floor can take it out and run it hard with entire confidence which they won't get with other cars of similar price and type! The one ambition Andy still has, as far as testing the Cadillac CTS-V to the max, is taking it onto the old Nűrburgring [not the modern girlie-man version] and opening it up. GM uses that track for testing, he said, but I have not been on it yet with this car  they have let the engineers drive it there mostly. But one of these days I am hoping to get my turn. There's every possible condition around that track and you can really put the car through its paces. Rob Minton, the Product Communications Representative for Cadillac, then told me that GM had built a new test track in Michigan using the Nűrburgring as a model. We call it the Mini Ring and it uses the best parts of the track  not that it can compare with racing on the original ring, but it gives us the best parts of it to try the cars out on closer to home. Except, Andy pointed out,  that you won't let me on that one either! Yet, was the reply. # # #

Behind the Scenes with Andy Pilgrim

8/2/2004 - A new feature contributor to TheRaceSite.com, Sahar Hassani will be contributing looks behind the scenes with some of today's brightest stars in sportscar racing. In this first installment she takes a Behind the Scenes look at Andy  Pilgrim, one of the most successful drivers in sportscar racing today. You can't help but admire the skill, determination and talent of Andy Pilgrim. A success story by all accounts, Andy has secured his name as one of the world's top sports car racers. He has secured over 50 victories in 10 different series of competition. Born in Nottingham, England, Pilgrim competed in karts and motorcycles with five divisional National Championships to his credit. Pilgrim began his journey to the United States in 1981 as a computer consultant for GM in Detroit. In 1984, Andy began racing in the states and quickly went pro soon after. As Pilgrim's racing career took off, he quickly realized he needed a job with flexible hours. "I started my own business to have more time for racing," explains Andy. "I started ECS (Electronic Computer Services Inc.) in 1989, where we currently employ over 200 people." His management staff plays a key role in the success of his company. "I have an amazing staff that runs the day-to-day operations of the business, so when I'm at the track, I can concentrate on racing." In 1999, Andy was named to Corvette's first factory ALMS and LE Mans effort in the Corvette C5-R. During his five-year stint with the Corvette team, Andy secured 7 wins, 30 top five and 2 top ten finishes. He also served as an ambassador for Corvette's 50th Anniversary celebration in 2003 and helped design the Andy Pilgrim Special Edition Corvette C5-R. This year, the GM factory driver is racing for Team Cadillac in the Speed World Challenge GT Series. Pilgrim is third in GT driver points and continues to chip away at the competition. The energetic, quick-witted, Nottingham native is even busier off the track than on. Between race weekends, I visited Andy in his hometown of Delray Beach, Florida to learn more about what makes this champion tick. Those Memorable Racing Moments When Andy is at home, he relies on his golf cart rather than his street Cadillac CTS-V to maneuver through the golf greens in his private country club community. Golf has become a new passion for the Cadillac driver. But,  between his hectic business and racing schedule, Pilgrim finds little time to play. Known to many as good natured and down to earth, Andy immediately makes you feel right at home. As you enter his spacious home, you are drawn to his 2-story family room. The room is filled with racing pictures elegantly depicting his successful racing career. It was exciting to view these striking images while Pilgrim narrated the story behind each one. Images that caught my eye include: the Corvette C5-R from the 24 Hours of Le Man and podium pictures with him and his former teammates, Allan McNish, andthe legendary Dale Earnhardt. One of Andy's favorite memories was working with the late fellow driver, Dale Earnhardt. Pilgrim fondly remembers: "The story dates back to November 2000, during a test session with C5-R Team. We were doing the traditional end of season test at Sebring and Dale and Dale Earnhardt Jr. showed up to try out the C5-R's for the first time prior to them doing the 24 hr race with Kelly Collins and myself. Dale asked me to show him around the track in my street C5. After a couple of laps at a very steady pace to try and show him some of the Sebring pitfalls he turned  to me and said, "Ok, my turn." I should have known there was going to be a problem when he sat in the drivers seat and asked, "Is this GM's car? They own it, right?" I said," Yes" Big, mistake! He flew out of the pits at four times the rate I was going and picked up speed fast. He slid round turn one, welded the brakes for three, slid at about a 25 degree slip angle through the carousel and launched off down the straight to the hairpin, after using every curb and inch of the road we found ourselves flying into turn 17. I just knew we were going to take out the whole drive over the bridge as we missiled past the final and "Formula One car only" brake point. Dale obviously knew we were going a little too quick (about 60mph too quick) to make the turn and at the exact point of no return he spun the car, on purpose, came to a stop, looked at me, smiled and said, "Are you a nervous Nelly yet", after a second I managed to squeak, "Me? No.", he smiled again and said "So why are your shoes stuck to the floor then!" "A great memory from a great driver", smiles Pilgrim. The Passionate Rider It's no secret to anyone close to Andy that one of his true loves is riding motorcycles. His collection includes a 1979 Laverda Jota, 2003 Aprilia Tuonoand Pollini mini race bike. Andy explains, "When I was seventeen years old, I purchased a second hand Honda CD175 for 50 pounds. My friends and I would ride at Cadwell Park Racing Circuit in Lincolnshire and Oliver's Mount in Scarborough." He soon began trick riding during the long English winters when street riding was impossible. Pilgrim continues, "Trails competition is always done off road and the objective is to clear serious obstacles with no feet down, it's very, very technical. I became very adept at wheelies (front wheel in the air), stoppies (rear wheel in the air), sliding, and drifting during the time I competed." Although some of us find these motorcycle tricks just plain crazy, Pilgrim explains the meaning behind his madness. "I feel this ability to balance and control a motorcycle helps me find the balance limit on both my race motorcycle and my race car. This is why I still practice trick riding to this day. There is a real similarity between the balance point doing tricks on a bike (motorcycle) and the balance point of sliding a car." Pilgrim is a huge advocate of safety; "I learned trick riding using motocross and trials bikes off road and on pavement at race tracks, drag strips or private roads. There is no place for this type of riding on public roads." He stresses, "Safe street driving and riding is so very important to me." The Infamous Racing Helmet When it came time for Andy to pick out a design for his helmet, he opted for the unconventional look. Designed by Bullseye Visuals of Indianapolis, his Simpson racing helmets feature Andy's favorite cartoons: Ren and Stimpy, Cartman and Kenny from South Park. "People under the age of eight and me, love it," laughs Andy. "Until about two helmets ago I had Daffy from Warner Brothers fame on the front but now I put my logo there." His signature logo includes his initials "A" and "P" with eyes imbedded in the initials to represent a bit of intensity. Pilgrim is having a new helmet designed with the same characters as before with an additional character-yet to be announced. What does he do with his other helmets? "I keep my old helmets for a while as they mean a lot in the sentimental sense of where I used them, races I may have won in them etc. I have parted with a couple for charity. Believe it or not, the last one that was auctioned off at the Corvette museum went for $12,500. I was speechless." The Mechanic As we begin to wrap up the interview while standing in his driveway, Andy notices a slight dent on the front fender of my rental car. With a blink of  an eye, he quickly assesses the damage, asks if he can fix it, grabs a hammer from his garage, and begins pounding out the dent. "To save time, just interview me while I'm doing this," comments Andy as he swings the hammer through the air. "I should get this fixed in no time." Everything happened so fast that I just stood there speechless as he erased the damage to my car. "There, good as new! And just enough time to catch your flight back to Chicago," he reports. Pilgrim quickly jumps to his feet, offers me a handshake, and wishes me well. As I got into my car, I realized one thing. There is never a dull moment with Andy Pilgrim. # # #

