See how Andy and Johnny navigate the tight turns and inclines of the famous Laguna Seca Raceway.

Chief among them was the position of one Lawson Aschenbach.

Aschenbach, who had to start 15th in the field because he missed qualifying, rocketed through the field to fourth place late in the 50-minute Pirelli World Challenge Series event on the 2.238-mile layout, and had he passed Pilgrim in the final four laps, he would have wrested the Manufacturer’s point lead from Team Cadillac.

He didn’t, and Pilgrim hung on to finish third in his No. 8 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe, keeping Cadillac’s lead intact and cutting the distance to the driver point lead to just 14 points.

“Manufacturer points is all we care about,” an enthused Pilgrim said on the podium after the race.

Pilgrim had a couple of chances to put a car between himself and Aschenbach, but missed by inches on both. The Volvos of race winner Randy Pobst and second-place Alex Figge were just too stout off the corners to get it done.

“It was an elastic band effect with Volvo,” Pilgrim said. “They were slow going into the corners and rockets coming out. I had the best shot on restarts, to try and get Alex. He was very clean; we were bumping, but it was clean. He gave me room and I gave him room. But once I got to the end of the corner, they took off. “

Having that buffer between himself and Aschenbach was tops in his mind.

“I tried, really, because I wanted to put him [Figge] between me and Lawson,” Pilgrim said. “Having Lawson behind me, holy smoke…I had to just be perfect for those four or five laps at the end. Luckily, we were. It just really kept me focused. Lawson raced me fair and really close.”

Pilgrim said he had an advantage on Aschenbach under braking with his Brembo brake system.

“The brakes on our car made it for us. He didn’t make anything on us on brakes.”

Pobst ran away with the victory, crossing the line .699 seconds ahead of his teammate, Figge. Pilgrim was third, 1.58 seconds back, and Aschenbach came home fourth, .17 seconds behind.

Johnny O’Connell had rough going in the No. 3 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe, starting seventh and finishing there. He was carrying 196 pounds of sanctioning-body-mandated weight, and had a struggle to stay with the lead group.

O’Connell, a master of the restart, had a couple of chances on late restarts to improve his position, but couldn’t close the deal before Turn 3.

Despite the extra weight he carried, O’Connell was pleased with the day.

“Restarts were good today,” he said. “The guys did an amazing job; the race car was the best car I had all weekend. But that much weight was murder here. Not just in the momentum I had to carry up the hill, but in the way my car was handling. You want to win, but you’re glad that Andy had a really good run in third. It was a good event for Cadillac.”

After Pobst, Figge, Pilgrim and Aschenbach came the Porsche of Steve Ott to round out the top five. Mike Skeen came from 16th to finish sixth, followed by O’Connell and the Porsches of Justin Marks, Tomy Drissi and Bret Curtis.

O’Connell still leads the driver points by 14, 573-559, over Pilgrim, with Pobst now third at 502. James Sofronas, who was third coming in, retired midway through Friday’s race and finished 15th in GT. Aschenbach is fourth at 427.

In the Manufacturer’s race, Cadillac doubled its lead from Utah and stands four points higher than Porsche, 37-33, after five races. Volvo leaped into the battle in third place, with 25 points.

Next race for Team Cadillac is on home turf June 1-3 at the Cadillac Detroit Grand Prix on the Belle Isle course in the middle of the Detroit River.

Friday’s Cadillac Sports Car Grand Prix of Monterey is set for broadcast May 27 at 11 p.m. EDT on the NBC Sports Network.

But in the end, the team had to settle for second and fourth places, plus a solid points day toward the Pirelli World Challenge Series championships.

Johnny O’Connell took advantage of a standing-start stumble by polesitter Patrick Long to jump to the lead, edging out a gaggle of cars at the entrance to the super-fast Turn 1. For the next 10 laps, the No. 3 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe driven by O’Connell led the way around the 3.048-mile Miller Motorsports Park course until Long got close enough to challenge.

Long dived to the inside into Turn 1 on Lap 11 and completed the pass through the tricky-fast turn complex and raced away to victory.

