Cleveland: Team Cadillac Friday notes

Cadillac Second; Third Fastest In SPEED GT Practice
Max Papis Posts Best Time for Cadillac in Late Friday Practice; Max Angelelli is Third Fastest

CLEVELAND - Max Papis posted the best time for Team Cadillac and the second best time overall in today's GT class SCCA SPEED World Challenge practice in Cleveland. Papis, behind the wheel of his #16 CTS-V race car, was only 0.158 seconds behind leader Wolf Henzler.

"I just feel that this track suits Cadillac quite well," said Papis, who is just coming off a second-place class finish at Le Mans in a Corvette. "It definitely goes better with the Porsches here. (Those cars) look really fast in changing direction, but we are just starting our plan, which is to follow mainly a racing pace. We focus on that, and it looks like we have some work to do, but we are starting from a good base so we should be pretty fast for the race."

Team Cadillac is leading in the manufacturers championship standings and it showed today on the 2.106-mile road course at Burke Lakefront Airport. All three production-based CTS-V race cars posted lap times in the top-five; Max Angelelli in the #12 car was right behind Papis at 1:19.601 seconds and Andy Pilgrim, driver of the #8 car, was fifth-fastest.

"The car felt pretty good; it was my first time here so I'm still kind of learning the track," said Angelelli. "I'm pretty happy with the car-I think it's pretty competitive. There's still a long way to go until the race so a lot can happen. I have some stuff I would like done to my car to change the setup, but if it will work, then we will be in a great position. A little bit more grip in the front is what I need."

Angelelli joins Team Cadillac for the first time since their 1-2-3 finish at Road Atlanta two months ago where he finished third there due to gearbox problems. Pilgrim finished second there and still posted solid lap times today despite his 165 lbs. of R.E.W.A.R.D.S. ballast weight, which was added due to his high ranking.

"I'm very happy; Tommy Archer is someone I'm obviously looking at and he was right behind me today," said Pilgrim. "Tommy and I are 1-2 in the championship at the moment, but you can't really worry about that right now. Considering the weight we have in the car I was pretty happy with that session."

All three drivers posted their best laps in the last lap of practice. Team Cadillac returns to Burke Lakefront Airport tomorrow for more practice sessions which take place at 7:00 p.m. EDT. Sunday's 32 lap SPEED GT race will be televised on SPEED TV at 5:00 p.m. EDT.

-gm racing-