One of IMSA’s most popular teams finds itself at a turning point as Canada’s Pfaff Motorsports is seeking investors to infuse its WeatherTech SportsCar Championship effort with funding to continue in GTD PRO, or the onboarding of a funded …
One of IMSA’s most popular teams finds itself at a turning point as Canada’s Pfaff Motorsports is seeking investors to infuse its WeatherTech SportsCar Championship effort with funding to continue in GTD PRO, or the onboarding of a funded bronze-rated driver to take its No. 9 McLaren 720S GT3 EVO to GTD in 2025.
Without one or the other, the plaid-loving team which won the 2021 GTD championship and the 2022 GTD PRO title is facing the imminent need to shutter the program after next week’s season finale, Motul Petit Le Mans.
“We have a really incredible group of people who make this team what it is, and as one of the few commercially funded teams, we have incredible partners that have renewed their commitment to us for 2025,” Pfaff GM Steve Bortolotti told RACER. “But we’re also having to make some adjustments to the business structure of the team, and that’s why we’re actively looking for either an investor who wants to be part of the team ownership, or to take the McLaren to GTD with a bronze driver.”
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Since joining IMSA as a full-time entrant in 2019, the Toronto-based Pfaff squad has solidified its place as one of the series’ best GT entrants with the back-to-back championships and runs inside the top five in every other season, which includes a victory at last year’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
The team moved to representing McLaren in 2024 and has earned a pair of podiums with the twin-turbo V8-powered supercar using the season-long pairing of Oliver Jarvis and Martin Kirchhofer, and James Hinchcliffe at the endurance events.
“We are looking forward to having conversations with individuals or companies who may be interested in joining forces for 2025,” Bortolotti said.
The switch from full plaid to papaya hasn’t always been smooth for Pfaff Motorsports, and not every fan was happy as the Toronto-area team left Porsche for McLaren. The results, though, are beginning to show as the team heads to its home race at …
The switch from full plaid to papaya hasn’t always been smooth for Pfaff Motorsports, and not every fan was happy as the Toronto-area team left Porsche for McLaren. The results, though, are beginning to show as the team heads to its home race at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.
Third-place finishes in GTD PRO for the No. 9 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo in two of the last three races – at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and the six-hour race at Watkins Glen International – plus what should have been a podium in Detroit, are showing that the team hasn’t lost anything in the switch, it’s just taking some time.
“It’s been a trying start to the year.,” declares Pfaff’s team manager, Steve Bortolotti. “Besides Daytona, I’d say the other events haven’t really been much fault of our own. Proud of Laguna, Detroit was tough … but we feel like we’re starting to get somewhere now. And the support has been fantastic from McLaren. The operating costs, surprisingly, have been well below what we’ve experienced in the past.
“So there’s been a lot of positive that we’re seeing from the relationship. We’re just sort of starting to get into the bulk of our testing program for the year now, so I think you’re going to see us start to take some steps forward, and CTMP will be nice, because it’s our home track, and we’ve got a pretty solid platform to be competitive there with the McLaren.”
Pfaff’s core driver lineup of the very experienced, although less so in GT cars, Oliver Jarvis, and McLaren factory shoe Marvin Kirchhöfer, seem to be a good pairing as they build on each other’s strengths. Jarvis is well familiar with the circuits on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and Kirchhöfer obviously knows the McLaren. Together they’re learning from each other.
“I think it’s a really good combination,” says Jarvis. “BecauseMarvin been able to help me a lot with the car, and I can give him, hopefully, some useful insight into the tracks. But it’s definitely a lot for us to learn as a collective. The team is still learning the car, but I thinkwe’ve made huge progress from our first rollout in Daytona. We’re definitely on an upward trajectory, we just need to get some results now.”
While the team has had a new car to learn, McLaren factory driver Kirchhöfer has been getting to grips with the tracks. Brett Farmer/Motorsport Images
“It’s super helpful to have him as a teammate,” adds Kirchhöfer. “Basically from Laguna on I didn’t know the tracks, I learned a lot from him. And I’m trying to give something back regarding the car setup. But I think we‘re both really up to speed and we just need a bit more luck now.”
One area that’s been a challenge with the McLaren, the team says, is that while some cars have a very narrow window where they feel good, and that window is where the performance is, the 720S is a bit different in that regard.
“The biggest hurdle is really the setup window is so big that trying to extract lap time takes a different mindset and philosophy from the engineering staff,” explains Bortolotti.“The drivers never come in and say the car is bad. Whereas before, if you make the car good, it usually went fast.