“It was a really good race with Patrick,” O’Connell said after the race was over. “With us carrying all the weight, I figured out pretty early that he [Long] was just going to try to wear me down, make me use up my tires and then have his way with me. I actually backed my pace off a little to let him get close. I figured eventually he would make a run at me going into Turn 1.”

He did, but was not successful the first time he tried it. Long actually led Lap 7, but O’Connell kept his foot in it and wound up keeping the top spot for another three laps.

“We raced each other super clean, and I think the fans enjoyed watching that,” O’Connell said. “I was just hoping for traffic that never came. You have to give it to them. They were a little bit stronger today, but shoot, with 144 pounds…we were carrying a lot of weight.”

That weight, called REWARDS weight, came from O’Connell winning at St. Petersburg to open the season and finishing second in the second race at St. Pete and third at Long Beach.

Andy Pilgrim, who was carrying 96 pounds after winning at Long Beach, started fourth, lost a spot in the gaggle at the start, and then advanced to third place by Lap 5, chasing O’Connell and Long.

He made up a ton of time through the middle portion as O’Connell and Long battled for the lead, his No. 8 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe shadowing his teammate and looking for opportunities to advance.

But a hard-charging Mike Skeen came from 13th on the grid to fourth place with a handful of laps remaining and passed Pilgrim on the penultimate lap to knock Team Cadillac out of another double- podium finish.

“It was a good race,” Pilgrim said of his battle with Skeen. “I knew [Skeen] was coming; there was nothing I could do. He didn’t have any weight on his car, and we know the Corvette is good. He was really good through the fast corners.”

Pilgrim got a touch loose on the next-to-last lap and Skeen pounced.

“I got a big slide out of Turn 6 and it killed my momentum for that long straight up to Turn 7,” he said. “He got to the inside and there was nothing I could do. He just accelerated faster than I did. I had to let him go. I couldn’t have turned in, and if I had tried to go around the outside I would have just punched right off the track. There’s a lot of stuff on that corner.”

At the end of the day, O’Connell was pragmatic about the result.

“For me it was very difficult, watching my tires and saving some for the end,” he said. “Right now, I am driving as strong if not stronger than I ever have in my career. It was really hard for me to sit back and manage everything, but I was very proud that I was able to do that.”

For Pilgrim, it was a good result, for the big picture, but not the one he was looking for on Saturday.

“I didn’t want top-five, but when you come into one of these races, you want to come away with top-five points if you’re in the championship. That’s all you want.”

Long’s Porsche beat O’Connell to the flag by 3.032 seconds, and Skeen, Pilgrim and David Welch in a Ferrari rounded out the top five. Randy Pobst headed the second five in his Volvo, with the Porsches of Steve Ott, James Sofronas and Madison Snow seventh through ninth. Tony Gaples rounded out the top 10 in another Corvette.

In the points, it was a banner day for Team Cadillac.  O’Connell now leads the World Challenge GT driver’s points by 49 over Pilgrim, 501-452. Sofronas is a distant third with 354, Lawson Aschenbach is fourth with 342 and Pobst is fifth with 333.

In the Manufacturer’s points, Cadillac leads Porsche by 2, 32-30, after four rounds.

Next action for Team Cadillac and the rest of the Pirelli World Challenge Series competitors will be May 10-11, the Cadillac Sports Car Grand Prix at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, Calif.

The Grand Prix of Utah will be telecast on NBC Sports, Sunday, May 27 at 11 p.m. EDT. View live streaming on www.world-challengeTV.com day of races and continuously on demand after races.

Long Beach, CA, - The Pirelli World Challenge race season is well underway and Round 3 took place last weekend in Long Beach, California.  A race at the Long Beach GP is always a favorite for me during any season. The crowd is always huge, knowledgeable and enthusiastic; it’s a great weekend, seemingly irrespective of track results.

In my last In The Driver’s Seat article I wrote about the motorcycle road racers who run on the natural road courses in the UK and Ireland.  Many of them have that ability to put their lives on the line, even when carrying massive injuries.  I can certainly relate to them, as I raced motorcycles myself back in the ‘80s.  Many aspects of life give us lessons and I think most of us learn something from them.  I know I learn from seeing others overcome physical adversity, whatever the cause.

