First Win for Cadillac ATS-V.R at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park

[Bruce Nunnally]

OWMANVILLE, Ontario, Canada – Cadillac Racing driver Johnny O’Connell drove his No. 3 Cadillac ATS-V.R to the win in this afternoon’s Pirelli World Challenge Series race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Teammate Andy Pilgrim was classified in 25^th.

Johnny O’Connell (Flowery Branch, Ga.) drove the all-new No. 3 Cadillac ATS-V.R to its first win from pole position. The officials decided that the first race would have a rolling start as opposed to the series’ more traditional standing start. The Georgia based driver had to stave off the field for three restarts over the 50-minute race period to secure the win. The final restart was a one lap dash to the checkered flag. The win is O’Connell’s eighth at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park and his 55^th as a GM driver.

“All of the drivers in the series are strong right now. Everyone is super tight,” O’Connell said. “I had to hold them off for a couple of restarts. On the final one, Kevin Estre in the McLaren and Butch Leitzinger in the Bentley were side-by-side, so that made it a little easier to get away. It was a tight race. It is nice to get a first win for a new car. The ATS-V.R, like the street car, is very athletic and we showed some of that today. Tomorrow I will start from the pole, but we are doing a standing start. If I can get a good launch at the start I think we have the hot rod to add another trophy to the case.”

Teammate Andy Pilgrim (Boca Raton, Fla.) had some tough luck at the start with shifting issues on the pace lap. The problem forced him to park his No. 8 Cadillac ATS-V.R on lap two.

“Great win for Johnny and the team,” Pilgrim said. “I noticed the car was having some shifting problems on the pace lap. It would get stuck in second and then third. On the first restart it wouldn’t go into gear and I lost drive. The Cadillac Racing guys will have me back on the grid tomorrow and I will have to move-up from the back of the field.”

Race two of the Pirelli World Challenge Series weekend from Canadian Tire Motorsports Park will be run tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. ET. The races will be televised on CBS Sports Network Sunday, May 24 at 5 p.m. ET. Live streaming is available at world-challengetv.com.

[Cadillac Jim]

Winnig from the pole! The choice of the ATS-V for the Pirelli World Championship GT3 class is vindicated - and early in the series.

[Bruce Nunnally]

Sunday afternoon race viewable here live:

http://www.world-challengetv.com/#/races/1288

[Cadillac Jim]

O'Connell won the second race, with a Bentley GT3 half a second behind him.

Interesting highlight - the ATS-V GT3.R cleanly out-accelerated all the other cars at the start, which removed all doubt that 4WD is a bad idea for the track at the higher performance levels. Volvo won 1-2 at Detroit, a tight, low-speed course, in 2014 with 4WD before the Pirelli World Championship Series opened up the rules to the GT3 cars and left the GT class to full GT3 cars like Ferraris and such; Cadillac was the only mass-produced, readily available marque that sells comparable cars for under $100K that stayed with the GT3 boys.

Pilgrim went out after 18 laps. Race note was that his car was streaming heavy smoke on lap 17.

Race synopsis, including the other classes:

http://www.world-challengetv.com/#/news/1

Page with schedule and all the race results linked:

http://www.world-challenge.com/index.php?option=com_drivers&view=event&id=60&Itemid=216

Results fore the second GT race (PDF file):

http://www.world-challenge.com/images/events/15-CTMPRND9GTA.PDF

Season points to date for drivers and marques:

http://www.world-challenge.com/index.php?option=com_drivers&view=point&Itemid=160

O'Connell and Cadillac are third because of teething problems with the new cars. They are on track to take both titles again for 2015.

[Bruce Nunnally]

JO notes from Belle Isle 1:

Very early in the race while running third behind the Ferrari and McLaren, Nick Catsburg slammed his Lamborghini into the back of me in the middle of a corner and just about wrecked me twice within 50 yards.

Data showed the hit was 2.5 g’s. What he was thinking? I have no idea. The hit sent us back to sixth and I was able to crawl back to fourth. Extremely disappointed for sure.

http://sportscar365.com/features/commentary/oconnell-detroit-debrief-2/

[Cadillac Jim]

If the officials saw and understood that, perhaps Catsburg and his Lamborghini would have been black-flagged.