HOME VICTORY FOR PFAFF MOTORSPORTS

Last weekend, Pfaff Motorsports took the checkered flag at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, its home circuit. This is the sixth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD Pro season. The series has not been held there since 2019 due to the pandemic, and Pfaff Motorsports – backed by Motul and based 45 minutes from the circuit – entered the weekend not only as fan favorites, but as championship leaders in the No. 9 Driveway Porsche 911 GT3 R. It was a dominant performance by Driveway Porsche as they expanded their current championship lead.

The weekend immediately began well, with Mathieu Jaminet qualifying the plaid-liveried Porsche on pole position. After a strategic two-tyre pit stop early in the race, Jaminet handed over the car to Matt Campbell for the closing stint. Campbell held off the hard-charging Corvette C8.R to capture the first victory in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Pfaff Motorsports at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in front of several hundred Pfaff dealership employees, family members and customers.

The two drivers led for 102 of the 111 laps, and further expanded their championship lead to 138 points over the Corvette with four rounds remaining. The win at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is Pfaff Motorsports’ third this season before the team heads to Lime Rock Park, the site of its first WeatherTech Championship victory in 2019.

“I could see Garcia was pushing all the time. I could see where he was starting to look in places as well if he was close on restarts. I noticed where the car was strong, so I always wanted to make sure I had a little bit of a buffer and gap going into those places and just trying to manage the tyres. It wasn’t easy out there to be able to keep him off and think about the end of the race. We got there in the end but for sure, they were always on our heels. It wasn’t easy.”

“It wasn’t easy, not at all. We saw it was a pace and fuel game, especially with the Corvette. When they went yesterday, they were quite quick. Only taking two tyres on the left side was something we’d never experienced before, so the car wasn’t so easy to drive and saving a lot of fuel, they saved a lot as well. It was all on the crew and (Matt) to have a quick out-lap to come out in front. Luckily, it worked out. Starting up front and having clear air was one of the keys today because it was really difficult to pass. It was a clean race from my side and Matt drove a super good stint to stay out front. An amazing effort from the team and Matt.”

 “We had great track position all day and our team made sure we maintained that. The early caution made it a one-stop race and we only took two tyres. It put us in a good position to save fuel, and Mathieu did a good job. Matt Campbell on his out-lap after our second pit stop was absolutely incredible. He ate the competition alive on his out-lap, and the team in the pits were the quickest in the pit lane. All of those things together meant we were able to maintain the lead and our track position. It’s so difficult to pass here – we know the cars behind us were all over us for a reason. But we know where to be good, and we know how to set a car up to make it pretty hard to pass. We were able to do that, no one was able to get by us and we won the race.”

Pfaff Motorsports has established itself as one of the most successful sportscar racing programs in North America over the past decade. A professional team in the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA), it has established long-term partnerships with premium brands such as Motul, Lithia & Driveway, and Hagerty, and is one of the top-performing Porsche customer racing teams in the sport. Earlier Steve stated his happiness regarding the partnership with Motul: “Motul has been an amazing partner of ours throughout the last racing seasons. We truly believe in the superiority of its products. It’s not just marketing or sponsorship. We run Motul’s products in our race cars, or track cars and all in our personal ones too. I think we have a lot more winning ahead of us, so we’ll continue to build and develop this program to become even bigger and more encompassing. We’re really a family, and I couldn’t be happier with this team.”

© Picture credits: Lenssen Photography