Homehttp://www.andypilgrim.com/home/en-US2012-02-23T22:02:29ZSquarespace Site Server v5.11.81 (http://www.squarespace.com/)2/23/2012 - Florida Needs an Anti-Texting Lawhttp://www.andypilgrim.com/home/2232012-florida-needs-an-anti-texting-law.htmlAndy Pilgrim2012-02-23T16:24:32ZI am a Florida registered voter and resident of Boca Raton. I am also an expert in driver education and have been a professional race driver for many years.

I was stunned to read recently, that certain Florida Legislators believe a law against Texting While Driving would be an unreasonable infringement of personal liberties to the texting drivers. I am wondering if those legislators drive on the same roads as the rest of us.

Every day in this country; texting drivers crash into other vehicles and grossly infringe on those innocent drivers personal liberties; by not allowing them to drive in safety.

Texting while driving has been fully researched and is known to be the leading cause of innumerable collisions and crashes on America’s roads. Texting drivers continuously run red lights they didn’t see, or rear end vehicles they didn't notice were slowing down, etc.

The main reason texting drivers crash into other vehicles and pedestrians is because their eyes are completely off the road ahead as they text and drive. Eyes off the road, for sometimes up to 5 or 6 seconds, is exactly what makes texting while driving stand out as the monster of distracted driving habits.

If any Florida Legislator thinks that it is ok for texting drivers to seriously injure and take away the lives of others, unchecked by sensible and reasoned laws, then they need to be out of public office.

Legislators; there are laws to stop a gun owner pointing their gun out of the window of a house, closing their eyes and pulling the trigger and I am sure you are ok with that particular infringement of personal liberties, because it makes perfect, reasonable sense. Are you seriously going to tell me that driving a 3,000 to 5,000lb vehicle at any speed on our roads with your eyes effectively closed (eyes down to text) is any different than irresponsible gun use? Of course not.

I would hate to think that some Legislators entrenched position on this texting while driving issue; is for any other reason than they are ill-informed. Florida needs its own version of an anti-texting law right now; that makes sense for our state.

I also read from the same Legislators, that they believe enforcement of texting while driving laws would be difficult. This is mentioned in the same places I read about infringement of public liberties, which strongly suggests they believe this to be another reason to not pass any texting law.

35 other States have seen fit to pass laws to help stop this deadly driving distraction. Police departments, Sheriff’s offices and Highway Patrols all over the US are coming up with very unique and imaginative ways to enforce these new laws. Difficulty in enforcement should never be a reason to stop laws that certainly save lives.

I have one last point to mention. I hear from many who say that if you ban texting and use of smart phones then where will it stop? Next they will ban eating in cars, changing the radio station and putting on make-up etc.

The one word to understand is “frequency”. Nobody takes an hour to put on some lip stick, comb their hair, or to eat a hamburger while driving; yet smart phone use, checking emails and texting while driving, can go on for hours. There is no comparison, they are all driving distractions, but the amount of time spent on phones is enormous and research has shown that texting is currently the biggest factor in needless driving related collisions, crashes, injuries and fatalities.

If any elected official continues to stop and entangle reasonable legislation on the texting while driving problem; then I hope each of you takes full responsibility for every texting driver in Florida, who will continue to text while driving, with complete immunity. It doesn’t really help to prosecute someone after the texting driver kills someone, now does it Legislators?

Sincerely, concerned road user
Andy Pilgrim

]]>2/3/2012 - Offseason? What Offseason!http://www.andypilgrim.com/home/232012-offseason-what-offseason.htmlAndy Pilgrim2012-02-03T17:43:05ZI want to wish a Happy New Year to all Pirelli World Challenge fans. My hope is that we can all really enjoy the few remaining months we have left in the land of the living, because according to the Mayans, we’re all done on December 21, 2012.

Well, the good old Mayans were obviously race fans as they have given us plenty of time to get the whole 2012 racing season in, brilliant! So we’re not going to worry about December and move along with a great Pirelli World Challenge season.