The Preferred Line - Interview with Andy Pilgrim

"The primary goal for the team would be the manufacturer's championship  for Cadillac." - Andy Pilgrim on his goals for the 2004 World Challenge  season  Interview with Cadillac hot shot Andy Pilgrim  Thanks to Rob Minton I got the chance to sit down with Team Cadillac's Andy Pilgrim at Infineon Raceway to get his thoughts on a few things.  The English import began racing motorcycles, as did a former idol of mine named John Surtees, and interestingly enough won his first Pro race in the USA at Sears Point (now of course known as Infineon) in the Firehawk  series. Over the years he has raced most anything with wheels winning in most of them. His wins include some 7 victories in the Corvette GTS car. Andy and his teammate Max Angelelli now form the backbone of the Cadillac factory effort in the World Challenge Series. His daily driver is of course a Cadillac CTS-V.  What are your personal and team goals for the 2004 World Challenge season? Andy Pilgrim - Our first goal was to get a race win, which we were lucky enough to get at Sebring. For me personally it would be a race win as a driver. The primary goal for the team would be the manufacturer's  championship for Cadillac. That is the priority throughout the season and that is what we are working towards. As a by-product of that if Max or I could win a driver's championship that would be great but the primary focus when you are with a manufacturer is always the manufacturer's championship. Does it help having two competitors on the same team comparing setup information? Is Max's driving style compatible to your own? How does that effect the car setup process for the team? AP Not in the sense of driving styles. Max's driving style is different to mine but what happens is we both download (data from acquisition systems) at the same time and they will try something on Max's car. If it works for him or even doesn't work for him it still tends to work on our car, and vice versa. The engineers figure out what exactly is going on and they figure out something that makes him (Max Angelelli) go quicker, even though he has a different driving style, it will usually work on my car, and vice versa. There is really good cooperation and we down load together in the driver's meetings with the crew chiefs. We you familiar with standing starts before racing in WCGT? AP No, not with racing cars using standing starts, I've done plenty of drag racing in my time, mostly with motorcycles. It is not something I was really familiar with but I really like them. Would you like to see other series using standing starts? AP I am not sure that it would have the same like in an endurance race. I think in a sprint race the start is so critical that the standing start adds something to the race. But in a 6-hour race actually the start is not so critical so I don't know that it would add much to endurance racing. Along those lines, do you find qualifying being more critical in the World Challenge sprint race format as opposed to endurance races? AP When you are on a pro team qualifying is always a maximum, maximum push. Because you never want to see your times 2 seconds slower than the other guy in the other car on the same factory team. It doesn't look good. So any time you qualify when there are two cars on the same team in the  same class in the racing I have been used to over the years you are absolutely full out in qualifying. The same goes here. Here (in World Challenge) it's more critical for a grid position, there (ALMS endurance racing) it was more critical because you are a paid professional on a factory team so you have got to put it out all the time. So here it is definitely critical for grid position and very important. Does your approach and preparation differ for a sprint race and an endurance race? AP Not really. When you are in a stint in an endurance race you know that you have to manage your tires. So it is kind of like the same thing in this series. If you abuse your tires for 5, 6 or 10 laps and your tires start going away your lap times go down and the other people who have looking after their tires are going to start coming up on you and pass you later in the race. The same thing in an endurance race because you are always racing somebody if you manage your tires correctly you can run a good consistent stint. If you abuse the tires early, with the tires we used to have, they wouldn't  last. Of course with the Michelins they (the ALMS Corvette team) have now they can run them hard the whole way. Speaking of tires did you have to change your driving style going to the DOT Toyo tires from the slicks? AP My experience lever over the years I've done showroom related cars and GTs and prototypes so you go back and forth over the years. I am pretty familiar with street style cars and their tires and how they work. This is a street compound tire and it is the amount of grip you've got and you have to be very, very cognizant to the amount of grip you have got and that is what you have got to work with. You cannot force the car. If you force the car or you try to be a little bit greedy in the middle of a turn it is going to bite you. The recovery on a DOT tire is a bit slower so you can really hurt yourself. I would say that there is a much greater degree of discipline using a DOT tire. Do you have any favorite tracks in North America? AP Do I? Yeah sure! Elkhart Lake is a favorite and this one (Infineon Raceway) is a favorite. It is a very good race track and I like it a lot. Laguna Seca is a favorite and Road Atlanta and Watkins Glen. The full circuit at Watkins Glen I love that one. Do you like the longer courses? I just like stuff that's fast! I mean fast corners. Turn ten over there I love turn 10 (at Infineon). Elkhart's turn 12, the kink, I kind of love stuff like that! Any course that has good fast corners I like it. In terms of the World Challenge Series where do you feel it is now and what do you feel could be done to improve the stature of the series. AP I think the TV package is good. Having the package come on regular times on a Sunday you get a following and people can see the series. I think they have done a good job with the TV package. I think that the cars need to be exotic and they need to be fast. I think that the horsepower is good in the GT class in particular. These cars are fast, they look fast and they should remain fast. They are trying to slow us down and if it is for any other reason other than to save us money and bits and bits and pieces. Horsepower is cheap. So let us go fast down the straightaway and give us smaller tires if you have to but let us go fast. I like the idea of big horsepower. Lou Gigliotti was talking about it earlier today saying that they have street cars running around Dallas Texas with 650 horsepower so lets have some horsepower out here! We don't need tires, sticky tires, you manage the horsepower and it will be good. So I'd say give us more horsepower. I'm a driver what else am I going to say!" Is there anyone that you would like to mention? AP Well Cadillac of course being a factory team. They have got a great road product and we've made it into a phenomenal race car. So I've got to give all the credit to Cadillac and Team Cadillac. It's just a wonderful product and I am very happy to be here! Part of being a race car driver these days involves a lot of commitment of your time out of the car AP You mean giving interviews (big smile). And talking to sponsors and fans. It is getting more and more important. You are seeing race drivers in adverts all over the place and on TV. How do you allocate your time at the track to handle the public relations tasks and still take care of the job of racing the car? AP Rob Minton and Cam Rafferty are very involved in making sure that when we have got things to do it is slotted into a time when we are trying to download for the race car after a session. So there is coordination necessary and coordination is very, very important and we have got that here with Team Cadillac. Then after the race if we are doing something like signing autographs that is almost spontaneous. If you are a people person like I am that is actually fun! I like it a lot. And I understand that it is important. We don't actually race the car that much so if you enjoy interfacing with the people, the fans and the customers, we're getting a lot of Cadillac customers coming around here, it helps. You don't know who they are so it is important to be nice to everybody. What are your expectations for this race (Infineon)? AP I don't talk about the end of a race until the end of a race. I've won races I didn't think I would and lost races that I thought I might win. Honestly we just want to have a successful safe weekend and keep the cars clean. If we get a clean start and run clean I think we are very capable of a top 5 finish. Maybe even a podium. Who knows?  7/23/2004 - The Preferred Line - Road racing news and commentary  SPEED World Challenge Special Edition - Andy Pilgrim Interview (July 22,  2004) By Jim Bourn  # # #