Overcoming physical challenges and injuries is certainly an amazing life skill. Sometimes though, our issue or stress is not so outwardly obvious. 

Ron J. Bermudez Photo, RPMx ImagesLONG BEACH, Calif.  –

“I’ve never won at Long Beach,” Pilgrim said in Victory Lane after the caution-free event. “I’ve finished second here a couple of times, but it’s very good to win it and I’m really happy to have done it.”

Pilgrim qualified second for the 31-lap Pirelli World Challenge race on the 1.968-mile street circuit and held that position on the standing start. Polesitter Pobst rocketed away by virtue of his car’s all-wheel-drive, but Pilgrim and teammate Johnny O’Connell, who started third in the No. 3 Cadillac, stayed close through the first eight laps.

On the ninth, Pilgrim edged to the inside approaching the left-hand Turn 1 and turned in before Pobst could, sliding his silver Cadillac into a lead he would never give up.

“Randy got stuck in traffic on the hairpin, and I think I surprised him a little bit,” Pilgrim said of the winning pass. “I had been studying him for the first several laps, and it seemed like he was backing up his braking point a bit. I noticed that, and I waited as late as I possibly could, the door was open and it went through.”

From there, it was a matter of managing traffic and hitting his marks, which the Englishman did with aplomb. The gap stretched from one second to five seconds at times, and it ended with Pilgrim crossing the line 6.337 seconds ahead of the 2010 series champion.

“The Cadillac ran very, very well, and it was consistent, and I think the fact that we were green the whole time helped us,” he said. “We’re very happy, Team Cadillac is very happy, and we’ll take it.”

O’Connell kept contact with the lead pair throughout the race, but had to contend with traffic and could not gain. He finished third, 10.430 seconds behind Pobst, to give Cadillac its second straight double-podium finish. O’Connell finished second and Pilgrim third in Round 2 at St. Petersburg last month.

“If you’re not going to win it, it’s nice to see your teammate disappearing into the distance,” O’Connell said. “I was chasing Randy [Pobst] and studying him, and I kept hoping for traffic, but I never got the opportunity I wanted, and I knew he wasn’t going to make a mistake.

“I’m very proud of everyone on the Cadillac team, and through engineering and hard work, they gave us good cars.”

The victory was Pilgrim’s 11th in the series and first since October 2010, when he won at Virginia International Raceway.

It was also a good day in the points. O’Connell leads with 374 after three rounds, and Pilgrim jumped to second with 361. Lawson Aschenbach, the Round 2 winner, is third with 342. In the Manufacturer’s race, Cadillac leads Porsche, 25-20, with Volvo in third with 13.

Behind O’Connell came a bevy of Porsches, led by James Sofronas in fourth and Aschenbach in fifth. The 911s of Tommy Drissi, Dino Crescentini, Justin Marks and Steve Ott were sixth through ninth, and the Ferrari F430 of David Welch rounded out the top 10.

“It was a great day for Team Cadillac here in Long Beach, and we could not be more proud of Andy and Johnny,” said John Kraemer, Cadillac V-Series Racing and Marketing Manager. “The development of this car over the past year has been phenomenal, and our team is putting in a lot of effort toward that end.”

Round 3 of the Pirelli World Challenge Series will be broadcast on NBC Sports, Sunday, April 29 at 3-4:30 p.m. EDT.

Next up for Team Cadillac is the Utah Grand Prix at Miller Motorsports Park on April 27-28.

A Davie student is hoping to raise awareness of the dangers of texting while driving.

Katie Cannon, a University School student, helped organize a "No Texting While Driving" assembly for Upper School students at Nova Southeastern University's Epstein Center for the Arts. The event featured a presentation by professional race car driver and driver education advocate Andy Pilgrim.