I recently received an email from Dave Drimmie, VP, Marketing & Communications for the series. He emailed me, asking if I had been doing anything in the offseason and whether I might like to write about it.

After I stopped rolling around on the floor laughing hysterically, I had to write back and explain there was no offseason. As much as I dream of basking on a desert island somewhere in the Caribbean until putting on my helmet again, it errrr, doesn’t quite work out that way. I know that most of the drivers reading this are in the same boat.

Whether it’s finding sponsors, dealing with businesses or reattaching to families, most of us have a bunch of stuff to do in the “offseason”.

My next question to Dave was this. Did he really think that what I have to say or had been doing during my offseason would be of any interest to fans anyway? He said please go away and just write, so here I am.

I’ve had a bit of a think and will try to give a little window into what I have been up to since last October, when and what things have peaked my interest.

We ended the 2011 Pirelli World Challenge season at Road Atlanta where Team Cadillac had a great first and third finish in our CTS-V Coupe racecars. Not content with that great result and always wanting to improve, the whole team went back to test at Road Atlanta a few weeks after the race. After a good test and making some little improvements we were informed that the series would NOT be back to Road Atlanta in 2012, greeeeat!

Team Cadillac had one more test before Thanksgiving at Sebring, on the short track there. This was a two-day test. Again, we made some little improvements on this completely different type of race track to Road Atlanta.

Most testing with street-based racecars revolves around trying to make the very best of what you have. There is no street car in the world that doesn’t have areas that need improvement when you make it into a racecar. One of the areas we have to work around on our Cadillac is wheel base. Our Cadillac racecar has a long wheelbase compared to other cars in the Pirelli World Challenge series. This longer wheelbase works well on fast tracks but is not so great on mid-speed tracks and in the tight turns of street courses. Our CTS-V Coupe racecar has the same wheelbase as the street car, which is exactly how the rules say it should be for the Pirelli World Challenge series.

A lot of our testing revolves around handling and set up. We are always trying to make the car handle better on mid-speed and tighter racetracks. Just like all other pro race teams, we look for ways to help us close the gap on our competitors. In Pirelli World Challenge GT that would mainly be teams running the Corvette, Porsche, Volvo and Dodge Viper. All those competitor cars have shorter wheelbases than the Cadillac.

What our longer wheel base means in real race/handling terms is this. It can take a fraction longer for us to turn into these slower types of corners, as the longer wheel base can give us a little more under steer. So, we are always looking for ways to help this during our testing. With racing at the professional level, little improvements are all you can expect and you are happy to get them. Of course, all the different types of cars in the series have their own strengths and weaknesses for the teams to work on; it all evens out in the end.

Another part of my time in the last few months has been spent going back and forth to the UK.

My dad passed away about six years ago and I fly over to the UK to see my mum as often as I can, usually about every six weeks or so. I have been over to the UK three times since we ended the season last October. Sadly, mum completely lost her eyesight about eight months ago. Happily, she has a ton of friends in the UK. She has never wanted to come to live in the US, but has been here to visit numerous times and loves it. Luckily I have people to take care of her in her own home 24/7, which gives me a lot of comfort seeing as I live so far away.

Those who know me well understand my love of motorcycles. I subscribe to several UK motorcycle magazines and love reading them. The UK mags don’t pull any punches and if they don’t like a product, look out! I really like the writing and the raw honesty.

I used to race motorcycles in the UK. In fact it was the first kind of racing I ever did. When I first had a job and an income as a computer programmer, I bribed my friends with any kind of transport, to take me and my motorcycle to the race track.

The bike I first raced was an old, second hand, 1972 Kawasaki 500 H1B production bike. That bike is well known as having lousy brakes, the handling of a snake on greased ice and way too much power from its 2 stroke triple 500cc engine. Hanging on to that bike while road racing it, was like hanging on the back of a Gorilla on crack, I loved it! Not very bright, huh?

