Cadillac Racing Heads to Historic Streets of Long Beach

LONG BEACH, Calif., April 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

• Cadillac drivers Johnny O'Connell sixth, Andy Pilgrim 11th in GT Series point standings
• Cadillac second in Manufacturer's points in GT Series

Cadillac Racing returns to competition Sunday at the historic Streets of Long Beach for the third round of the 2011 Sports Car Club of America World Challenge season.

Driver Johnny O'Connell is sixth in the World Challenge GT Series driver point standings with 157. O'Connell joined Cadillac Racing in 2011 following a Hall of Fame career in the American Le Mans Series that included three GT1 series championships.

Teammate Andy Pilgrim, who won Cadillac's first World Challenge Driver's Championship in 2005, is 11th with 125 points.

Cadillac returned to racing in March at the Streets of St. Petersburg. It was Cadillac's first race since 2007 and the debut of the CTS-V Coupe race car.

The double-header race weekend at the Streets of St. Petersburg featured Rounds 1-2 of the 2011 World Challenge season. O'Connell placed fourth and seventh and Pilgrim finished 11th and eighth to place Cadillac second in the Manufacturer's point standings in the World Challenge GT Series.

"Given the quick development time and consolidated testing schedule for our racing program, we were really happy with the results at St. Petersburg," said Jim Vurpillat, Cadillac global marketing manager. "We're excited to be back in Long Beach and look forward to competing on Sunday."

Race results and live streaming of the second race are available at www.world-challenge.com. Follow @Cadillac on Twitter for tweets during tomorrow's race. Updates from St. Petersburg also will be available on Cadillac's Facebook page.

The CTS-V Coupe race cars are based on the award-winning CTS-V Coupe production car, which is manufactured at GM's Lansing, Mich., Grand River assembly plant. It features Brembo brakes, a supercharged 6.2L V-8 delivering 556 horsepower and a Magnetic Ride Control suspension system that can read and react to the road 1,000 times a second.

With three separate classes of competition (GT, GTS and Touring Car), World Challenge is North America's top production car-based championship. World Challenge events are a maximum of 50 minutes start to finish, feature standing starts and involve the world's most popular manufacturers racing head-to-head.

About Cadillac

Cadillac has been a leading luxury auto brand since 1902. In recent years, Cadillac has engineered a historic renaissance led by artful engineering and advanced technology. More information on Cadillac can be found at media.cadillac.com.

SOURCE General Motors