"I set up this program to raise awareness and let people know how dangerous texting while driving can be," Cannon said. "I don't text at all. I have my phone in my bag when I'm driving. You are not only endangering yourself when you pick up your phone while driving, but you are endangering a child or another person. It's not OK. You can kill someone or cause them brain damage."


Marc Cannon, her father, is a senior vice president at AutoNation. He told her of a friend of the family in California who had to pull to the side of the road because of car trouble. A teenage driver was texting when she hit him, putting him in a coma.

Pilgrim founded the Andy Pilgrim Foundation to spread this safety message through appearances and educational DVDs. He produced "Driving Zone" as a tool in driver education and followed up with "Driving Zone 2" to delve into the dangers of distracted driving. Pilgrim showed clips from the DVD during the assembly, and each student received a copy the next day.

"Peer groups getting together to understand this stuff is great," Pilgrim said. "It's part of what we need. We need kids to understand it, parents to understand it, and the education to be good. We need all the pieces."

Following the assembly, students had the opportunity to sign a pledge to not text while driving. Cannon is looking into using the pledges in an art piece or showing them to a legislator, as well as possibly expanding her efforts to other schools.

Junior Meredith Adams took Pilgrim's words to heart.

"I was actually quite shocked at the stunning amount of people that are killed from car accidents and are distracted by texting or looking down," she said. "I mean, you have a 1-in-150 chance of getting hit by another car. I will definitely not distract myself with my cellphone. I have been a little guilty of taking phone calls but don't text. This really made me think twice about it."

AutoNation sponsored the assembly, and Marc Cannon said he is proud of his daughter's efforts.

"It's critical to get this message across," he said. "… People are unnecessarily dying because people are texting and driving and not paying enough attention. In USA Today, there was an article that talks about how teen accidents are skyrocketing because there are so many distractions. So if we can educate these teenagers so they can take it home to their parents, it makes a huge difference."

For more information, visit http://www.andypilgrimfoundation.org.

Scott Fishman can be reached at smfishman@tribune.com.

Copyright © 2012, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Around that time, a friend returned to England from a visit to America and regaled Pilgrim with stories of American life and racing. Andy was so inspired that Andy decided he would someday come to America.

Pilgrim began racing his bike in England and it was apparent early on that he was a very talented racer. Pilgrim took his converted street bike to several regional championships and eventually, to a second place finish in the highly competitive British 500cc Production Championship.

In the early 1980s, Pilgrim had developed his skills in computer programming. He managed to earn enough money to make his move to America for the opportunity of a lifetime. American companies were hiring computer programmers from all over the globe to fill the growing demand. Pilgrim’s first American job was with General Motors working for the Pontiac Motor Division in Pontiac, Michigan. "The salary was $12,000 a year, which I though was a lot when I was in England," Pilgrim said with a grin.

After a year in Michigan, Pilgrim was able to land a job in El Paso, Texas. There, he was able to save enough money to finally build himself a race car. One of Pilgrim’s first races was in Riverside, California. Starting out on a strict budget, Pilgrim drove his race car from Texas to California to compete in Riverside. He would take part in the race knowing that if he wrecked his car on the night of the race, he would be taking the bus back home to Texas the next day.

Later, Pilgrim began autocrossing in a 1983 VW GTi and started professional road racing in 1984 in the IMSA Renault Cup, receiving rookie of the year honors in his first year.

Pilgrim continued to advance in his professional career as well. In 1989, he opened up his own information technology consulting firm called Electronic Computer Services, Inc., which today has over 100 employees.

In his racing career, Pilgrim has managed to advance quickly as well. Pilgrim has won five Championships and 61 races so far in his professional racing career. Over the last 15 years Pilgrim has been in the role of a factory driver racing BMWs and Porsches, then onto GM Racing in Corvettes, Pontiacs and Cadillacs. GM Racing would shut down its Cadillac racing program due to budget cuts at the end of 2008, but Pilgrim was quickly snatched up by Championship winning team, K-PAX Racing. In the late fall of 2010, GM Racing announced Cadillac's return to SCCA Pro Racing with the CTS-V Coupe, and Andy was promptly picked to join team mate Johnny O'Connell in the two car team effort.