ALMS – Portland International Raceway – SPEED World Challenge GT Race Report

© Andrew Larsen We posted Andrew Larsen’s interview with Andy Pilgrim yesterday. Here is another first for the young man: his very first race report. Read on and decide whether you think he enjoyed himself at Portland… and whether Andy Pilgrim made any kind of impression on him. It’s 10:30 Sunday morning on July 25, 2004 and it’s race day at Portland International Raceway. The 30 minute warm-up for all classes of the American Le Mans Series was just wrapping up, and I was surprisingly not that nervous about covering the SPEED World Challenge GT race that was coming up in less than 15 minutes. News came into the trailer that Michael Galati, driver of the No. 2 Champion Audi RS6, would start from the back of the grid in today’s race. This was a result of car change as the team found the No. 2 car not suitable for racing and elected to have Galati drive the back-up No. 65 car, which had qualified 18th, but would have to start 20th due to a pre-race tire change. Now I was feeling an inkling of nervousness, that announcement was technical and hard to follow - how am I going follow a whole race? Tom Kjos looked at me as we were first hearing the news of a change in the World Challenge GT starting grid. He was either having the same thought or silently encouraging me to take notes: whichever it was I was sure glad he was there listening along just two seats down from me. It provided a kind of moral support to know at least one pro would be in the room acknowledging, and possibly looking out for me. My supervisor / mentor / cameraman / friend Gary Horrocks and I went over a few last-minute instructions on what I should look for and then he was off to find a pleasant perch from which to shoot photos during the race. It was about 10:45 now and I had ten minutes until the green flag should drop, so I wandered the Paddock a bit. First to the Pirelli tent to confirm a rumor of some attractive models in eye-grabbing black and yellow neoprene; rumor confirmed. Next thing I know engines are awakening behind me with terribly loud yawns, but it’s only 10:50. I ran back to pit lane so as not to miss what I thought was an early start of the race and arrived just in time to snap a digital shot of Max Angelelli in the #16 Cadillac, as he roared away from the grid. Lucky for me this was just the formation lap and Gary would get much better photos. I grabbed another photo as the pace car entered the pit lane and the formation roared to life down the front straight. This time I caught the #8 Cadillac of my new acquaintance Andy Pilgrim. My shot came out blurry though and was not as nice to look at as the flag girls who were finding their way back to their respective team tents. Sadly I had no time to talk or collect phone numbers, the race had started and I was scurrying to the Media trailer to watch it unfurl on SPEED TV and an IMSA official race monitor. Gary had mentioned to watch for Galati to climb through the field rapidly saying, “He’ll be quick,” with slightly raised eyebrows. So that’s what I intended to do, until the excitement started. Almost straight out of the gates things went hectic. Tommy Archer led in the No. 22 c3controls / WhelenEng / 3R-Racing Viper going into turn one. He was followed by Randy Pobst in the No. 1 Audi and Phil McClure in the No. 73 Aggregate Industries/3R-Racing Corvette Z06. Lou Gigliotti made the first driver error of the race as he jumped the start and called in on pit lane for a stop and go. Lap 2 saw Archer leading by 0.453 seconds and still being tailed by what had to be an uncomfortably close Pobst and McClure, who were followed by an equally close Cadillac and Z06 driven by Max Angelelli and Leighton Reese respectively. Still in Lap 2 we saw the first contact of the race as No. 34 Tony Gaples and No. 99 Thomas Oates tried making the Black Dog Racing and Tiger Racing Corvettes one entity, which put both cars out of the race and drew the first Yellow flag of the morning. Under Yellow and coming out of turn 12 about to enter Lap 3 No. 67 Kevin Chambers put the nose of his Corvette through the left rear quarter panel of Jon Groom’s No. 65 Porsche, spinning Groom into the left wall where he stayed turned about face as his engine caught fire. I thought this was exciting but my thoughts quickly changed and I was glad I for once kept them to myself as the Media trailer became frantic with under-breath utterances and expletives as I’m sure they all feared a repeat of Dale Earnhart Jr.’s fire at Sears Point one week ago. I heard, “Screw the radio connections, tear the cords Fool!” as Groom slowly tumbled through his role cage with a complete absence of grace. The HANS device gave him some trouble but once he was out he actually turned around to make sure the door was shut on his now flaming 911 GT3. If all this sounds complicated and confusing keep in mind that the last paragraph occurred between 10:55:27 AM and 10:56:47 AM, according to official SCCA Press Notes. That’s right two crashes and a Yellow flag all within the first two minutes of my inaugural race coverage, imagine how I felt. It was about this time I began wondering if Gary was super-human enough to pick up my slack and write this article strictly by press notes if need be. Laps 3 through 6 flew under a Yellow flag with no changes in the running order of the top five as Archer, Pobst, McClure, Angelelli, and Reese circulated with caution. Lap 7 the green flag dropped and we were back to flat pedal racing down the front straight and into turn one, with Archer leading by little more than a tenth. Man, when the pace car pulls into pit lane it’s like a State Trooper taking the next exit and everybody decides to make use of overdrive again. The cars picked up speed through the next lap and Angelelli made a successful move somewhere in the back turns. Contact is made again as Stu Hayner reports being bumped by Lou Gigliotti: I began thinking about what a severe case of road rage I would probably get during one of these races. Going into the chicane at the beginning of the ninth lap Angelelli made a bump-to-pass maneuver that turned into a bump-to-crash as he rear-ended Randy Pobst, which locked the Caddy’s rear tires and jumped it left against the wall. With his right rear wheel coming to rest somewhere mid-track it was obvious that the No. 16 Cadillac wouldn’t finish the race. Max must have realized this too as we saw him struggle with his HANS device while trying to exit the car and finally throw his hands up in desperation before finally getting out. Ah, the benefits of on-board cameras. Feeling bad that my friend Max was out of the race, I went back to taking notes and sub-consciously decided to watch Max’s teammate Andy Pilgrim, who I had interviewed just the other day. Again we flew under Yellow for three laps until the Green flag dropped in lap 13 and Archer, Pobst, McClure, Reese and Pilgrim roared down the front drag again. We saw one clean lap before Gigliotti decided to tap yet another competitor and put Bob Woodhouse and his Viper GTS into the gravel pit by the Festival Curves. The Yellow flag drops for the third time in less than 30 minutes and No. 00 Al Becera spins his Viper trying to avoid that of Woodhouse. Each green flag period seems to turn into a demolition derby, these guys can’t seem to go half a minute without pulling out the Yellow flag for another five laps here at PIR. As the last incident is being cleared I hear other journalists jokingly ask why the chicane is named the Festival Curves. “What’s festive about those corners?” one voice behind me asks, “Maybe if you like crashes?” inquires another, “Maybe there are a bunch of people down there with beers taking a drink every time someone crashes and the place just turns into a party,” suggests one journalist. This response brings about laughter and lightheartedness and we all go back to following the race. Lap 17 the green flag dropped yet again. Galati, who had been tailing Pilgrim closely since Lap 13, bumps the No. 8 car going into turn one sending both the Audi and the Cadillac spinning. Cries of, “Oh! There goes the other Cadillac,” went up through out the Media trailer. Both cars keep going but Andy drops to 16th position out of the 18 drivers that were left. I was upset that Andy had spun but pleased at the same time that he was continuing the race. Gary was right on the spot, of course! Two laps later Andy had climbed five positions and I was excited to see how competitively he was driving. He reported loose body work and oddly enough Galati also reported some smoke coming from the center rear of the car; related problems? Just maybe. The next ten laps run amazingly incident free as Pilgrim worked his way back to 8th place. As he rides in 8th as the white flag drops, I expect to see Andy drive sedately and simply finish the race. I should have known better. Cars No. 28 (Gigliotti) and No. 6 (Reese) run slow through the Festival Curves. Andy, having worked his way to 6th somewhere along the front straight, passes both cars with ease and rides to a solid fourth place, finish missing the podium by a fraction of a second. On the podium stood Tommy Archer (above) in first leading by 1.072 seconds on the last lap, Randy Pobst in second for the Champion/Audi team, and Phil McClure in with a third place finish for the Aggregate Industries/3R-Racing group. Seeing as he had placed fourth two races in a row and was to receive the Remus Sport Exhaust “Power Move of the Race 2004” award, I figured I would take Andy up on his offer and head to the Cadillac tent later for some post-race questions. Gary appeared wearing his blue IMSA Photo /TV vest as I was leaving the trailer on my way to the Cadillac compound. I followed Gary back inside and looked through some of his amazingly close-up photos (wish I had that kind of access… and camera equipment). After we went through the photos I told Gary my plans for a post race interview with Andy and that I hoped to find Andy’s PR expert, Reilly, later. It turned out that Reilly was in the trailer at the time, furiously typing his race report. So I approached him and asked, “Do you think I could possibly steal Andy for some post race questions later this evening?” He responded hurriedly and with a slightly concerned expression, “Do it now, ‘cause he’s leaving. You better get over there. Run.” I thanked Reilly quickly as he hurried me on my way. I jogged a bit and decided to go through the Paddock because the route is faster…but not right after a race. As I made my way through a crowd that was gawking at the parked Ferrari I dialed Gary’s cell. The crowd must have thought I was crazy for not stopping and admiring the Italian beauty but I was focused. Gary picked up his phone and I told him where I was going and why I left without notice. He told me he’d meet me there and that ended our 12 second conversation. Past the Pirelli models and the cute girl in the PK Sport pit and across the pedestrian bridge as I made my way to the Cadillac trailer. I took the shaded way that Reilly showed me that ran behind the various vendors’ tents, I still had to work my way through crowds that moved about as fast as molasses on a cold morning. Why was everyone toddling so slowly, didn’t they know I was in a hurry? I was afraid Andy would leave before I got there so you can imagine my frustration as yet another blue-shirted crowd management girl tried to turn me a way. After working my way through crowds of sticky race-frenzied kids gawking at cars, I would have liked to stop and gawk at myself? I didn’t think so, this time I raised my voice, which unfortunately made me sound like something between a disrespectful punk and a whiny brat that could throw a good tantrum if she didn’t let me pass. “I have,” I paused, fingering my fluorescent lime wristband and raising my eyebrows at this security person. “I’m sorry I can’t let you past without a hard pass,” she replied. “But,” I started. “Not without a hard pass,” she said peering down at me from under her visor. Now I’m supposedly a good 5’ 10” if you ask my doctor, and taller if you ask the marks on my kitchen wall, but she had a good six inches on me so I lowered my tone. “Look I’m just here to talk to Andy. I’ve been interviewing him and he said if I had any more questions just to come back and see him.” I waited. She pondered. “Okay but I really can’t let you back here without a hard pass next time. I said, “Okay,” and hurried past. Why were the Cadillac and Audi tents the only ones under such tight security I wondered? No time for that now, the Cadillac tent was empty except for the seating area but there stood Andy and one of his Tech guys right in the middle under the awning. I made eye contact with Andy as I entered the roped off area but kept a respectful distance so he could finish his interview. I was wondering where Gary was when Andy took the time say “How you doin’ man,” and invite me closer with an extended hand. I gladly stepped closer and shook hands with him as he waited for me to start asking questions. “Go ahead and finish up your conversation, I can wait,” I said. “Oh it’s no problem,” Andy replied as he continued his conversation with the Tech. He’s pretty courteous for someone with so much going on. When he was done with his conversation I asked Andy how he felt about the race results. “Good, good. I mean obviously Max didn’t finish so that’s not good but all in all I’m feeling pretty good. I had a little contact there but,” Andy was saying as I interrupted him, I couldn’t believe later that I had felt comfortably enough to do that. “Yeah I didn’t expect to see you come back so well, so I was disappointed to see you get hit. I thought maybe you were out for the race,” I said as both of us stood with arms folded looking at Max Angelelli’s crunched front fascia, I felt like one of the Cadillac crew just chatting with a friend. “Yeah, no,” replied Andy, “ I came back pretty good and I’m pleased with the result: hey excuse me for just a moment I need to go take care of my friends real quick.” I said “Sure, no problem,” and Andy jogged off around the corner of the trailer. I was a bit bewildered and wondering what just happened as I strolled under the Cadillac awning in the welcome breeze of two giant fans. Minutes passed and I thought maybe Andy got sidetracked, which I was okay with me. I felt bad that Gary had missed his photo-op as he was hoping to get a picture of me with Andy. Then Gary called me, “Where are you?” “At the Cadillac trailer…you?” “Oh okay. I’m just around the corner. Andy’s signing some autographs over here.” Okay, I thought, so he got sidetracked by some kids wanting an autograph. After another minute I poked my head around the corner to see just how many kids. There stood Andy with his back to me signing autographs and posing for pictures with young die-hard fans, all of whom were grinning ear-to-ear. Gary saw me and came over saying, “If you had just rounded the corner earlier…” I chuckled and pointed out the two crunched CTS-V’s to our right and Gary snapped some shots. We spoke a bit as Andy wrapped his autograph session up. I commented on how Andy said he was going to “…take care of my friends…” and how much that impressed me. Gary nodded and said, “Yeah this guy’s a real pro, he’s good with this stuff.” We caught up with Andy after the signing and got the photo Gary wanted as Andy joked around saying, “Yeah, friends for life.” We chatted a bit and I thanked Andy for everything he’d done for me this weekend. He told me it wasn’t a problem and that he hoped to see me again some day, “Maybe Laguna,” he suggested. Gary and I were on our way out as I uttered that I hadn’t had Andy sign anything. As soon as I said it I wished I hadn’t because I knew what came next. Gary stopped, made an about face and asked Andy to make one more “…hand cramping effort…” I felt horrible for taking more of his time but Andy just said “Ah yeah, of course,” and grabbed a poster. This poster’s waiting to be framed as I type. It reads “To Andrew: Good Luck with the writing. Andy Pilgrim” and I’ll keep it forever as a souvenir from my first attempt at journalism. Tommy Archer now leads the SPEED GT Drivers’ Championship with 129 points, followed by Galati (120 points), Pilgrim (115), Pobst (110) and McClure (97).   Contents Copyright © dailysportscar.com. All Rights Reserved. # # #

Andy and Team Cadillac “do the math” in  Portland SPEED GT Race

July 25, 2004 Portland, Ore.  Statistics sometimes don’t tell the whole story. The results from the SCCA Pro Racing SPEED GT Championship race at Portland International Raceway show Andy Pilgrim started fifth in the Cadillac/Mobil 1/Motorola/Bose/Cadillac CTS-V, and finished fourth. Then how does one account for the fact he netted only a one-position gain at the finish, when actually, he improved his position an amazing 10 times, and was only knocked back twice? You can explain it by knowing the GT Championship racing can sometimes get a little hectic. All was reasonably well for the first half of the 31-lap race. Andy was running behind Leighton Reese’s Corvette, while the top three cars were Tommy Archer’s Viper, Randy Pobst’s Audi, and Phil McClure’s Corvette. But on lap 16, things got busy. “Another driver jumped the restart after the third Full Course Yellow session of the race,” Andy said, “then tried to make a very late pass at the wrong place on the track, the ‘Festival Turns.’” The other driver plowed into Michael Galati’s Audi, forcing Galati to lock up all four wheels in an effort to avoid hitting Andy any worse than possible. “I knew Michael hit me,” Andy said, “but I know Michael well enough that he’d never do that on purpose. I figured somebody had hit him from behind.” After the hit, the spin, and the trip to the gravel trap, knocked Andy back to last place. The impact was on the Cadillac’s “B” pillar on the passenger side. “We were very lucky the impact didn’t damage the fuel cell, or the hardware in the car, or pinch the exhaust closed,” he said. “I landed with my front wheels in the grass, but wasn’t sure whether or not my rear tires were in gravel. I knew if I just hit the gas and dropped the clutch to leave, if the back tires were in gravel, all I’d do was bury the car up to the axle, so I ‘walked’ it out slowly.” From there, Andy was on a mission to get as close to the front as he could with the remaining time left.. “The Cadillac’s chassis setup wasn’t damaged, so I was able to really push the car – driving up on the curbs in corners, and practically burning the brakes off the car. I was fortunate the fantastic setup the crew had put on the car enabled me to do that. To document Andy’s climb, he was 19th on lap 16, 16th on lap 17, 14th on lap 18, 13th on laps 19 and 20, 12th on lap 21, 11th on lap 22, 9th on laps 23-24, 8th on lap 25, 7th on laps 26 and 17, sixth on laps 28 and 29, and finally – fourth place on laps 30 and 31 – the last lap of the race. The charge through the field earned Andy the Remus Power Move of the Race award from SCCA Pro Racing. Going into the next race, August 8 in Canada at Mosport International Raceway, Andy remains third in the Drivers’ Championship points, 14 behind series leader Tommy Archer and five behind second place Michael Galati. Cadillac holds onto second place in the Manufacturers’ Championship race, five points behind Audi. Andy’s Portland race will be televised on the SPEED Channel, Sunday, August 1 at 1 p.m. EST. # # #

