In round 7 neither the No. 3 nor No. 8 Cadillac Racing entries made it to the podium, instead settling for fourth and eighth respectively. However, Round 8 yielded a podium for the No. 8 Cadillac Racing ATS-V.R of Michael Cooper and IMSA prototype ace, Jordan Taylor.
While neither car podiumed in round 7, both cars still had a solid finish in the points. The No. 3 of Johnny O’Connell and Jordan’s elder brother, Ricky Taylor, started fifth and moved up one position to finish in fourth. The No. 8 wasn’t as fortunate, starting in seventh and falling back to an eighth place finish. Round 7 ended with the Acura NSX GT3 of Peter Kox and Mark Wilkins taking the checkered flag, the Ferrari of Daniel Mancinelli and Niccolo Schiro taking second, and the Porsche 911 GT3 of Patrick Long and Jorg Bergmeister taking the final podium spot.
Round 8 of SprintX was an entirely different story for the No. 8 Cadillac of Cooper and Taylor. In the first, stint it looked as if it would be a repeat of the previous round as Taylor fell back into the pack far from a podium position initially. However, he was able to get into a rhythm and hold station until it was time to hand the car off to Cooper.
“I got out dragged at the start. We were starting behind some of the Pro/Am cars with the Pro drivers in them. They were taking some risks, so it didn’t make sense to battle them. Once we got through the first lap, I kind of settled in. Michael did a great job on the restarts to get us on the podium,” explained Taylor.
After Cooper got a hold of the car in the second half of the race, a series of full course cautions allowed him to make up a good amount of track position in the restarts and end the race with a third place podium. The No. 3 Cadillac lost ground but still scored well within the points, finishing fifth, just one position below their start position.
The No. 31 Ferrari 488 GT3 of Mancinelli and Schiro finished on the top step in round 8 with the No. 43 NSX GT3 of Ryan Eversley and Tom Dyer taking second. The No. 8 Cadillac of Cooper and Taylor still lead the Pirelli World Challenge SprintX GT Championship and the No. 3 Cadillac maintains a top 10 position.
Comment
Cadillac is spending a lot of money in their race program; but it’s still a wait and see situation as there are no Cadillac sports cars which integrate lessons learned on the track for the showrooms.