Cadillac CTS-V Coupe Race Cars Head to Long Beach

The Streets of Long Beach will be hosting the third round of the 2011 Sports Car Club of America World Challenge season, and Cadillac Racing will be present. The team 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.

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.

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.

The CTS-V Coupe race cars are based on the CTS-V Coupe production car, which is manufactured at GM's Lansing, Mich., Grand River assembly plant. It features Brembo brakes, a supercharged 6.2-liter 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.

"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."

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.