ALMS – Portland International Raceway

Andrew Larsen Interviews Andrew Pilgrim Gary Horrocks was behind this idea – that dailysportscar introduced a young reporter into the motorsport environment. The young man is Andrew Larsen, who is keen to follow journalism as a career. He is of course a keen motorsport fan. Andrew himself begins by explaining how his first assignment came about, at his local track, Portland International Raceway… My first interview with Cadillac team driver Andy Pilgrim came as a bit of a surprise to Gary and I. While touring the compounds around the outside of Portland International Raceway on test day (Friday July 23 2004), my acting tour guide Gary Horrocks and I ran into Reilly Brennan, who runs public relations for both the Corvette and Cadillac racing teams. This was fortunate because it saved Gary from having to track Reilly down in order to set-up my interview with Andy. However it proved unfortunate because we were right next to the Cadillac tent, and when Gary asked about an interview for me with Andy, Reilly’s response was “Well can he do it now?” Baffled and nervous, a “Sure,” somehow made its way past my lips. I had slacked, I hadn’t prepared, I was inexperienced, and I was supposed to sit in on a few interviews to get a feel first. I began to realize that I was on my way to interview a world record holding top name driver. Andy Pilgrim, the Andy Pilgrim, was about to answer my questions, questions I was forgetting as rapidly as we were approaching the Cadillac tent. As we rounded the next corner there sat the number 16 CTS-V of Max Angelelli, plus the number 8 car of the man I was about to speak with. These machines sat looking full of attitude and very cool in the shade of a giant awning. This awning was attached to an equally large trailer painted with Cadillac’s V logo and race colors. Under the left side of the awning was an area with tastefully decorated tables and seats, much fancier than I had expected but this was, after all, Cadillac. Reilly told us we could take a seat at one of the tables and he would bring Andy to us in a moment, he then disappeared into the trailer. Everything was most hospitable as we were offered cold drinks and told to make ourselves at home - I was too nervous to make myself at home. After a short minute, the man of the hour emerged from the trailer, looking quite relaxed and refreshed for someone who just went several laps around a melting track on this record hot day in the Rose City. Reilly guided Andy to our table, introductions were made and hands were shaken, we all sat down and the interview was on. My first question for Andy was, “How do you feel after the morning’s practice?” I don’t know where the question came from but it seemed general and introductory enough. Andy told me he was feeling good about the set-up and that the main thing for the team to work on would be corner exits and how to establish the most grip. He also stated that the most critical points in order to do well in this race would be the set-up of the car and how well the team qualified the next day. Hopes of having both cars qualify in the top six were mentioned and Andy stated that getting up front soon would be beneficial to the outcome of the race. Wow! That was all in response to my first question, I was both impressed and growing more nervous. I needed more questions. Lucky for me I had heard a rumor that the CTS-V was originally designed to compete with the GT class automobiles in the American Le Mans Series and that the only reason it was racing in the World Challenge GT was because the SCCA rules did not permit cars with four doors in the ALMS, which may change sometime relatively soon. When I asked Andy about this he said he had heard nothing about it. “This car was designed from the ground up for World Challenge, it’s 73 percent street car and as far as I know it’s always been intended for the World Challenge.” Andy graciously went on to explain why Cadillac had decided to race the CTS-V. He explained that they could have kept running with their prototype racers but the heads at Cadillac had gotten together and decided that it would benefit their ongoing image change (you know, what with the Led Zeppelin commercials and that car chase in The Matrix Reloaded) to race a car that looked more like their street machines. “If someone sees this car on the track they’re going to say ‘Oh, that looks like the car I saw in the showroom”, says Andy, or “Oh, that looks like my CTS or my CTS-V, and they’ll gain interest that way.” This is Marketing 101 people; create a top of the line sports sedan, lighten the load and widen the fenders, swap engines with a Corvette Z06, and finally bring in Andy Pilgrim to win races for you. I asked Andy if this was GM’s thought process. He chuckled at the flagrant flattery and responded, “I don’t know why they brought me on board actually, but I’m glad they did. I had been watching the development of the car and it’s just a really great car so when they asked me I was like, you know ‘Where do I sign?’ So my guess would be that GM is thinking somewhere along the lines of ‘Wins = Sales’, so I asked Andy what he thought would be the best circumstances for a win here at PIR on Sunday and where we could expect him to make the most passes. “I want it HOT, the hotter the better. Hot, hot, hot and green the whole race. I want the track to just melt,” Andy replied. “Obviously we’ll try to pass on corners you know, our brakes seem to do a great job helping us there, and if we get green the whole race we’ll be golden, these cars run really well the whole race, the tires and the brakes seem to do extremely well, especially towards the end.” Andy said that some of the other teams would probably like to race yellow flag to yellow flag, “The guys over at Audi will probably pray for yellow flags to let the tires cool, you know, the Vipers will probably hope for yellow flags to let the tires cool a bit also, but if we can go green the whole race like we did at Sebring, we’ll do really well.” Andy again mentioned how critical the qualifying would be and how he hoped to see both Cadillacs in the top six. We talked a little more about the set-up of the car and the secrets to running so well even through the end laps. I asked the ignorant question “Do you think the weight ballast you were forced to add has anything to do with why the car runs so soft?”, referring to the SCCA’s ruling after the Cadillacs choked the field in their debut at Sebring. Andy replied saying that, “IF excessive limitations were made, the SCCA will recognize it as the races go on and loosen the restrictions.” He explained to me that such a soft suspension set-up allowed the tires to take less wear and consequently the Cadillac team is able to run a whole race without letting the tires cool. Andy also explained that this set-up was not the best qualifying setup and that it had a bit of an oversteer problem, but he thought the team had a very good race set-up and he expected to do very well. That covered all my questions for the day, I arranged to do a follow up later in the weekend and thanked both Reilly and Andy for their time and efforts and went back to the media trailer with Gary. My first interview was over, trial by fire and I didn’t get burnt too badly, maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all. The next day is Saturday and mid-morning sees the SPEED World Challenge GT qualifications, Andy Pilgrim’s category. I arrived at the track early and was in the Media trailer before qualifying. I watched the televisions not too intently and wandered out to the paddock and pit areas, looking up when I heard the Cadillacs coming. The exhaust note of these cars is amazing, almost like that of the Corvette but with less of an exotic whine and more of a pure-power growl that excites the hot-rod lover in all of us. I watched as Andy and Max roared down the front straight, Andy leading and Max following close. The cars made several passes this way as if they were two missiles guided by the same wire. I wandered back into the Media trailer to find Max Angelelli had qualified for the number two position with a best lap time of 1:17.988 and Andy had grabbed the number six position with a best lap of 1:18.359. Amazing! Less than four tenths of a second separated 2nd and 6th position. This was shaping up to be a spectator’s race. Gary suggested that my father, who doubled as my camera guy Friday and Saturday, and I wait about an hour then go find Andy for the follow up interview. Sounded good to me, so my dad and I made our way to the grand stands north of the Festival Curves, where we watched the ALMS practice and the Krohn-Barbour team crash involving both Lamborghini Murcielagos. As the mess was being cleared I made my way to the pedestrian bridge via the paddock, which allowed me to inspect the damaged number 6 car of Tracy Krohn (amazingly I found later that both Krohn-Barbour cars intended to run the next day, despite rumors of one car being cannibalized to fix the other). I walked all the way to the east end of the compound where the Cadillac trailer sat, to be turned away by an over zealous security person. I made no arguments however; she paid no heed to my fluorescent lime wrist band, so I returned to the Media trailer and found my superior - Gary. What a helpful guy Gary is, he helped me find Reilly and arranged for me to tag along with Reilly as he went from the ALMS Corvette tent to the Cadillac tent. Gary had some work to do so I shadowed Reilly for a moment, met Corvette team driver Oliver Gavin -nice fellow, and then we were off to Cadillac. We crossed the pedestrian bridge as Reilly asked me some questions and gave me some advice; he was helpful and supportive, which I appreciated. After taking a route through some shade we neared the Cadillac tent. Reilly simply pushed aside a tent flap and we hurried through. What came next happened quickly, I ended up hopping on the back of a golf cart with Andy and Max and a bunch of Cadillac posters and foam cup holders. As Reilly hit the go-pedal we jetted off to an autograph signing, racing through a large crowd of fans that wandered side to side between tents like lost lackadaisical cattle - as Reilly hollered “Coming through!” because our horn didn’t work. We flew past the over zealous security lady but I found time to flash her a smile, no hard feelings, after all I was with Max Angelelli and Andy Pilgrim. I wonder what she thought when she saw me shake Andy’s hand and head off to the autograph signing with both Cadillac drivers and their PR guy. At the meet and greet I sat behind Andy and Reilly waiting for a chance to ask questions. I didn’t want to be a bother so I stayed quiet waiting for a break in the constant flow of fans. After signing several posters in a hurry, but not without genuine contact with each fan, Andy turned to me and asked “So what’s up man, what’s your question.” Let me just say, this guy’s cool, he came off really personable, which helped me more than he knew. I asked how he felt with where the team stood after qualifying. His response was simple, “I’m very happy with where we stand.” I prompted him that yesterday he had mentioned hopes of qualifying in the top eight. “Right, top six actually,” Andy corrected while signing a poster, “and we got both cars in the top six like I had hoped so I’m very happy with that.” Then he amazed me further, “Max finished second and I - well I made a bit of a driver error, I missed a shift which didn’t cost much, but it didn’t help.” Okay so Andy Pilgrim just read my mind and knew I was going to ask about Max’s qualifying faster than him. What can I say, experience matters, even in interviews. As Andy signed more posters he began speaking with Reilly, which I deemed important so I did the opposite of what I should have. Trying to be courteous I tried not to listen, and unfortunately did a pretty good job. Out of nowhere Andy turns to me and asks “Right?” Uhhhhhhh, I had to admit, “I’m sorry I wasn’t actually listening to what you were telling Reilly.” I was embarrassed, some precedent I was setting for this intern program. “Hot chicks man, pay attention, this is important,” Andy responded as he and Reilly chuckled at my naivety. I couldn’t help but chuckle myself and went on with my next question about the forecast and how tomorrow wouldn’t be nearly as hot as Andy had indicated he would like. “I’m not worried about it; I actually prefer it a bit cooler, it was just for the tires that I wanted it warmer,” he said, “but our tires run great and I don’t foresee any problems. It should be fine.” I asked about the tarmac temperature and the surface change from an asphalt straight to the concrete chicane in the Festival Curves. Andy replied that the temperature shouldn’t be an issue due to the soft set-up they were running and that the surface change was no problem. Obviously the concrete would provide more grip because concrete doesn’t “melt” like asphalt, but it wouldn’t pose any problems. “Easy transition. If it were to rain then obviously I’d say it would be a bit slippery - but no problems.” Andy signed a few autographs while I wrote this in my notes and I decided I would leave him and Reilly and Max to their business for the rest of the meet and greet. So at the next slow point in the signing I shook hands with both Andy and Reilly and thanked them both. Andy told me if I had any more questions to find him and he’d answer them. I hope to get the chance to do so although it most likely won’t make it in this article. I’d like to ask him a few more fan-oriented questions because this technical talk gets awful confusing. Hopefully I’ll learn though and I’d like to thank Gary Horrocks and dailysportscar.com for providing me this opportunity to learn and have fun with journalism, Tom Kjos and his wife Jeannie for supporting me and giving me an official Infineon Raceway notepad, and Janos Wimpffen for encouraging me and for bringing a lovely yellow Lotus Elise for me to gawk at. Again, another big thanks to Andy Pilgrim, Reilly Brennan, Max Angelelli, and the whole Cadillac team for supporting this interview and allowing me to take some of their time, I wish them the best of luck throughout the rest of the series, and I will watch for them as I cover the SPEED World Challenge GT class Stage 5 tomorrow. Andrew’s report on the SPEED GT race to come soon.     # # #