Road racing a motorcycle is an incredibly dangerous sport. It was even more dangerous back in the ‘80s in the UK. Many of the tracks did not have any barriers, which meant if you went off track you hit trees or earth banks. Some of the tracks had Armco barriers which are deadly to motorcycle riders as they are designed for cars and trucks. If any of you have an interest, you can still see one of the most dangerous tracks I raced on by going to YouTube and searching for Oliver’s Mount road racing.

There are a bunch of tracks in Ireland, the Isle of Man and in the UK that qualify as real road race courses. They are public roads! The Isle of Man is the most famous. I am sure many race fans have seen videos from there. Sadly, two of my friends died at “The Island” on the same lap in 1989 in separate crashes. One lap of “The Island” road course is 37 miles if you can believe. Speeds there now average over 130 mph per lap for the quickest guys, with top speeds frequently over 190 mph, on a motorcycle, running inches from stone walls, curbs and houses. These are hard men and I salute them.

Yesterday I was reading about the Macau GP which has been held in November for years on the Portuguese island province of Macau, which is near Hong Kong. Most people know the Macau GP as a car race, but they also have a major motorcycle race there during the weekend. The Macau GP track looks very similar to the Long Beach GP track we have in the States. Concrete and Armco is everywhere, there’s no grass or open exit run off areas. It might be ok for a car to run into a tire wall at 100 mph, but not a human being.

Last November, the Macau GP was plagued by typhoon rain so the Thursday and Friday practice sessions were washed out. The Saturday race time slot was turned into a practice and qualifying session. The car GP came before the bike GP on the Sunday schedule.

During the car race there were two massive crashes that left oil all over Lisboa corner and the terrifying 170 mph Mandarin corner. The organizers gave the motorcycle riders the option to cancel their race due to the dusty and oily track conditions if they decided it was too unsafe to race. The riders all did a slow sighting lap and only one decided not to run – amazing.

One of the riders in the Macau GP hails from the UK; his name is John Hutchinson. John almost lost a leg in a crash one year ago at Silverstone. Due to the severities of his injury, Macau was his first chance to race in a whole year. When asked what he was thinking by making his comeback at the deadly Macau track he replied he was just itching to get back on a bike and he didn’t care where he raced!

Because John’s leg still wasn’t working correctly, he had to modify the gear shift on his race bike from the left side to right side of the bike. I about lost it when I read that. I know how hard it is to do that as I did it years ago when racing during one weekend. One wrong gear shift and you can be on the ground in a split second, just amazing. Oh, and John finished on the podium in 3rd place. Hard men indeed!

After the racing world tragically lost Dan Wheldon in October, 2011, we all had pause to think. Many questioning articles were written by people both inside and outside the racing world.

While reading one of these articles, I was reminded of something I had read months before; it had been written by Guy Martin. Guy writes in various magazines in the UK. He is also a very good professional motorcycle racer in his own right. Guy had written about a friend of his, who had died in a racing incident.

I believe many people have little understanding about how racers think. Guy put his thoughts in very blunt, honest terms. I believe his words will resonate with other racers and maybe shed a little light for race fans and people outside the racing world about how, many of us racers actually think.

These are the words Guy wrote in his column last year: A mate of mine, Victor Gilmore died at the races at Killalane (Ireland). I read the text message and I didn’t even flinch, even though I’d call him a mate. I’m not being heartless, what I mean is it didn’t make me think about my own mortality or about how hard I’ll ride in my next race. I just thought “damn it”. Bloody nice guy he was. He was a legend. One of the most hardcore road racers out there. He might not have won many races, but he was always up there. It’s a @&%$ing dangerous sport we’re in. It happens. Get on with it.

Rest in peace Dan Wheldon and rest in peace Victor Gilmore.

The first race for Pirelli World Challenge will be in the Streets of St. Petersburg, Florida. I am so excited for the 2012 season and not just because of the Mayans. I think the Pirelli World Challenge series is one of the most exciting racing series in the world and I’m always anxious to see which new teams and drivers show up for the new year.

