CADILLAC CELEBRATES 100^th ANNIVERSARY IN LE MANS

LE MANS, June 15-16, 2002 – At the 70^th edition of the world-famous Le Mans 24 Hours, General Motors' Cadillac brand will celebrate its 100^th anniversary in style. To do so, two all-new Cadillac Northstar LMP 02 prototypes will take the green flag in front of the racing world for the French endurance classic.

On May 5, a first step toward starting the famous race on Saturday, June 15, at 4 p.m., was taken when Team Cadillac participated in the mandatory Open Test. Acclimating a new car to a course it had never driven before took some time, and delayed the team and drivers in fully demonstrating the car's potential. However, eight hours of practice and qualifying on Wednesday and Thursday and 24 hours of racing, should be enough for Team Cadillac to unlock the potential of the Northstar LMP 02 and make sure the 100th anniversary doesn't go unnoticed.

New Cadillac LMP Program Manager Doug Duchardt is confident that Team Cadillac and the engineers at GM Racing have done their homework in the six weeks between Open Test and the race. "We were very concerned about resolving the porpoising issue that we identified in the morning session on May 5. The time spent solving that problem and targeting an efficient car setup did not leave us a lot of opportunity for running hot laps. So we left Le Mans a bit disappointed that we did not show the full potential of the car, but knew we had the time and ability to fix the porpoising in an aerodynamically efficient manner. From a reliability standpoint, the cars were very good through all of prequalifying with no issues."

Driver Emmanuel Collard agrees: "We didn't have an easy day in May. The porpoising meant we lost time working on our setup, so we knew we wouldn't be able to get the best out of the car. We wanted to try and see where we stood compared to the others so I had soft tires put on, but each time there was too much traffic to be able to exploit them to the full."

The vast experience between the UK-based design office and the US-based engineers meant that Open Test provided the expected data and test opportunity, if not the immediate results the team ultimately expects to achieve. There was never a feeling of panic at Team Cadillac. "Having an all new racecar, we knew that we would have issues to resolve after prequalifying," Duchardt said. "Therefore, before we left for Le Mans in May, we had an extensive test plan ready to implement afterwards. But we did add one high speed test to directly address the porpoising issue."

To make sure the speeds achieved at that test were as high as possible, Team Cadillac used what is probably the fastest stretch of concrete in the world: one of NASA's back-up landing strips for the Space Shuttle in Lake City, Florida!

More testing was conducted at VIR in Georgia and at Road Atlanta in Atlanta: "We feel our development testing after May 5 has been beneficial," Duchardt says. "Le Mans is obviously a unique circuit and we will not know for sure whether we have our car setup dialed in for Le Mans until we get there. However, we feel that since finishing our test program we have a lot more information to address aerodynamic and chassis setup issues than we did in May."

The 19,000-kilometre test program of Team Cadillac – as any test program – was designed to iron out any issues the car might have. Between January and June, the Northstar LMP 02 racked up the miles at a variety of tracks in the US. "Since the Open Test, we had some new issues arise which had not shown in our extensive testing previously," Duchardt comments. "Fortunately, the new problems were easily identified and we do not think will cause issues in the race. We still have a couple of problems which we will worry over during the 24 hours, but I am sure that is common for everyone on the grid."

Emmanuel Collard in any case is confident: "I have a really good feeling about the race. We'll be much faster than we were in May. If we can race at our own rhythm and stay out of trouble we could be really up there on Sunday afternoon. We've also improved our fuel consumption so we could have an advantage there."

"The goal for Team Cadillac is to run 24 hours without issues. We feel that if we can run for 24 hours without major issues and get a solid comfortable setup on the car we will achieve a good result," Duchardt said. "Let's not forget that the past two years we have been 4th after 20 hours. If we can run trouble free we will be pleased with our result."

TEAM CADILLAC DRIVER BIOGRAPHIES

#6 Cadillac Northstar LMP 02

ERIC BERNARD (F)

Born: Aug. 24, 1964
Le Mans participations: 7
Le Mans best: 7th (1999 – Panoz)
Career highlights:

• French Formula Renault Champion 1985 (Martini)
• Vice-Champion French Formula 3 Championship 1987 (Ralt-Alfa)
• World Formula 1 Championship 1989-1994 (Lola, Ligier, Lotus)
• FIA GT Championship 1996 (Ferrari) 1 win
• FIA GT Championship 1997-1998 (Panoz)
• American Le Mans Series 1997 (Panoz) 1 win
• American Le Mans Series 1998 (Panoz) 6 wins
• American Le Mans Series Vice-Champion 1999 (Panoz) 2 wins
• SportsRacing World Cup 1999 (Lola) 4 wins
• American Le Mans Series 2000 (Cadillac)
• SportsRacing World Cup 2000 (Cadillac)
• American Le Mans Series 2001 (Cadillac)