Pilgrim and Cadillac Edge Closer to SPEED GT Points Lead

July 18, 2004 Sonoma, Calif.  Andy Pilgrim drove the Cadillac/Mobil 1/Motorola/Bose/Cadillac CTS-V to a solid fourth place in the SCCA Pro Racing SPEED GT Championship race at Infineon Raceway, edging both the Cadillac brand and himself closer to the series championship points leads as the season approaches its halfway point. In a “something for everybody” race finish, Andy and his Cadillac CTS-V finished :04.181 seconds behind a Porsche 911 Cup, a Corvette Z06, and a Dodge Viper. He is now third in the Drivers’ Championship points chase, 10 points away from the lead, while only one point separate Audi and Cadillac for the Manufacturers’ Championship. Three different manufacturers and four different drivers have won this season, as it heads up the Pacific Coast to Portland International Raceway where the cars will race this Sunday. “This was a tough race,” Andy said of the 25-lap bout on the 2.53-mile road course. “When you are racing cars this fast, and cars this closely-matched in performance capabilities, the important things to remember are to be patient, take your time, and be willing to wait a lap for a safe opportunity to make a pass.” Andy qualified fourth on the 24-car starting grid, one of five drivers to break Infineon’s old qualifying lap record for the GT cars. Although he made what he termed a “very good start” in the series’ unique standing-start procedure, as is normal at Infineon, there was some minor fender scraping and a big backup in turn two, so he fell back to seventh spot. “There were three Full Course Caution periods which kept the field bunched up again,” Andy said, “actually I would have preferred the whole race to go green,. It would have helped us a lot more.” Andy always enjoys racing against Randy Pobst, and was able to take fifth place from the Audi driver late in the race. Andy’s final move up the order came on the 19th lap when he out-braked Leighton Reese’s Corvette into the final hairpin. He then opened up a two-second gap on Reese before the checkered flag fell. “I was six-tenths of a second behind Tommy Archer’s Viper at the finish,” he said. “A couple more laps and I might have made a move on Tommy.” The Infineon Raceway event was televised live on the SPEED Channel. # # #

Pilgrim Finishes Strong 7th at Mid-Ohio

June 29, 2004 - Andy Pilgrim began the SCCA SPEED World Challenge race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course from a 12th place position on the 33-car starting grid. By the time the race ended, 34 laps and 54 miles of racing later, he had worked his way to a seventh place finish in the Mobil 1/Motorola/Bose Cadillac CTS-V. “Mid-Ohio was a very tough race for Team Cadillac,” Andy said, “and it shows just how competitive the GT Championship series is. On the starting grid, for example, within one second of the pole position, there were five different car manufacturers with four widely-different engine designs and configurations.” Andy had climbed to 10th place by lap 6, when the safety car appeared to control the field after a competitor’s engine had self-destructed and oiled down much of the race track. Because the SCCA works hard to equalize the cars, Andy and John Young, driving a Saleen Mustang, had one of the greatest battles of the race – a battle which Andy finally won on lap 19. “John made me work for that pass,” Andy said. “We were only feet apart for many laps, until I forced him to take the least-advantageous line over the Turn 10 jump then through the sharp righthand turn that follows. We raced each other clean, but neither of us was going to just give away the spot.” Andy’s move on Young earned him the Remus Power Move of the Race award from SCCA Pro Racing. “By the time I got around John, there weren’t enough laps left to make up the eight-second gap to my teammate, Max Angelelli, and Team Cadillac’s third car, driven by my old friend John Heinricy, was solidly in third place,” he said. Following a resounding 1-2 finish by Angelelli and Pilgrim in the series season-opener at Sebring in March, SCCA Pro Racing mandated several mechanical restrictions to the Cadillac cars.“Our race at Lime Rock a few weeks ago showed the effect of those restrictions, Mid-Ohio made them even more evident, and had we been racing at a high-speed track like Road America this weekend, they’d have been even more evident,” Andy concluded. The next World Challenge GT Championship race will be July 18 at Infineon Raceway near Sonoma, Calif., the site of Andy’s first professional racing win in America – the 1986 IMSA Firehawk six-hour race. # # #

Pilgrim competes in Watkins Glen 6-Hour

June 22, 2004 - Andy Pilgrim, along with co-drivers Forest Barber and Terry Borcheller, finished ninth in Sunday’s Sahlen’s Sports Car Grand Prix, a six-hour race in the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series, at Watkins Glen International. “Because of small problems here and there, and to repair the damage from a minor crash, none of us had much time in the car during practice,” Andy said. “My last time there was 1999 in a FIA Endurance race. I needed to learn the track with that car.” “We should be ready to start the race by, say, Tuesday,” added Team Manager Jim Bell with a note of sarcasm. Barber, who owns the Kodak Easy Share and Feeds the Need-sponsored car, qualified 16th, and was the team’s starting driver. Barber was involved in a collision on the first lap through no fault of his own; the resulting pit stop to replace a damaged wheel put the team down one lap right at the start. Borcheller, the defending Daytona Prototype category series champion, took over the driving 38 minutes into the race, got the car back on the lead lap 90 minutes later, and, at the three-hour mark, had passed the six cars ahead of him to take the race lead. “I was hoping Terry could keep the car in the top group throughout his stint so I could just do whatever was necessary to keep us in that group and on the lead lap” Andy said. The team’s elation ended on lap 96 of 162 laps when Borcheller pitted for the driver change. “Terry had had contact with a couple other cars – the wheel-to-wheel competition in this series is very close and very serious,” Andy said. “But one of those little bumps damaged the left front wheel hub. The crew tried everything to get it off and replace the tire, but by the time they’d done that, I was then one lap down when I began my stint. “Terry had got back our lost lap earlier with quick driving and good some track position strategy with the yellow flags, but at this point in the race, it is tough to get back another lap.” Borcheller went back into the car on lap 137 and rode it out to the finish, finally ending up two laps down to the winners.” Andy said he was very happy to return to the Bell Motorsports team, winners in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, for the third time this year. “I’ve always had faith in Jim Bell to put the best car on the track, Forest is a very supportive owner who hires people to do the various jobs then lets them do it, and we have the luxury of having Thomas Blam, one of the best strategist in American road racing, in our pits,” Andy added. But considering all the various exotic cars Andy has raced over the year, how does a Doran Daytona Prototype shape-up? “When the car’s right, it is a lot of fun to drive,” he said. “If you compared it to the Porsche 911 GT1 I raced in 1998, this car is just as much fun. It doesn’t have the power of that Porsche engine, but it goes where you point it.” Andy’s next race will be the SCCA SPEED World Challenge GT race Saturday at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, where he and Max Angelelli will drive the two Team Cadillac entries.   # # #

PILGRIM POWERS CADILLAC CTS-V TO FIFTH AT LIME ROCK

Andy Pilgrim is third in the SCCA SPEED World Challenge GT series points, following his fifth place finish May 31 in a 43-lap race on the 1.53-mile Lime Rock Park circuit. Ahead of him at the end of the 43-lap race were two all-wheel drive Audi RS 6 race cars; his Team Cadillac teammate Max Angelelli; and a Dodge Viper. “Because of Team Cadillac’s outstanding performance at Sebring in March, SCCA Pro Racing made adjustments to our cars -- adding weight, taking away horsepower and engine revs, and mandating a gearbox change,” Andy said. “We had two cars in the top five here this weekend, but it was probably the best track we could have gone to after the changes made to the car. Lime Rock is a ‘momentum’ track; power is not an issue here.” Andy took the green flag sixth in the 28-car field; his qualifying speed of 100.720 miles per hour was only six-tenths of a mile per hour slower than the pole speed set by Randy Pobst in one of the Audis. In fact, because of improved tires available to the teams this year, the 24 fastest qualifiers were all under the old track record for the GT series. Andy’s Mobil 1/Motorola/Bose Cadillac CTS V shuffled between sixth and eighth places for much of the race, but he climbed to fifth on lap 35 and held that spot to the end – the race finished under the caution flag. After two races, teammate Max Angelelli, who finished third, holds a 60-55 lead in points over the top Audi driver, with Andy in third at 49 points. The race will be televised on the SPEED channel Sunday, June 6, at 1 p.m. Andy’s next race for Team Cadillac will be Sunday, June 27 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. # # #