The first race of the season always brings the chance to catch up with my racing buddies AND the race fans.

Team Cadillac will probably do one more test before St. Pete which I am looking forward to.

As for my other off season duties, some of them revolve around my computer consulting company. The company is still going strong after 22 years. Luckily I have four wonderful key employees to help me run that business; so I can take more time for my foundation.

Speaking of my foundation. Most of my day-to-day time during the ‘off season’, or any non-racing time during the year for that matter, is spent trying to raise money for my foundation DVD projects. Raising money for a foundation is a lot like banging your head against a wall. I know all people looking for race sponsors totally understand.

I think that about sums up most of my off season and some not so random thoughts added on for good measure. Thanks to all of you who got this far. I hope you had a good read, a couple of laughs, a bit of a think and learned a little. I can’t wait to see everyone at our race in few weeks in St. Pete. Roll on Rounds 1 and 2 of the Pirelli World Challenge, March 23-25th, 2012. Take care all.

]]>1/4/2012 - The Next Step - Distracted Drivinghttp://www.andypilgrim.com/home/142012-the-next-step-distracted-driving.htmlAndy Pilgrim2012-01-04T16:10:04ZCheck out Aaron Povoledo's article on Andy from the latest edition of PRN magazine, Canada's premier Auto Racing magazine.

http://www.prnmag.com/next-step/791-the-next-step.html

]]>10/25/2011 - Looking Back on a Great Season with Cadillachttp://www.andypilgrim.com/home/10252011-looking-back-on-a-great-season-with-cadillac.htmlAndy Pilgrim2011-10-25T12:42:40ZReposted from the SCCA Pro Racing World Challenge Website:

It was just a couple of days earlier in October after being in Las Vegas for the Cadillac Dealer show when I got a call from John Kraemer, GM Marketing Manager for Cadillac’s race team.

John asked me if I could write a story about the race season as a wrap up, now that the season had finished. Our last race had been a few days earlier at Road Atlanta, with our best results of the year. My teammate Johnny O’Connell won the race and I stood with him on the podium in third. It was a fabulous end to the 2011 Pirelli World Challenge race season for the Cadillac Racing team.

Then I got a call from Dave Drimmie of Pirelli World Challenge fame, asking for a recap, so of course I’m thinking two for one recap, perfect.

Oh, then Mr. Drimmie tells me he wanted some different perspectives about the season. Great! So in fact this article is quite a bit different; so much for me using one article. Best laid plans of mice and blah, blah, blah.

As I do when given a writing task, I asked how many words people need me to write. That’s what we writers do, we ask things like that. I jest – I really don’t consider myself a writer but I do get to write quite a lot these days. I ask how many words as I sometimes get carried away, sorry Dave! Experience has taught me to ask up front, as opposed to carving the article up later. The older I get, the smarter I know I used to think I was, or something like that.

Before I go any further, I want to give credit to the 2011 Pirelli World Challenge Champions … in GT Patrick Long in his TruSpeed/Privacy Star/EnTrust Porsche 911 GT3, in GTS Paul Brown in his Lucas Oil/K&N Filter/Luminox Ford Mustang Boss 302S and in TC Lawson Aschenbach in his Compass 360 Racing Honda Civic Si. Congratulations to all three of them and their teams. It is incredibly difficult to win Championships and all three drivers did a superb job of running hard when they could and keeping things on track to get the best result they could, when a win wasn’t in the cards. That’s how you win Championships. Well done all.

Throughout the season we’ve posted write up’s for the In the Driver’s Seat section about individual races so I will give the season recap as an overview from a different perspective. I hope you find this different perspective interesting.

The 2011 race season with Cadillac has been a great one. Personally, I would have liked to get a win or two, but finishing up with a couple of podiums in the last three races certainly helped end the season on the right note.

I have been lucky enough to be a professional race driver on many factory and factory-assisted teams. I even ran with General Motors in the Corvette and Cadillac teams from 1999 to 2008. But this year was different, I mean really different.

