Johnny O’Connell Wins At Laguna Seca For Cadillac Racing
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Cadillac Racing’s Johnny O’Connell won Sunday’s Pirelli World Challenge Championship GT race from Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca after a heated battle with Porsche driver Patrick Long.
O’Connell, a four-time PWC GT class champion, started from pole for Sunday’s race. He controlled the race for much of its duration, but he wasn’t without pressure from Long.
Following a Lap 27 restart, Long attempted to pass O’Connell for the lead on the outside of turn four. O’Connell, hungry for a win, didn’t concede to Long and his Porsche 911 ended up going off track and into the gravel.
O’Connell held onto the lead but soon had the always quick McLaren 650S of Alvaro Parente in his mirrors. The veteran race managed to old off Parente for the win, while his Cadillac Racing teammate Michael Cooper crossed the finish line behind the McLaren in third.
Parente’s second place result gave him enough points to win the PWC Driver’s championship over O’Connell and Long. Cadillac finished second in the team championship to the K-Pax McLaren squad.
Click here for full PWC results from Laguna Seca.
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So I understand that these are purpose built racing cars and use as much of the stock cars architecture as required as a jumping off point but I was still struck by this from the post: Cadillac beat a McLaren and a Porsche to win the race… I’m confused as to why with the financial commitment and effort involved that Cadillac doesn’t use more of the fact that it beat two cars with nothing but a racing heritage to help elevate and position the brand.
I agree that Cadillac should be using more of this information in its branding. That would help reinforce the fact that Cadillac is making world class autos.
This info is being used much. They have used it in print advertising, they have used on the web site with a large tab for V series and racing.
At the track they have been doing a large hospitality area and spectator marketing area with simulators.
The drivers have been top notch as they are often available and even will hang out. We met O Connell two years ago and he hung out with us for about 30 minutes talking racing.
I know the two years I was at the races for this series they were giving away Cadillac Racing Shirts.
http://www.cadillac.com/v-series/racing.html?&ppc=GOOGLE_700000001298428_71700000013724585_58700001098844105_p9952681523&gclid=CL6g5qGq088CFQpahgod8EkJ1w
The greatest issue is that this series is struggling to get seen on TV. Road racing is a hard sell and with the decline in all racing ratings it is even tougher.
For what it is worth this is a small program and is getting a good return on the dollar spent. I expect Cadillac to expand things in the future once they get the new product in place.
Lets face it even the Corvette have done well in a much higher cost series but yet you see little about them unless you go looking for it.
Cadillac is at least known in the series. But I bet you did not know Bentley is in the series.
FYI O Connell did not win the race. Johnny got penalized for unnecessary contact and moved back to 4th place in the race with a 2.1 sec penalty.
The real issue is road racing is the best place to sell this car but the issue is generally few people care about road racing but the die hard fans like myself and a hand full of others. I hate to say it but it is true and despise it as I have to chase the races around the dial on odd sat channels.