A Surprising Podium Finish

MONT-TREMBLANT May 23, 2004: Andy re-joined the Bell Motorsports Doran-Pontiac team for the May 23 Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series race at Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant in Quebec. He and co-driver Terry Borcheller finished a surprising third in the 17-car Daytona Prototype class, only :03.775 away from the win after six hours of racing. “I’ve finished third a lot of times in my career,” Andy said, “but this was the hardest third place we’ve ever fought for. “We just didn’t have a top-3 car today,” he added, “we had a top-10 car. But to overcome as many challenges as we had, this third place feels just as good as a win. To get to the podium was a phenomenal achievement for the entire team.” Car owner Forest Barber elected to not drive the Mont-Tremblant event, thus, Borcheller was in the car at the drop of the green flag for the nationally-televised race, starting from the ninth spot on the grid. Terry made his first pit stop at the two-hour mark, on lap 72, while the field was under control of the safety car, turning the driving over to Andy. “It was a rough first couple of laps for me,” Andy said. “I was hit by another car on my first flying lap after the green flag came out, and twice during the day we had a front wheel come off the car while we were under caution. Jim’s crew was attaching the wheels properly, I know that, but there’s another problem there that needs to be fixed.” Knowing that track position was important, and that gas/tire stops under caution flag conditions were better than having to do so under the green flag, Andy pitted twice in 15 minutes under yellow to have the gas tank topped-off, and again 70 minutes into his driving stint. Borcheller took over the driving four hours into the race, on lap 132, and took the team to its finish position. “There was another accident about seven laps from the end of the race, so we finished under yellow,” Andy said. “We thought we were close on fuel, and we were kind of glad we finished where we did. We checked the car after the race and found we did have enough gas.” Andy, Terry and Forest drove the same car on the Mont-Tremblant circuit in this race last year. “I’m very impressed with what [track owner] Lawrence Stroll has done with the Mont-Tremblant circuit,” Andy said. “The Formula One and Can-Am series used to race here 30 years ago, then the circuit fell into disrepair. Lawrence has brought it back and turned it into a world-class facility for our type of racing. The vantage points for spectators are fantastic, and from a driver’s standpoint, it is a blast to drive.” Andy’s next Rolex Series race with Terry and Forest will be June 18-19 in the Watkins Glen six-hour. # # #

Kodak EasyShare DORAN JE4 Pontiac #54 Gets a Podium Finish Sunday at Mont-Tremblant

MONT-TREMBLANT, Quebec, May 23 - It certainly wasn't easy, but the Bell Motorsports/Feeds the Need Racing team and its Kodak EasyShare DORAN JE4 Pontiac #54 finished third in the Six Hours of Mont-Tremblant Rolex series race Sunday at Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant. Celebrating on the podium at the end of the day was a just reward for drivers Terry Borcheller and Andy Pilgrim, who represented team owner Jim Bell and the rest of the crew in a true team effort. The third driver on the squad, car owner Forest Barber, chose not to drive Sunday in order to see if the two professional drivers on the team could get the car back up through the field after it went one lap down after Pilgrim was hit by another driver and spun. (The other team involved apologized, and Pilgrim said it was just a racing accident.) That wasn't the biggest challenge though. There was a problem with the nuts that hold the car's wheels on, and twice they loosened up on Borcheller. (Barber had the same problem in practice and actually crashed.) Sunday Borcheller didn't crash, but he had to drive back to the pits on three wheels after the left-front wheel left the car on the backstretch. After overcoming all of that, fuel strategy came into play at the end. Team strategist Thomas Blam gambled and told Borcheller not to pit, correctly calculating that the car had enough fuel to go the distance. It did, and Borcheller took the checkered in third behind only the winner, the Scott Pruett/Max Papis CompUSA entry, and the runner-up, the Doran-Lista DORAN JE4 Lexus of Didier Theys and Jan Magnussen. Post-race quotes follow: ANDY PILGRIM: "I think it was the hardest-fought third place I've ever had. We overcame so many challenges that it feels like a win. We did not have a top-three car today; we had a top-10 car. So to get third is a phenomenal achievement for the team. I got hit by the Michael Shank car; that's why I spun. It was just a racing thing; they apologized. But the car was not straight after that. The wheel nuts were coming off; they came off twice while Terry was in the car, and once the whole wheel came off and Terry had to drive it back into the pits from the backstretch. But Thomas Blam, our strategist, did a terrific job and so did the entire crew. Terry drove the first two hours, I drove the second two hours and Terry drove the last two hours. It was a tough, tough race." TERRY BORCHELLER: "To come out of the weekend with a podium finish is great. We had obstacles from the beginning of the weekend throughout the whole race. Andy got hit on his first flying lap and we went a lap down. A front wheel came off twice; luckily it was under yellow both times. One time it came totally off the car. That happened on the backstraight; I had to drive it back to the pits on three wheels. But it was fun to always be in contention. I drove about four hours and my muscles are tired, but I really feel fine. I could drink some water and go some more today. Phoenix was worse." FOREST BARBER: "I didn't drive because I was more concerned with our finishing position today, and we had to go with our top drivers. In spite of a lot of obstacles, we overcome them and got a podium finish for the Kodak EasyShare team. Our Pontiac engine was terrific. We had great pit strategy by Thomas Blam; not pitting for fuel near the end gave us a chance. Mechanically the car was good but we had a problem with our wheel nuts. But it was a good podium finish for the Bell Motorsports crew, and hopefully this is the beginning of the end of some unfortunate luck we've had this year." article by Linda Mansfield # # #

Kodak EasyShare DORAN JE4 Pontiac #54 Qualifies Ninth Saturday at Mont-Tremblant

MONT-TREMBLANT, Quebec, May 22 - Rebounding from an accident in the morning practice session, the Bell Motorsports/Feeds the Need team qualified its Kodak EasyShare DORAN JE4 Pontiac #54 in ninth place for tomorrow's Six Hours of Circuit Mont-Tremblant Rolex series race Saturday at Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant. Terry Borcheller of Gainesville, Ga. handled the driving duties during qualifying for the car he'll share in tomorrow's race with Forest Barber of Fort Worth and Andy Pilgrim of Delray Beach, Fla. The 2003 Daytona Prototype driving champion circled the 2.65-mile, 15-turn road course in 1:30.994 (104.842 mph) on his fifth lap in the 15-minute afternoon qualifying session. Scott Pruett won the pole in the CompUSA Riley Lexus #01 with a 1:28.575 (107.705 mph). Borcheller's time was only 0.59 seconds longer than another DORAN JE4 in the field that qualified fourth. Forest Barber will be the first to tell you that four wheels are better than three unless you're in the tricycle business. The left rear wheel fell off the car while he was driving it in the morning practice session, resulting in a quick trip into the guardrail and tire barrier. Luckily he wasn't hurt. All three drivers complimented Jim Bell and the rest of the Bell Motorsports team for rebounding from the accident in order to make the qualifying session. "A wheel fell off and Forest went into the tires and it hurt the car pretty good in the front," Borcheller said after quals. "But the team did a great job getting back out and the car was good. I think I had a 30.5 in it and I did a 30.9; I caught traffic at the downhill right turn, otherwise I would have had another half-second which would have been about another five positions. But it was three seconds faster than we've been all weekend, so it was great." Barber concurred. "In the first practice session today the wheel nuts came off the left rear wheel at the bottom of the hill in turn two. At the top of the hill the wheel fell off and I had no steering, no brakes and I was just along for the ride. I hit the guardrail and the tire wall. It broke the front splitter, the toe box, the nose and the left-rear hub. "The team did a phenomenal job to get the car ready for Terry [Borcheller] to qualify," Barber continued. "We had a reasonable qualifying effort. If not for traffic, it would have been even better. The times are very close; I think the cars around us are only a few tenths away from each other. "It should be a good race," he added. "Terry will start of course. I'm not sure, but I think then it will be Andy[Pilgrim] and then me." SPEED will cover a great deal of the race live in the states from 11 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. and from 2 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. All times are Eastern. article by Linda Mansfield # # #

Pilgrim Powers Cadillac CTS-V to 2nd in Sebring SPEED World Challenge GT

March 19 Sebring, Fla. Andy Pilgrim drove the Cadillac/Mobil 1/Bose Cadillac CTS-V to a close second place finish in the season-opening race of the SCCA SPEED World Challenge GT series at Sebring International Raceway, finishing :00.358 seconds behind his teammate, Max Angelelli. That is only part of the story of Andy’s Sebring race. Andy was still parked on the starting grid 44 seconds after the first car was long-gone. The new Cadillac suffered a clutch problem, with no time for the Pratt & Miller crew to fix it, minutes before the lights flashed green for the unique standing start used by the World Challenge series. “I noticed coming out of the pits that the clutch pedal was a bit low,” he said, “and was coming up only halfway off the floor. When I fired it up to do the parade lap, the car started creeping forward almost as soon as I lifted the clutch pedal off the floor, and I thought, ‘This isn’t good. Something is going on here.’ “When we got back to the start line, we had 30 seconds to wait for the red lights to go out. It started creeping forward again, even though I was holding the pedal to the floor as hard as I could. I hit both the brakes and the accelerator, just to hold it in place and keep the revs up at the same time, but that heated up the clutch to the point where it just stalled.” Wanting to avoid being penalized or disqualified for creeping out of his “box” on the grid, Pilgrim waited until the lights turned green before re-starting the car’s 5.7 liter GM LS6 engine. “I was third on the grid, so I was very lucky that the 29 drivers behind me realized I had a problem and were smart and talented enough to zip around me, but I have to say, that was one of the most frustrating minute of my entire racing career,” he said. “It took three attempts to get it started, and then I left.” Pilgrim weaved his way through traffic like a New York City taxi driver and by the 9th lap of 20 in the race, he was already up to seventh spot, racing against a very strong field of Dodge Viper Competition Coupes, Audi RS 6 Comp, Porsche 911 Cup and Corvette Z06 entries. “The Cadillac CTS-V was unbelievable,” he said. “The handling was unreal. Maybe it was just an adrenaline rush, but I could drive the car deep into the corners and then get the power down so early.” On the 10th lap, Andy set a new Sebring track record for the World Challenge GT series with a 2:10.249 or 102.265mph blast around the 3.7-mile circuit where he has now raced 42 times since 1986 – winning seven of those events. By lap 12, Andy had worked his way into fifth place, and on the penultimate lap, took over second spot where he finished, :00.358 seconds behind Angelelli. “The Cadillac CTS-V racing program has been underway at GM Motorsports and Pratt & Miller since last Summer,” he said, “and what they’ve done with Cadillac’s world-class luxury/performance car is amazing. I’m very impressed, and proud to be a GM factory driver affiliated with a program like this.” Under World Challenge rules, Angelelli’s car will have to add 75 pounds of ballast to its base weight of 3050 pounds at the next race; Andy’s car will add 60 pounds. “That’s the penalty you pay for success in this series,” Andy said, “but we all know that going in. It is just a matter of finding the right place to locate the ballast so it won’t hurt the car’s balance too badly. “That program is a double-edge sword,” Andy added. “If I was able to take 60 pounds off the car, it would be because we finished in 12th place, and that wouldn’t be a good thing.” So what was the opinion of the Cadillac CTS-V by the worldwide news media attending the Sebring race? According to autoextremist.com, “The CTS-V officially rocks!” The next race is May 29-31 at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut. -end- Promotional notes: Prior to the Sebring race, Andy was a guest on SPEED Channel’s Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain. “We had a great time,” Andy says, “and I was impressed by the number of people who called or emailed while we were on the air, and the intelligence of the questions they asked. “I’m a big fan of Dave’s, for all the motorcycle racing commentaries of his that I’ve listen to over the years, so it was an honor to be on the air with him.” # # #

