Pirelli at the Daytona 24 Hours race

Milan, February 6, 2000 - The Pirelli-fitted Cadillac NorthStar had on the last week-end its official racing dibut at the Daytona 24 Hours race: opening 'classic' of the US racing season and first event of the major circuit long distance racing international year.

Cadillac and Pirelli together have been immediately competitive: after 1h30m of the race, the two cars were 1st e 2nd overall. Some technical problems due to their young age (especially wheel and transmission weakness) then slowed down the two Cadillacs, but still the one driven by Wallace was 2nd placed overall, in the same lap as the Ford leading then.

Under the final flag, the two Cadillacs-Pirelli anyway scored 2nd and 3rd position in the SportsRacing class, behind the overall winning Ford and thanks respectively to drivers teams Wallace-Leitzinger-Lagorce and Taylor-Angelelli-Van de Poele.

Everybody, at Daytona, were convinced that if it was not for their transmission technical weakness, the Cadillacs would have strongly fighted for the overall win, which went instead to the Dodge Viper (GTO class) driven by Beretta-Wendlinger-Dupuy. Second place for the Chevrolet Corvette; 3rd for one more Dodge Viper.

Pirelli can be satisfied with its Daytona. Not only thanks to the Cadillacs' performance (the two cars were fastest in the nighttime race, thanks also to the PZero range of racing tyres which always proved a very high performance and durability level); but thanks also to the GTU class win, scored by the Porsche GT3R driven by Rosa-Rosa-Babini-Drudi. Victory for Pirelli also in American GT class, with the Camaro of the Comer Racing Team.