Corvettes Tread on Vipers at Road Atlanta,  Cadillacs Show Their Reliability

The dominance of the Vipers in the American LeMans Series has been withering away thanks to the vigorous effort of Corvette. The C5-R has not only been on pole in the last three races, it has given the fan some exciting moments of true race pleasure at each event. 

The number #3 Corvette driven by Andy Pilgrim made a calculated pass in the last few laps of the Petit LeMans race at Road Atlanta, passing the Viper and bringing home the win. The 1 & 3 finish was a blessing after 10 full hours of serious racing. Racerchicks.com was lucky enough to see first hand the energy GM Racing has devoted to this highly successful program.

Steve has his work cut out for him, about  60 tires were used during this 10 hour race

Although talent behind the wheel is important what has been seen in Atlanta is enthusiasm from all aspects of the team -- from the top corporate brass to the hospitality chef - this is indeed a first rate organization.

Cadillac ain't for the blue hair faint of heart - one look at the  prototype race car and any stereo-typed vision of the car being best suited for  "older" drivers - well that just flew out the window - at high speeds no  doubt! Only in its' fifth race so far, the two factory Cadillacs finished in the top eight. The use of technology has brought this team to the forefront -- remember the exciting Connected Car in-car virtual camera for the LeMans race where a  fan could not only see through the innovative night vision camera but  watch the telemetry as if one was the actual race car driver via the Internet. We know that this effort has been showing up in the street version of Cadillac's cars Night Vision, On-Star etc - safety features that other companies will be soon to  follow. This isn't new for Cadillac - looking back to the early 1900's the company was known for winning awards with its' ideas. It was Cadillac's push button starter that became the industry standard and eliminating injuries caused by hand cranking cars in those early days.

Looking back to LeMans France this year, the Cadillac STSi was the Official Pace Car. The concept car was specially designed to have the best active handling system available. The Continuously Variable Road Sensing Suspension (CVRSS) system is well known to be the research and development of what will go into the future Seville STS production car.

What is generally reviewed as a year for research and development has become a year of success for the GM racing program. The company is well known for its' NASCAR, off road and European Touring car successes and is now hitting the American LeMans series by storm. So has Corvette and Cadillac's racing program been successful - you can bet the farm on that it has and if it means our street cars will improve in performance, reliability and safety - thanks GM and everyone for the effort.