Pilgrim Looking Forward to Debut Cadillac at Sebring

Andy Pilgrim, who has competed in more than 40 races at Sebring International Raceway, and won seven of them, is looking forward to give the new race-going Cadillac CTS-V sport sedan a positive result in its world racing debut. Pilgrim, and teammate Max Angelelli will race a pair of Cadillac CTS-V race cars in the SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT Championship season-opener on March 19. The event marks Pilgrim’s return to the World Challenge series. He has not competed in the thriving series since 1996, but scored three race wins in 22 starts prior to that. For Angelelli, Sebring will mark his first World Challenge race. “A couple of factors make the World Challenge GT Championship series stand out in American road racing,” Pilgrim said. “First is the incredible number and variety of global auto manufacturers competing in it with their finest production-based race cars, such as Audi, Porsche, Ford, Volvo, Dodge, Saleen, BMW, and, of course, General Motors.” “Many of the teams are openly-run with factory assistance, which adds value to the image of the World Challenge series. With so many manufacturers competing, the brand that wins at Sebring will have something to brag about,” he said. “My competition includes guys like Randy Pobst and Stu Hayner. I’ve shared race wins with both of them in the past, and I know how tough they are.” The second positive aspect of the World Challenge series, Pilgrim feels, is SCCA Pro Racing’s willingness to work with entrants so they can produce competitive cars, but not allow any manufacturer to bowl-over the competition. “Cars that finish in the top four in every race have weight added to them,” Pilgrim said. “Those who finish fifth through tenth can take off weight. And yet, all these cars are so mechanically diverse that one may be able to pass you on top speed, but you’ll be able to re-pass him in the next corner. This is very exciting racing, and when you only have 50 minutes to get the job done, every opportunity to improve your position becomes crucial.” The Cadillac CTS-V production car is the first race car developed by GM Racing in conjunction with the new GM Performance Division, an in-house center designed to explore potential enthusiast-oriented versions of production models. Cadillac’s race car is based on the most powerful car in that brand’s lineup, the CTS-V. The production CTS-V uses a 5.7L overhead valve V8 engine producing around 400 horsepower, with a top speed of 163 mph. “Many of the more than 320 races in my career since 1984 have been in production-based race cars,” Pilgrim added, “and I’ve been fortunate to have been affiliated with GM Racing for many of those years. “For both Max and I, being asked to give the new Cadillac CTS-V its first race anywhere in the world, and to do so at a track as world-famous as Sebring, is indeed an honor.” The race will be televised on the SPEED Channel Sunday, March 28 at 1 pm (EST). # # #

ANDY PILGRIM WINS DAYTONA 24-HOUR RACE

Andy Pilgrim led his race team to a win Sunday in the Rolex 24 At Daytona race, America’s equivalent to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Andy shared the victory in the Doran JE4-Pontiac with frequent teammate Terry Borcheller, car owner Forest Barber, and former CART driver Christian Fittipaldi. The win was the third for Pilgrim in this, the 42nd annual running of the event at Daytona International Speedway, but his first overall win.  Andy won the GTS-1 class in 1998 driving a Porsche 911 GT1, and the American GT class in 2002 in a Corvette. It was the 53rd career road racing win for Andy. His career win total places him sixth on the list of all-time professional sports car series race winners in North America since 1963. “The engine began to overheat about nine hours into the race,” he said. “That forced us to cut back out pace for the remaining 15 hours. This is the 13th time I’ve driven this race, and really the first time I’ve had a chance to win it overall, so this is a very special win.”  The race’s final hours were led by NASCAR star Tony Stewart in a Crawford-Chevrolet, but with five laps to go, the failing rear suspension on Stewart’s car died for the last time, causing Tony to spin and a mechanical inability to proceed to the checkered flag. With a three-lap lead over the second place Porsche, Pilgrim pitted the car and turned the driving over to Barber, the car’s owner, for the final celebratory lap. “Forest deserved that lap,” Pilgrim said. “He’s a good driver, an unselfish car owner, and he needed to experience what it feels like to take the checkered flag in the lead of one of the world’s greatest auto races.” # # #

Bell Motorsports Captures Rolex 24 At Daytona Victory In Closing Laps

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (February 01, 2004) -- As the final hour of the 42nd anniversary of the Rolex 24 At Daytona clicked away, it appeared as though the Howard-Boss Motorsports No. 2 CITGO Chevrolet Crawford had victory at hand. But the surprises never stop during the Rolex 24, and the No. 2 Chevrolet, that had once held a three-lap lead, fell victim to suspension problems in the chicane, opening the door for the Bell Motorsports No. 54 Kodak Pontiac Doran JE4 and drivers Andy Pilgrim ,Terry Borcheller, Forest Barber and Christian Fittipaldi to capture the overall Rolex 24 victory." It's astounding what can happen in 24 hours," said owner and co-driver Forest Barber, who brought the car across the start/finish line for the checkered flag. Andy Pilgrim with Bell Motorsports team, which won the 2003 North American Road Racing Championship, not only picked up four Rolex Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona watches for each of the drivers, but also $100,000 in prize money, the largest amount ever offered by the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series to the winner. Bell Motorsports has now won the last three races at Daytona International Speedway. Last year, the No. 54 car captured both the Paul Revere 250 and the Grand American Champions Weekend presented by Brumos Porsche. Tony Stewart, who was teamed with fellow NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr. and sports car veteran Andy Wallace, was nursing the No. 2 car for the last hour with the suspension problem. "Evidently a rocker was breaking, which is your spring on the right rear corner," said Stewart after the car finally broke down. "That was the first major problem, and it kept getting worse and worse." The No. 2 Chevrolet managed to hold onto third-place in the Daytona Prototypes class, after being passed with only two laps remaining in the race by the Doran-Lista Racing No. 27 Lexus Doran JE4 of Didier Theys, Fredy Lienhard, Jan Lammers and Marc Goossens, which took home second-place honors in the Daytona Prototypes class with its fourth-place overall finish. The conditions in the Rolex 24 were grueling, with most of the race held under cool temperatures, wind and rain. During the early morning hours, the race was run under caution for more than three hours and at 7:38 a.m., for the first time in 15 years, the Rolex 24 was red flagged for poor visibility and standing water. At 10:30 a.m., the race resumed setting up a two hour, 42-minute sprint to the finish. The GT class battle was just as thrilling as the fight for the overall title. The team of Mike Fitzgerald, Joe and Jay Policastro, Robin Liddell and Johnny Mowlem in the Orbit Racing No. 44 Porsche GT3 RS captured the GT class victory, in addition to second place overall, by a margin of victory of only 6.9 seconds over the Flying Lizard Motorsports No. 74 Porsche GT3 Cup and drivers Johannes van Overbeek, Seth Neiman, Lonnie Pechnik, Peter Cunningham and Mike Rockenfeller. "I think I have a few more gray hairs now than I did before," said Mowlem of his battle with the No. 74 Porsche for the win. "We lost a rear window sometime during the middle of the night. With the wet (tires), it wasn't too much of an issue, but as soon as it dried out, Mike went out there when it dried out with slicks on. We could see from his times that it was really affecting our straight-line speed. When I got in, it was the same problem - really slow on the banking. I had to drive really hard to keep Mike Rockenfeller at bay." The Red Bull BE Racing No. 73 Ferrari 360GT of Philipp Peter, Klaus Engelhorn, Dieter Quester and Andrea Montermini rounded out the GT-class podium and finished sixth overall. In Rolex Series's new Super Grand Sport class, the Doncaster Racing No. 91 Porsche GT3 Cup with Jean-Francois Dumoulin, Robert Julien, Greg Pootmans and Marc Lieb captured the class crown and took the ninth-place position overall. "At the start we had a little bit of a clutch problem. We had to double clutch to make sure we didn't grind the gears. Then we finally got it fixed and the car came back really good," said Dumoulin. "We had a really good setup. The Doncaster team did an amazing job driving that car. It was really good in the dry, wet and it was pretty good to drive and the team did amazing changes. All of the way through the 24 hours we were out there, and that's why we're here again." The drivers shared the podium with Doncaster Racing teammates Dave Lacey, Greg Wilkins, Mark Wilkins, Tom Nastasi and Kenny Wilden of the No. 71 Porsche, which finished third in the SGS class. The TPC Racing No. 38 Porsche GT3 Cup of Randy Pobst, Marc Bunting, Andy Lally, John Littlechild and Michael Levitas, split the teammates with its second-place finish in the class Doran-Lista Racing, Red Bull BE Racing and AASCO Motorsports were the first the first-ever receipts of the SunTrust Improve Your Position award, for gaining the most places in class during the race. Doran-Lista Racing started 17th in the Daytona Prototype class and finished second, Red Bull BE Racing started 16th in the GT class and finished third, and AASCO Motorsports started 14th in the SGS class and finished sixth. Each of the teams received $500 from SunTrust and is now in the running to receive the year-long award and bonus. Orbit Racing and Doncaster Racing also received awards from the Acxiom Grand Touring Challenge. Each of the teams were presented with checks for $1,000 for winning the GT and SGS classes. Article written by: Grand American Road Racing Association # # #