It all started for me with a phone call from Mark Kent around November last year. Mark is the head of GM Racing. Mark asked me if I was signed up with any race teams for 2011 and I told him no.

I was in negotiation with another factory-supported team and of course I told Mark this. He told me he would get back to me within two weeks and that I was in the running for a position with the NEW Cadillac Pirelli World Challenge race team. I was more than a little excited and nervous, wondering if I would get the call back.

Luckily for me, Mark contacted me within a few days and offered me the job. This was really good as I only had a week’s supply of Pepto-Bismol left over. His phone call started a train running that has not even slightly slowed down as I write this, almost a year later.

Within minutes of me putting down the phone with Mark, I got a call from Gary Pratt of Pratt and Miller Engineering. Gary and Jim Miller are the owners of Pratt and Miller Engineering and I have worked with them with all my GM racing involvement since 1999.

In his inimitable way, Gary said congratulations, welcome back and what are you doing for the next couple of days in the same sentence. It quickly became obvious that time was of the essence.

I was molded into the seat for my new No. 8 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe race car within 48 hours of getting the call and informed that the first test would be very soon. Well, as soon as they had finished building the car that is. My car was the first one finished so that was the first car we tested. My new teammate Johnny O’Connell’s car was a week or so behind mine in the build process. The excitement about the coming season really kicked up when I found out my old teammate from Corvette racing and I were partnering up again.

We first ran the new race car down in Sebring. We broke some parts we couldn’t replace with only an hour or so of track time on the car. This was not a bad test. Anytime you learn from breaking things and don’t crash the car, it’s not a bad day of testing. Of course we had hoped to run longer but we would be back at Sebring again very soon, it was now after Thanksgiving 2010.

The reason the testing was going quickly was because we had precious little time. The program was authorized by GM very late relative to making the first race of 2011. The first race being in late March 2011 on the St Petersburg, FL street course.

The cars had to be completed from scratch very quickly. There were now only about 12 weeks before the first race. As anyone in racing will tell you, there are very few racing and engineering entities that would even attempt this. Pratt and Miller are one of the very few organizations who could pull this off.

The second test at Sebring told us we had a reliable car and also a car that we felt could be competitive.

In testing I was personally very happy to be on the new-for-2011 Pirelli racing tires. These tires were going to be significantly faster than the Toyo street tires that were the spec tire of World Challenge for years.

Johnny and I were excited to get the season going and our feeling that we had a competitive car made things even better. Things were about to change.

After the second Sebring test Pratt & Miller got a phone call. The Series' Technical department contacted our team manager Steve Cole. They informed Steve that our Cadillac’s would receive 100lbs of extra weight and use a restrictor that capped our horsepower around 470.

This was a massive change. We were talking way more than a second a lap, possibly as much as two seconds on tracks with long straights. What the series’ technical department didn't want to do was alienate the other GT teams with Cadillac possibly having an over-dog car, so TC Kline (Pirelli World Challenge Competition Director) and his team decided to bring the No. 3 and 8 cars up to speed slowly to insure they didn't have an unfair advantage.

This move by the technical department was understandable to some degree, I didn’t agree with it, but I did understand it. A factory team coming into a series where mostly privately sponsored teams run can certainly cause alarm.

Many times in professional racing series, I have seen the entry of two- or four-factory cars cause a mass exodus of private teams within a couple of seasons. The reason the private teams leave is because they really cannot compete against factory team budgets. In order to stop any mass exodus the sanctioning body needs to be tough and the series’ technical staff were up to the task.

I imagine the new restrictions were also there to make sure there was no repeat of 2004. The original Cadillac race team first entered the World Challenge in 2004. In that first Sebring race in 2004, Max Angelelli and I finished 1, 2 for Team Cadillac. In that race I had come from the back of the grid and made up 40 seconds on the leaders through the race to finish second behind my teammate Max. The series was NOT going to let something like that happen again and again, I understood it.

This decision to add weight and take away power before the start of the first race weekend shaped our Cadillac season from start to finish.

