8/19/2011 - Strapped into a 500 Horsepower Rocket!

By Dave Drimmie - Reprinted from the World-Challenge website.

Lexington, OH -  Normally this space is reserved for the thoughts and opinions of two of the top hot shoes in the Pirelli World Challenge – Andy Pilgrim, driver of the No. 8 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe and Patrick Lindsey, driver of the No. 12 CRP Hawk Chevrolet Corvette. But I’m doing something a little different this time – let’s call this installment, From the Passenger Seat.

As the VP, Marketing and Communications for the series, I organize a media event at each race called the Pirelli World Challenge Media Ride Along presented by the Bondurant School of High Performance Driving. Bondurant is a great partner that supplies the helmets and suits for the event so let’s give them a plug.

The program gets media out to the track to experience what it feels like to ride in an actual Pirelli World Challenge race car. Yes, you read that right … media get to sit alongside some of the top sports car racers in the country for hot laps around the tracks we race at. In the three years I have organized the program, I haven’t had the opportunity to jump into any of the cars preferring to use the roughly 40 minutes we receive to give as many media as we can the most thrilling roller coaster rides of their lives. Well, all that changed recently at Mid-Ohio while we were there for Rounds 7 and 8 of the Championships. And as luck would have it, Andy Pilgrim was the hot shoe giving rides that day in the Pratt & Miller prepared Cadillac CTS-V Coupe. A media rep had cancelled last minute and there was time to strap me in for a ride.

That’s why I’m calling this segment, From the Passengers Seat – let me tell you what it feels like to be strapped into the 500 horsepower monster Cadillac CTS-V driven at speed (these are not parade laps) by one of the top sports car racers in the world around one of the most technical road courses in North America. (As a side note, the car that Pilgrim gave rides in is the back up car for both him and Johnny
O’Connell and is identical to the No. 8 and No. 3 cars that they drive in the series with a passenger seat added – it’s not a show car. All three of the Cadillac CTS-V race cars are about 80% of the street version Cadillac CTS-V Coupe.)

Most of you reading this are probably like me. I have a modified Mazda MX-5 that I do lapping days with so I know the thrill of driving a car at speed around a track … obviously not even remotely close to what a pro driver like Pilgrim does.

Given I’m the lead marketing guy, it’s my job to communicate the skill level, athleticism (yes athleticism!) and pure guts that the drivers in my series demonstrate race in race out. And nothing more aptly gives you the perspective of the g-force, the in-car environment and just sheer top levels of concentration demanded of these drivers by sitting along side one of them during a few hot laps. From the non-educated, many think being a professional race car driver is nothing more than simply driving a car faster than what the average person does on the freeway. It’s a common thing I see in my travels (especially at lapping days). I chuckle watching testosterone, ego and the pure stubbornness of some enthusiasts at the lapping days/driving schools I’ve attended get in the way of understanding the enormous skill and learned confidence it takes to race a car.

The day I strapped into the CTS-V at Mid-Ohio was extremely warm – close to 90 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny without a hint of a breeze. I grabbed a helmet and race suit and got ready to go. Conditions were perfect for me to get a real good feel for the extreme conditions Pilgrim and his peers go through when they race. Temperatures inside race cars can reach upwards of 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Heat affects the ability to concentrate and adversely affects a race car driver’s reflexes. To help keep cool, our body’s produce sweat and race car drivers can lose up to 8 pounds of sweat during a race. Many drivers now wear cool suits to help guard against over heating.

Pilgrim received the signal from his team to fire up the Caddy. Wow, what an awesome sound. The CTS-V racecars have a distinctive thunderous grunt and sitting in the passenger seat certainly gives you a true perspective – it’s downright loud! As we got up to speed heading around Mid-Ohio for the first lap the initial thing that struck me was the high g-loads we were pulling. Pilgrim assured me that he was going to be driving 9/10s if not 10/10s and heading into hard breaking areas like the Keyhole and turn 11 entering Thunder Alley pushed my head forward hard and my chest into the six point harness with a lot of force. On hard turns, Pirelli World Challenge drivers experience g forces of up to 2.5 g’s which is easily five times that of what most street drivers would ever feel on the road. “The first thing I see of a passenger when driving them around the track is the top of their helmet rocketing forward as I hit the brakes,” said Pilgrim after the ride along. “They are just so surprised and some of them cannot physically hold their heads upright under braking all through the run. I kind of wonder how bad their necks ache the next day to be honest, but that’s why we have Advil right?”

As we completed laps, I found myself watching Pilgrim and his super level of concentration and strength more so than watching the track ahead. Driving at the speeds Pilgrim and the rest of the World Challenge drivers do takes a tremendous amount of training in that when the brain senses danger, the endocrine system releases hormones adrenaline and cortisol, chemical messengers that trigger our fight-or-flight response. Racers have trained to keep their minds to stay calm under pressure instead of panicking. And testing completed of race-car drivers' oxygen consumption and heart rate while racing proves they are as fit as other pro athletes. Pilgrim runs six miles up to five times a week and uses different weighted elastic exercise bands and yoga to help with flexibility, strength and endurance. He trains like he still does 24 hour races as it's what he's used to. This training was especially helpful a few weeks ago when Pilgrim was called in at the last minute to run a 3 hour and 15 minute NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Infineon. Relating to the Pirelli World Challenge, Pilgrim feels the 30 minutes that series racers are in the cars prior to the race start during pre-race ceremonies can really sap energy if they are not in top shape. Drivers make mistakes at the end of races if they are not in the best shape.

I also noticed Pilgrim’s amazing ability to guide the Cadillac through some of the blind turns like Madness – never missing an apex. And he was able to quickly read and react while pushing the CTS-V to the limit of adhesion. Racers depend on their nervous system – the network of nerve cells that carry information throughout the body – to sense their surroundings and react. They sharpen their reflexes by doing practice laps. Off the track, drivers use computerized visual-training programs to improve reaction time and enhance their field of vision – the area you can see without shifting your eyes. Some even prepare by playing racing video games. “Watching my feet on the pedals as we blip to downshift and roll onto the gas is something media comment about when they ride with me,” said Pilgrim after we got out of the car. “They also comment on the speed of going through the gears now that we have sequential gearboxes. Years ago we could go from 6th to 2nd under heavy braking with an "H" pattern box, but now we have to go through all the gears so the feet have to be super quick. You have to feel the car moving around at a place like Mid-O and be on the gas even while the car is going over a vertical corner which makes things extra tricky. You actually use the fact that the car is going to rotate more as it comes over a hill to your advantage, but you have to be careful not to over rotate, especially with a long wheelbase car like the Cadillac.”

And then it was over. Pilgrim pulled into pit road after we completed (I think) four laps and even with that quick window I really received a true sense of what it’s like to be a professional racecar driver. My heart rate was definitely elevated, I was sweating profusely and with some of the g-loads we had experienced I could feel my core muscles had been given a work out. Four of the five senses (hearing, sight, touch, and smell) had definitely been engaged. And when I think about the all-out battles that are Pirelli World Challenge races (50-minute sprints, no scheduled pit stops or driver changes, standing starts, 45+ car fields), it gives me an even greater appreciation for what Pilgrim and the rest of the drivers in the series do race in race out.

The Mid-Ohio weekend was a good one for the Cadillac Team as Johnny O’Connell won Round 8, while Pilgrim finished fourth in Round 7 and sixth in Round 8.