{"id":12522,"date":"2012-04-29T07:47:28","date_gmt":"2012-04-29T12:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/?p=12522"},"modified":"2012-04-29T07:47:28","modified_gmt":"2012-04-29T12:47:28","slug":"team-cadillac-finishes-second-fourth-in-grand-prix-of-utah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/team-cadillac-finishes-second-fourth-in-grand-prix-of-utah\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Cadillac Finishes Second, Fourth in Grand Prix of Utah"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<ul>\n<li>O\u2019Connell Leads Pilgrim in Driver Points After Four Races<\/li>\n<li>Cadillac Leads Manufacturer\u2019s Points Over Porsche<\/li>\n<li>O\u2019Connell Leads 10 laps, Pilgrim Nipped at End for Third<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>TOOELE, Utah \u00a0\u2013<\/strong> \u00a0For the first 10 laps of Saturday\u2019s PrivacyStar Utah Grand Prix, it appeared that Team Cadillac had a shot at a third victory in four races.<\/p>\n<p>But in the end, the team had to settle for second and fourth places, plus a solid points day toward the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.world-challenge.com\/\">Pirelli World Challenge Series<\/a> championships.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/media.gm.com\/content\/Pages\/news\/us\/en\/2012\/Apr\/cadillacracing31\/_jcr_content\/rightpar\/sectioncontainer\/par\/image_0.img.jpg\/1332269046466.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Team Cadillac CTS-V\" src=\"http:\/\/media.gm.com\/content\/Pages\/news\/us\/en\/2012\/Apr\/cadillacracing31\/_jcr_content\/rightpar\/sectioncontainer\/par\/image_0.img.jpg\/1332269046466.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"290\" height=\"166\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Johnny O\u2019Connell 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 <a href=\"http:\/\/media.cadillac.com\/\">Cadillac CTS-V Coupe<\/a> driven by O\u2019Connell led the way around the 3.048-mile Miller Motorsports Park course until Long got close enough to challenge.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a really good race with Patrick,\u201d O\u2019Connell said after the race was over. \u201cWith 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He did, but was not successful the first time he tried it. Long actually led Lap 7, but O\u2019Connell kept his foot in it and wound up keeping the top spot for another three laps.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe raced each other super clean, and I think the fans enjoyed watching that,\u201d O\u2019Connell said. \u201cI 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\u2026we were carrying a lot of weight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That weight, called REWARDS weight, came from O\u2019Connell winning at St. Petersburg to open the season and finishing second in the second race at St. Pete and third at Long Beach.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019Connell and Long.<\/p>\n<p>He made up a ton of time through the middle portion as O\u2019Connell and Long battled for the lead, his No. 8 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe shadowing his teammate and looking for opportunities to advance.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a good race,\u201d Pilgrim said of his battle with Skeen. \u201cI knew [Skeen] was coming; there was nothing I could do. He didn\u2019t have any weight on his car, and we know the Corvette is good. He was really good through the fast corners.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pilgrim got a touch loose on the next-to-last lap and Skeen pounced.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI got a big slide out of Turn 6 and it killed my momentum for that long straight up to Turn 7,\u201d he said. \u201cHe 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\u2019t have turned in, and if I had tried to go around the outside I would have just punched right off the track. There\u2019s a lot of stuff on that corner.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the day, O\u2019Connell was pragmatic about the result.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor me it was very difficult, watching my tires and saving some for the end,\u201d he said. \u201cRight 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Pilgrim, it was a good result, for the big picture, but not the one he was looking for on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t want top-five, but when you come into one of these races, you want to come away with top-five points if you\u2019re in the championship. That\u2019s all you want.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Long\u2019s Porsche beat O\u2019Connell 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.<\/p>\n<p>In the points, it was a banner day for Team Cadillac.\u00a0 O\u2019Connell now leads the World Challenge GT driver\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>In the Manufacturer\u2019s points, Cadillac leads Porsche by 2, 32-30, after four rounds.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/media.gm.com\/product\/public\/us\/en\/cadillacracing\/PressKits.html\">Cadillac Racing Media Kit<\/a> is now available online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>O\u2019Connell Leads Pilgrim in Driver Points After Four Races Cadillac Leads Manufacturer\u2019s Points Over Porsche O\u2019Connell Leads 10 laps, Pilgrim Nipped at End for Third TOOELE, Utah \u00a0\u2013 \u00a0For the first 10 laps of Saturday\u2019s PrivacyStar Utah Grand Prix, it &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/team-cadillac-finishes-second-fourth-in-grand-prix-of-utah\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[152,144],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cadillac-racing","category-cts-v-cadillac-models"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12522"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12525,"href":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12522\/revisions\/12525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.caddyinfo.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}