From the first race in St. Petersburg to the final race in Atlanta the technical staff made adjustments to most cars along the way, our Cadillac’s included. It is no easy task to keep so many cars and classes at a competitive level. Thank you to TC Kline for your incredible patience and skill in the face of such incredible odds and childish behavior.

As a driver it’s always frustrating to know you cannot compete up front but along the way I had some fun and exciting races wherever I was in the pack. Johnny O’ had a really good season managing to squeeze out another win along the way at Mid-Ohio, finishing up the season 2nd in the GT Drivers’ Championship.

TC and his team gave us a final little restrictor increase before Round 12 at Road Atlanta, realizing we were still not capable of running out front in our Cadillacs.

Some racecars are better suited for some tracks. Road Atlanta is a Cadillac track. Every year that Cadillac has run at Road Atlanta in the World Challenge series, we have won. 2011 was no different. Johnny qualified on the pole position and led every lap. I had a great race coming from 7th at the first corner to finishing 3rd by the end; it was indeed, a great end to the season for our Cadillac race team.

I have driven for many different manufacturers over my years in professional racing. I have been lucky enough to win Championships with four different manufacturers out of my five championship total, which is quite unusual. I want to say that this year I saw some amazing determination and plain old hard work from the Cadillac team.

The crew and engineers got down to work from the minute they knew this race program was a go. Our team has a great manager in Pratt and Miller’s, Steve Cole. Steve gets a ton of respect for his engineering brilliance but he is also a great motivator and extremely passionate about his mission.

Having raced for two different teams the last two seasons, I really think the Cadillac Racing and K-Pax Volvo guys were all cloned from some planet where nobody ever sleeps.

I know that many other teams have similar stories of crew endurance. I want to give a big shout out to ALL the crew people who work on the Pirelli World Challenge racecars. I want to say a sincere thank you to each and every crew and a thank you also to their families for supporting the work that they do.

Also on a positive note, I want to mention something else. I already mentioned earlier that a factory team coming into a series can cause alarm in many privately-sponsored teams.

There is something else that a factory team brings to the series that, in fact, can help everybody and that is visibility. Cadillac marketed the heck out of their involvement in the Pirelli World Challenge series this year.

Cadillac sponsored several of our races which of course helps everyone. Also, the fact that another major manufacturer is in the series can be leveraged by all the teams as they look for sponsorship. This is a very good thing.

The Cadillac Marketing team members were one of our biggest cheering sections. At some races we had an extra 30 people just doing giveaways. It was truly amazing, at several races we gave away over 6,000 Cadillac Racing t-shirts.

It was just awesome as a driver to be a solid part of the Cadillac marketing effort. Johnny and I saw our racing efforts used to entice and excite Cadillac customers all over the US. When this year is over, Johnny and I will have done over 40 marketing days extra to our racing days. I have never done this many pure marketing days for a manufacturer in all my years of racing.

Cadillac has always been the standard of the world in luxury and engineering excellence. In my humble opinion, if Cadillac continues this leading edge marketing effort into 2012; then the Marketing team can start talking about standard of the racing world also.

I cannot end the year without saying a huge thank you to both WC Vision and SCCA Pro Racing for continuing to make the series stronger and more viable for the future. It is pleasure for me to run in the Pirelli World Challenge Championships.

I want to say a huge thank you to the fantastic volunteer corner workers and medical staff who help to keep us safe out on track. Thanks for all you do for us and I hope all of you have a great holiday season.

Finally and most importantly in many ways, thank you to all the great race fans who came to see us run during our 2011 Pirelli World Challenge season. Pirelli World Challenge fans are some of the most knowledgeable and enthusiastic in all of racing. See you all next year.

Bring on 2012, I can’t wait.

]]>10/5/2011 - Andy Captures a Podium Spot at Road Atlanta - See How It's Donehttp://www.andypilgrim.com/home/1052011-andy-captures-a-podium-spot-at-road-atlanta-see-how.htmlAndy Pilgrim2011-10-05T16:45:55ZRide along once again with Andy and Johnny as they take a 500-horsepower ride around Road Atlanta.