When he is not racing or working in his IT consulting company, Pilgrim now spends his time teaching new drivers the importance of driving safely and the dangers of distracted driving. "It's my way of giving back," explains Pilgrim, who feels he has had a good life and wants to help teens stay safe on today's roads. Because of Pilgrim's vast experience in driving both personal and professional, he has the unique ability to teach safety skills and techniques that will help America’s teens stay safe on today’s roads. Pilgrim saw a need to help young people become better drivers. "Driving is the only thing you do on a daily basis that can kill you and others," said Pilgrim. For over 15 years Pilgrim has been teaching teens the importance of road safety and the dangers of distractions like using cell phones while driving.

In 2004, Pilgrim set out to create a video that could reach millions of teenagers. In 2003 Andy searched for sponsors to help create this video, however none actually took the challenge. Not to be deterred, Pilgrim funded the project himself with a little help from friends. Dale Earnhardt Jr. would eventually join the cause and helped create the video, The Driving Zone. Volvo and Ford would also join the project with cars to use in the making of the video. By 2004 The Driving Zone was finished, and over 40,000 free DVDs were given to new drivers across the U.S.

Also because he saw such great need for teen driving safety education, Pilgrim created the Andy Pilgrim Foundation in 2008, geared toward providing that needed education. The Andy Pilgrim Foundation's mission is to educate new street drivers. Pilgrim believes education can raise awareness of the deadly problems associated with distracted driving. Driving collisions and crashes are the number one killer of teenagers; there are over 6,000 traffic deaths and 500,000 serious injuries of 13 - 19 year olds that occur every year on US roads. The goal of the Andy Pilgrim Foundation is to help change these horrifying statistics for the better.

Pilgrim released the second edition of the DVD called The Driving Zone 2 in 2010. This DVD highlights the extreme dangers and pitfalls of using electronic devices to text and email while driving, while providing many useful tools used by professional and very experienced street drivers to enable them to stay collision free while driving. The DVD also has a section on adaptive driving equipment for people with disabilities.

Pilgrim's Racing Career

Residence: Boca Raton, Florida
Native of: Nottingham, England. U.S. citizen since 1998.

Occupation:

• Driver - Team Cadillac Racing CTS-V in SCCA World Challenge GT Series.
• Created Electronic Computer Services, Inc. (ECS) in Aventura, FL, in 1989.
• Came to US in 1982, worked as contract computer programmer for GM in Detroit.

61 Race Wins in 10 Pro series

5 Professional Championships:

• 2005 SCCA SPEED World Challenge GT
• 1998 IMSA Speedvision Cup Grand Sports
• 1997 IMSA Exxon GT1
• 1996 Brazilian GT2
• 1995 IMSA Speedvision Cup Grand Sports

Major Accomplishments:

• 3 wins - Rolex 24 At Daytona - 2004, 2002 and 1997
• 2 wins - Petit Le Mans - 2000 and 2001
• 1 win - 12 Hours of Sebring -1996
• 5 top 3 finishes - 24 Hours of Le Mans -1997-2000-01-02-03
• 4 wins - 12-hour and 24-hour Street Stock races at Mosport, Watkins Glen and Sebring

Racing World Record:

• Andy finished 116 consecutive IMSA races without a DNF between 7/19/92 and 9/19/98. In that span he won 25 races and three IMSA championships, with a 3.71 average finish.

Away From The Track:

• Andy has long worked with high school students in Florida’s Broward and Dade County Schools, teaching them survival skills for early years of highway driving.

Andy has a safe-driving DVD, “The Driving Zone. Essential Techniques For New Drivers,” with Dale Earnhardt Jr., and and a forthcoming sequel "The Driving Zone 2".

Andy Has Raced on 67 tracks:

• 29 U.S. permanent circuits
• 23 U.S. temporary street courses
• 15 circuits in Canada, Italy, Spain, England, France, Mexico, China and Brazil

On the Web:

• Andy Pilgrim's Website
• The Andy Pilgrim Foundation's Website
• The Driving Zone 2 Official Website