Cadillac Returns To Racing in 2004

Street-legal CTS-V supplies performance blueprint for high-output race car DETROIT – Continuing to demonstrate its technical capabilities and high-performance credentials, Cadillac today announced a race-going version of the CTS-V sport sedan, the most powerful car in the brand’s lineup. The race car, named CTS-V race car, will compete in the 2004 SCCA Speed World Challenge, a highly-competitive North American race series for production based cars. “This is a significant day for Cadillac,” said Mark LaNeve, Cadillac general manager. “The CTS-V race car is further evidence of the dramatic changes taking place at Cadillac. The CTS-V race car will improve Cadillac’s credibility with luxury performance enthusiasts.” CTS-V race car is the first race car developed by GM Racing in conjunction with the new GM Performance Division, an in-house center designed to explore potential enthusiast-oriented versions of production models. The CTS-V, introduced in late 2003 as a 2004 model, signaled Cadillac’s entry into the low-volume, high-performance luxury car niche, and was the first vehicle to wear the division’s high-performance V-series badge. “The CTS-V race car starts from a great set of blueprints,” said GM Racing Director Doug Duchardt. “The outstanding performance characteristics of the rear-drive Sigma-based CTS and CTS-V lend perfectly to a race car application. We were able to maintain a significant amount of shared parts, technologies and processes in developing the CTS-V race car.” By weight, the CTS-V race car is 73 percent stock-derived. The production CTS-V and CTS-V race car share common technology – in the form of the all-aluminum V-8 engine, front and rear suspension, steering system, differential and halfshafts – and talent, as the engineers who conceived the CTS-V for street use were directly involved in the creation of the race car.  Like the CTS and CTS-V, which were refined and validated at Germany’s famed Nürburgring, the CTS-V race car will prove itself on the most challenging racing circuits in North America. A two-car, factory-backed effort from Cadillac will debut at the SCCA World Challenge race supporting the 12 Hours of Sebring in March 2004. Championship-winning sports car racers Max Angelelli and Andy Pilgrim will drive the works Cadillacs. The CTS-V race car will feature a 5.7L overhead valve V8 engine. It will produce more than 500 hp with a maximum rpm of 7600. It will have a 25-gallon fuel tank to carry enough fuel for the 50-minute sprint races that comprise the series without requiring a pit stop. Its top speed is estimated to be in excess of 165 mph. Cadillac products for the 2004 model include the CTS sport sedan, CTS-V, SRX luxury utility, Seville, DeVille, XLR luxury roadster, and the most powerful utilities on the planet; Escalade, Escalade EXT and Escalade ESV. More information on Cadillac can be found at media.gm.com/cadillac.  Cadillac is a division of General Motors (NYSE: GM). General Motors, the world’s largest vehicle manufacturer, designs, builds and markets cars and trucks worldwide, and has been the global automotive sales leader since 1931. ###

Andy Pilgrim Biography

Andy Pilgrim is a factory driver for General Motors’ Cadillac CTS-V race car program and has been driving for GM Racing since 1999. Pilgrim is recognized as one of the world’s best sports car drivers; he has amassed over 50 victories in 10 different series of competition. A native of Nottingham, England, Pilgrim found early success racing open-class and modified production motorcycles in England between 1978 and 1980, amassing 71 wins and five Divisional and National Championships. After moving to the United States in the early eighties, he started racing cars professionally in 1984 and took his first professional win in the IMSA Firestone Firehawk Endurance Championship in 1986 at Sears Point in a Pontiac Firebird. Pilgrim won 20 more races in 106 Firehawk series' starts in the next decade.  Considering the level of competition in Firehawk, his 20% win ratio is remarkable. Andy’s unbeaten—and likely unbeatable—world record of 116 consecutive race finishes in IMSA / PSCR events is unprecedented. Pilgrim continued with a string of successes in various levels of competition, including four championships and prestigious wins in the 24-hours of Daytona and 12-hours of Sebring. During this period Pilgrim achieved his goal to become a U.S. citizen and finalized the process in 1998. Pilgrim was named to Corvette’s first factory ALMS and Le Mans effort in 1999. His success continued with a host of victories and podium finishes in the Corvette C5-R, including the team’s first victory at Texas in 2000.  In 2004, Cadillac chose Pilgrim to champion the brand’s return to motorsport with the CTS-V race car. A close partner with GM Racing, Pilgrim will pilot the two-car works effort along with Italian Max Angelelli.  Although tremendously active with racing and personal appearances, the Florida resident is also a successful CEO of a computer consulting and management company, employing more than 200 programmers.   Career Highlights       ·         Won 3 North American Championships in 1995, 1997, 1998 ·         52 career victories ·         SCCA Grand Sport Challenge Vice-Champion 1994 (Pontiac) 1 win ·         IMSA Supercar Series 1994 (Lotus) 1 win ·         IMSA Grand Sport Endurance Champion 1995, 6 wins ·         Winner GTS-2 12 Hours of Sebring 1996 (Porsche) ·         PSCR GT1 Champion 1997 (Porsche) 4 wins ·         Winner Daytona 24-hours 1997 (Porsche) ·         PSCR GT1 Championship 1998 (Porsche) ·         PSCR GT2 Championship 1998 (Porsche) 2 wins ·         American Le Mans Series 1999 (Corvette) ·         GrandAm Championship 2000 (BMW) ·         American Le Mans Series 2000 (Chevrolet Corvette) 2 wins GTS ·         American Le Mans Series 2001 (Chevrolet Corvette) 2 wins GTS ·         American Le Mans Series 2002 (Chevrolet Corvette) 3 wins GTS ·         Winner Daytona 24-hours 2002 (Chevrolet Corvette) ·         American Le Mans Series 2003 (Chevrolet Corvette) ·         Grand Am Championship 2003 (Daytona Prototype) 1 win ·         SCCA Speed World Challenge GT 2004 (Cadillac)

Cadillac CTS-V Race Car Targets SCCA  World Challenge GT Class

Quick Facts about the SCCA World Challenge   ·         The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) formed a new club racing class in 1972 for absolutely stock street automobiles. The SCCA to combine several existing endurance races into a manufacturers' series in 1984. ·         In 1990, the Escort World Challenge Championship was born. The new series featured cars homologated by manufacturers. The rules were along the same lines as the European Group A specifications, rather than the showroom stock configuration of the series as it previously existed. ·         The off-season between 1998 and 1999 proved to be the most pivotal for the World Challenge, as the Speedvision Network became a part owner in the series and its title sponsor.  ·         In 2002, Speed Channel took over for Speedvision as the title sponsor after Speedvision was bought by Fox and re-named.  ·         There are two classes of competition—Grand Touring (GT) and Touring Car. Vehicles are grouped based on their performance potential and market segments. The Cadillac CTS-V race car will participate in the GT class. ·         Only vehicles that are normal production vehicles which are marketed and delivered to retail customers are recognized ·         Currently, model years 1998 through 2004 are eligible. ·         Races are distance limited, 50 minutes maximum. ·         The Speed World Challenge Championships feature a weight-equalization system based on each competitor's finishing position in each race. The system is based on adding or removing ballast weight from cars according to finishing position in the previous race.  The Cadillac CTS-V race car will be taking on such competitors as the Audi RS 6, Ford Mustang, BMW M3, Porsche 911, Dodge Viper and the Chevrolet Corvette.

Comparing the CTS Family

CTS CTS-V CTS-V Race Car Engine Type 3.6L V-6 5.7L V8 5.7L V8 Displacement 3564 cc 5665 cc 5725 cc Bore & Stroke 94.0 mm / 85.6 mm 99.0 mm / 92.0 mm 104.8 mm / 83 mm Valvetrain DOHC OHV OHV Valves per cylinder Four Two Two Lubrication Wet sump Wet sump 5 Stage Dry Sump Restrictors None None None Maximum RPM 6700 6600 7600 Horsepower 255 @ 6200 400 @ 6000 500+ @ 7200 Torque 250 @ 2800 395 @ 4800 420 @ 5600 Engine Induction Fiber reinforced plastic, with electronic throttle Fiber reinforced plastic, with electronic throttle Fiber reinforced plastic, with electronic throttle Chassis Construction Unitized welded steel body with direct-mounted front cradle and rubber-isolated, multi-link independent rear suspension assembly Unitized welded steel body with direct-mounted front cradle and rubber-isolated, multi-link independent rear suspension assembly Unitized welded steel body with direct-mounted front and rear cradle and multi-link independent rear suspension assembly Weight (lbs.) 3694 3847 3000 (with driver) Length (inches) 190.1 191.5 193.5 Width (inches) 70.6 70.6 70.6 Height (inches) 56.7 57.3 Lower Suspension Front - Independent, short/long arm Rear – Multi link Front - Independent, short/long arm Rear – Multi link Front - Independent, short/long arm Rear – Multi link Brakes Power-assist, vacuum with antilock control, traction control, Stabilitrak stability control, with high-performance brake linings Four piston fixed calipers on all four corners.  Front vented, cast-iron rotors measuring 355 x 32-mm.; Rear vented, cast-iron rotors measuring 365 x 28 mm.  Four-channel Stabilitrak chassis control. Six piston fixed calipers front, four piston fixed calipers rear.  Front vented steel rotors measuring 355 x 32 mm.  Rear vented steel rotors measuring 328 x 32 mm. Wheels 17 x 7.5-inch 18 x 8.5-inch Speedline 18 x 11 F, 18 x 12 R    OZ Steering   Power assisted rack-and-pinion with Magnesteer Power assisted rack-and-pinion – production TRW unit Tires Goodyear Eagle RS-A, P225/50VR17, all season Goodyear Eagle F1 245/45 WR18 run-flat tires Toyo Proxes RA-1 Tires.  275/35-18 Frt, 335/30-18 Rear Gearbox Automatic; 5-speed manual available with 3.2L V6 only Tremec T56 6-speed manual Tremec T56 6-speed manual Differential   Getrag Limited Slip Getrag Limited Slip Fuel Type 87 octane unleaded regular 91 Premium Recommended Sunoco 93 Unleaded (spec fuel) Fuel Capacity (gallons) 17.5 17.5 25 Top Speed (mph)   163 165 est. Wheelbase (inches) 113.4 113.4 113.2 Front Track 60.4 61.1 60 Rear Track 60.7 61.4 60 Cylinder bore spacing 103 mm 111.7 mm 111.7 mm V angle 60 degrees 90 degrees 90 degrees Deck height 225.2 mm 234.7 mm 234.7 mm Crankshaft stroke 85.6 mm 92 mm 83 mm Camshaft drive Two stage-roller chain-hydraulic tension control Chain drive with static tensioner Chain drive with static tensioner Cylinder head material SPM (Semi permanent mold) 319 Aluminum SPM (Semi permanent mold) 319 Aluminum SPM (Semi permanent mold) 319 Aluminum Bore diameter 94.0 mm 99.0 mm 104.8 mm

View The 2003 News

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