• French Champion Karting 1982-1985
• World Champion Karting Super 100 - 1988
• French Formula Renault Champion 1990
• International F3000 Championship 1991-1993 (Apomatox)
• Formula 1 test driver 1991-1998 (Ligier, Benetton, Tyrrell, Prost, Arrows)
• Porsche Supercup Champion 1996, 5 wins
• FIA GT Championship 1997 (Porsche)
• SportsRacing World Champion 1998 (Ferrari), 6 wins
• Winner Petit Le Mans 1998 (Ferrari)
• SportsRacing World Champion 1999 (Ferrari), 2wins
• Winner Spa 24 Hours 1999 (Peugeot)
• American Le Mans Series 2000 (Cadillac)
• SportsRacing World Cup 2000 (Cadillac)
• American Le Mans Series 2001 (Cadillac)

• Finnish, Scandinavian and European FF1600 Champion 1986
• British FF2000 Champion 1987
• European EFDA Euroseries Champion 1987
• Winner FFord World Cup 1987
• British Formula 3 Champion 1988
• International F3000 Championship 1989 (Pacific)
• World Formula 1 Championship 1989-1990 (Onyx)
• World Formula 1 Championship 1991-1992 (BMS-Dallara)
• World Formula 1 Championship 1993 (Sauber)
• World Formula 1 Championship 1994 (Sauber, Benetton)
• International Touring Car Championship 1995-1996 (Opel)
• FIA GT Vice-Champion 1997 (McLaren) 4 wins
• CART Championship 1998 (Reynard)
• American Le Mans Series 1999 (BMW) 4 wins
• Winner Sebring 12 Hours 1999 (BMW)
• American Le Mans Series 2000 (BMW) 2 wins
• American Le Mans Series 2001 (BMW)

• South African F2 Champion 1986
• World Sports-Prototype Championship 1988-1989 (Spice)
• IMSA GTP Championship 1990 (Spice)
• IMSA GTP Championship 1991 (Intrepid) 1 win
• IMSA GTP Championship 1992 (Intrepid)
• IMSA GTP Championship 1993 (Chevrolet)
• IMSA World Sports Car Champion 1994 (Kudzu-Mazda)
• IMSA World Sports Car Championship 1995 (Ferrari) 2 wins
• IMSA World Sports Car Champion 1996 (R&S-Oldsmobile) 4 wins
• Winner Daytona 24 Hours 1996 (R&S-Oldsmobile)
• Winner Sebring 12 Hours 1996 (R&S-Oldsmobile)
• IMSA World Sports Car Championship 1997 (R&S-Oldsmobile)
• IMSA WSC Vice-Champion 1998 (Ferrari) 2 wins
• International SportsRacing Series 1998 (Ferrari)
• LMP Class Winner 24 Hours of Le Mans 1998 (Ferrari)
• Winner Petit Le Mans 1998 (Ferrari)
• IMSA Manufacturer's Champion 1998 (Ferrari)
• American Le Mans Series 1999 (Ferrari)
• American Le Mans Series 2000 (Cadillac)
• American Le Mans Series 2001 (Cadillac)

• Italian Formula 3 Championship "Rookie of the Year" 1989
• Italian Formula 3 Champion 1992 (Dallara-Opel) 4 wins
• German Formula 3 Championship 1993 (Dallara-VW) 1 win
• German Formula 3 Championship 1994 (Dallara-VW)
• German Formula 3 Championship 1995 (Dallara-Opel) 1 win
• FIA GT Championship 1997 (Porsche, Lotus)
• FIA GT Championship 1998 (Porsche)
• Japanese GT Championship 1998 (Toyota)
• American Le Mans Series 1999 (Ferrari)
• SportsRacing World Cup 1999 (Ferrari)
• American Le Mans Series 2000 (Cadillac)
• American Le Mans Series 2001 (Cadillac)

• Three times French Endurance Karting Champion 1984-1989
• French Formula Renault Championship 1990 (Martini)
• Vice-Champion French FRenault Championship 1991 (Orion) 2 wins
• French Formula 3 Championship 1992 (Dallara-VW)
• Vice-Champion French Formula 3 Championship 1994 (Dallara-Opel)
• International F3000 Championship 1995 (Mythos)
• International F3000 Championship 1996 (Apomatox) 1 win
• Indy Lights Championship 1997 (Lola-Buick)
• FIA GT Championship 1998 (Panoz)
• SportsRacing World Cup 1999 (Lola) 1 win
• American Le Mans Series 1999 (Lola)
• American Le Mans Series 2000 (Cadillac)
• SportsRacing World Cup 2000 (Cadillac)
• American Le Mans Series 2001 (Cadillac)