]]>9/22/2011 - Around Laguna Seca with Andy and Johnnyhttp://www.andypilgrim.com/home/9222011-around-laguna-seca-with-andy-and-johnny.htmlAndy Pilgrim2011-09-22T11:42:51ZTake a ride around Laguna Seca with Andy Pilgrim and Johnny O'Connell:

]]>9/9/2011 - Countdown to the 50th Anniversary Rolex 24 at Daytona #5: Dale Earnhardt and Corvettehttp://www.andypilgrim.com/home/992011-countdown-to-the-50th-anniversary-rolex-24-at-daytona.htmlAndy Pilgrim2011-09-09T17:22:59ZReprinted from RACER Magazine.

The 2012 Rolex 24 at Daytona, Jan. 28-29, marks a half-century of top-level sports car racing on the high banks and twisting infield of Daytona International Speedway. We're counting down to that milestone with a series of stories looking at some of the drivers, marques and stories that have shaped those 50 years. This week, some bittersweet memories of a stock-car-racing legend's Rolex 24 debut.

“The Intimidator” takes on the Rolex 24

Ask anyone at Corvette Racing for a favorite memory from the 2001 Rolex 24 at Daytona and you may not get the answer you were expecting.

Sure, it was the year Chevrolet's GTS class contender outlasted the prototypes at Daytona International Speedway to notch up an unexpected outright victory in the 'round-the-clock classic, but the sight of the No. 2 Corvette C5-R taking the checkered flag might not be the magic moment they'd choose. Instead, they're just as likely to want to talk about working with a motorsport legend – namely Dale “The Intimidator” Earnhardt.

In early February, the seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion and his son, Dale Jr., took time out from their preparations for the long and grueling NASCAR season ahead to race in the 24 Hours. They made their mark out on the track, finishing fourth overall and second in class together with Andy Pilgrim and Kelly Collins, but they also left an indelible impression on every team member. Those memories became all the more poignant after Earnhardt Sr. was snatched away on the final lap of the Daytona 500, just two weeks after the 24 Hours.

Doug Fehan, longtime program manager at Corvette Racing, describes working with Earnhardt Sr. as “one of the most memorable experiences of my career.” He's quick to add that he's not talking about “Earnhardt the legend, but Earnhardt the man.”

Pilgrim, who, despite his dislike of the description, acted as a kind of road racing mentor to the Earnhardts, echoes Fehan's words.

“The Intimidator was just his racetrack persona,” he says. “The real Dale was a kind-hearted person who genuinely cared about people.”

Pilgrim was Earnhardt's choice of teammate for the 24 Hours, though the first the U.S.-based Brit knew about it was when he received a letter from the great man. Earnhardt didn't know Pilgrim personally, but he knew a little bit about his driving, having seen his already famous last-lap pass on Tommy Archer's Dodge Viper to secure class honors at Petit Le Mans the previous September.

“Dale sent me a letter after Petit,” explains Pilgrim. “It basically said, ‘Hi, Dale Earnhardt here. Man, that was some pass you pulled on the Viper. That move is exactly why I want you to be my teammate at next year's 24 Hours. You obviously know how to rub paint, so I can't teach you that, but you've got to teach me to drive the Corvette. Sincerely, Dale Earnhardt.'”

Pilgrim admits that he hadn't been aware the Earnhardts were being lined up for the 24 Hours. There were rumors, however, because the plan had been a year in the making.

"It was one of those things that just bubbled up," explains Fehan. "He had noticed what we were doing with the Corvette [the C5-R began racing in 1999] and expressed an interest in the program. Gary Claudio was motorsport marketing manager for Corvette; he took the idea and ran with it."

The original idea had been for the Earnhardts to contest Daytona the previous year, but that plan fell through for two reasons.

"He needed a small surgical procedure on a vertebra,” says Fehan. “He was also very aware that it was Junior's first year in Cup and he didn't need any extra distractions, so the idea went on hold.”

Earnhardt had done it all in his stock car career, but as far as sports car racing went, he was a rookie and happy to admit it. That explains the letter to Pilgrim: He wanted to soak up as much information about the Corvette and the road course at the Daytona International Speedway as possible.

“He would say, ‘If there's anything you think I need to know, please tell me,'” recalls Pilgrim. “I was impressed at how hard he listened. It wasn't so much coaching, as giving him information that he didn't have.”

Earnhardt famously asked for some of that during the night of the race. He'd just taken over the car in heavy rain and called for Pilgrim on the radio. It was a moment that was captured for posterity on the TV broadcast.

“He was just looking for information,” explains Pilgrim, “so I just told him where the slippery bits were and what I was using for braking points.”

The result was that Earnhardt Sr. in the No. 3 'Vette (it had to be No. 3, of course) was able to match Johnny O'Connell aboard the No. 2 machine that went on to win the race.

“Dale was fantastic in the wet,” recalls Pilgrim. “It was more familiar to him because he didn't have the downforce and didn't have to use the brakes so hard. It was much more like driving a Cup car.”

There was no fairy-tale ending to the Earnhardts' debut in the 24 Hours. The sister Corvette, which O'Connell shared with Ron Fellows, Chris Kneifel and Franck Freon, was the faster of the two cars, but it was also the one that had the clean run. The No. 3 car lost time during the night with a halfshaft failure.

Not that it dampened Earnhardt Sr.'s enthusiasm for sports car racing. On the way home from the race, he was already discussing with right-hand man Steve Crisp about doing the Le Mans 24 Hours, possibly as early as 2002.

“Dale got a taste for sports car racing,” says Fehan. “After he was done with NASCAR, he was going to do sports cars with Dale Earnhardt Incorporated, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans would definitely have been an element of that.”

]]>8/28/2011 - Pilgrim Earns His First ’11 Podium for Team Cadillac in Cadillac Grand Prix of Sonoma.http://www.andypilgrim.com/home/8282011-pilgrim-earns-his-first-11-podium-for-team-cadillac.htmlAndy Pilgrim2011-08-29T20:23:42ZSonoma, CA - Andy Pilgrim started Sunday’s Round 10 of the Pirelli World Challenge in second place, and after 27 laps of hard racing, finished there behind race winner and polesitter Patrick Long.

The issue was in doubt for the final 10 laps, however, as Pilgrim closed his Cadillac CTS-V

Coupe hard on the rear deck of Long’s car on several occasions. In the end, Long held him off by 1.586 seconds.

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

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

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

It was the first podium for Pilgrim this season, though he has amassed six top-five and nine top-10 finishes in the 10 races.

“It’s good for my guys,” Pilgrim said with a smile. “They’ve really worked hard this year and we’ve had a lot of great finishes. I’m sorry I couldn’t get the win, but the podium is the podium.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

]]>8/26/2011 - Win a Free Cadillac V-Serieshttp://www.andypilgrim.com/home/8262011-win-a-free-cadillac-v-series.htmlAndy Pilgrim2011-08-26T17:11:10ZToday Cadillac launched a V Series / Racing on-line promotion that we call the Cadillac Performance Drive. It was developed to provide driving enthusiasts an opportunity to learn a little more about what makes a V Series Vehicle a "V", while also providing an opportunity for them to enter to win their choice of one of the fastest family of vehicles...a CTS V Coupe, Sedan or Wagon and a day of driving at Monticello Motor Club's High Performance Driving Experience in Monticello, New York.

Consumers can learn more about V Series, Cadillac Racing and ENTER the promotion by visiting cadillacperformancedrive.com, now through October 31st, 2011.

]]>8/19/2011 - Strapped into a 500 Horsepower Rocket!http://www.andypilgrim.com/home/8192011-strapped-into-a-500-horsepower-rocket.htmlAndy Pilgrim2011-08-19T11:50:25ZBy 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.

]]>