“Now the car is always pretty good. We have to go and extract lap time and find ways tochange the setup and make the car just go faster, because the drivers aren’t able to perceive a big dramatic feel in terms of balance, the car has such a big setup window. So that’s been the biggest thing for us, because we’re having to rethink our approach and rethink our process.”
There will be an abundance of papaya and plaid this weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park this weekend as the team heads to its home track, about an hour’s drive from the shop. The parent company has a large network of dealers and other automotive-related businesses int he Toronto area, so there are many clients to expose to the racing side of the business.
“We always have 3 to 500 people at that event that we’re entertaining. So for me, it’s always felt like a big one. I know we’ve got a huge crowd this year coming out from the dealerships, from Canadian Tire and Motul and our other partners, so it should be a pretty interesting event in that regard.”
Pfaff hopes to deliver a hometown victory to its partners and fans, going for the win in the 2h40m Chevrolet Grand Prix on Sunday. Green flag is scheduled for 11:05 a.m. ET with live coverage on USA Network and streaming on Peacock.
The GTD PRO Pfaff McLaren 720S Evo went to the garage during the fourth hour, the crew working on the right front to repair an apparent hub failure. Pfaff had little testing with the car before it arrived at the Roar Before the 24. Two LMP2s also …
The GTD PRO Pfaff McLaren 720S Evo went to the garage during the fourth hour, the crew working on the right front to repair an apparent hub failure. Pfaff had little testing with the car before it arrived at the Roar Before the 24. Two LMP2s also ended the hour in the garage — the No. 88 AF Corse ORECA, the crew trying to diagnose a problem with the electronics after it lost power; and the No. 20 High Class Racing ORECA, which sat in the garage unattended by the crew. The No. 20 had been involved in a crash early in the race and been repaired and sent out, but returned to the garage in short order.
Several cars used a caution for a spin-and-stall early in the hour to pit, and as a result there are two separate sequences among the GTP cars. The No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R was one of those, and Jack Aitken led Nick Yelloly in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8, with the No. 24 BMW next with Philipp Eng at the wheel. Eng was on the alternate sequence, though, and would soon need to pit.
LMP2 is so far looking like a three-way fight between United Autosports’ No. 2, CrowdStrike Racing by APR and Riley Motorsports. Nico Pino led at the end of the hour in the No. 2.
The LMP2 No. 11 TDS Racing, in which Steven Thomas had an impact with the wall, has been officially retired.
Michelin has provided some interesting facts about the race, including that the 59-car field includes drivers from 34 different countries. In the GTP field alone, 16 countries are represented.
Pfaff Motorsports dropped the first hint of its 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship driver lineup as it switches from Porsche to McLaren. Pfaff tweeted that James Hinchcliffe would be joining them for the three longer endurance races in …
Pfaff Motorsports dropped the first hint of its 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship driver lineup as it switches from Porsche to McLaren.
Pfaff tweeted that James Hinchcliffe would be joining them for the three longer endurance races in 2024 — the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and Motul Petit Le Mans. The Canadian IndyCar race winner and NBC Sports analyst, is the first announced for the Canadian team based near Toronto.
The tweet included a video in which Hinchcliffe is checking his e-mail and celebrates, before yelling to his wife, “Hey babe, how do you feel about plaid?” His wife, actress Rebecca Dalton, then walks in the room wearing a plaid flannel shirt, hat and boots. Pfaff has a history of playing up its Canadian roots with a plaid livery, although the team’s general manager, Steve Bortolotti, has indicated the design on its 720S Evo will be more tied into McLaren’s colors.
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Pfaff Motorsports announced in October that it would switch from Porsche to McLaren for its 2024 WeatherTech Championship GTD PRO campaign. The team has won championships the previous two years running, earning the GTD crown in 2021 and the inaugural GTD PRO title in 2022. However, the squad took only a single victory in 2023, a win at the Twelve Hours of Sebring that came through a risky gamble on fuel.
Three more drivers are yet to be announced — the two season-long drivers, as well as a fourth driver for Daytona. One of the full-season drivers is expected to come from the McLaren stable of factory pilots. Pfaff is expected to make more driver announcements over the next few days.
Pfaff Motorsports will become a McLaren manufacturer-nominated entrant in the GTD PRO class in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar championship as it switches from Porsche to fielding a 720S GT3 Evo. The entry will mark McLaren’s first foray into GTD …
Pfaff Motorsports will become a McLaren manufacturer-nominated entrant in the GTD PRO class in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar championship as it switches from Porsche to fielding a 720S GT3 Evo. The entry will mark McLaren’s first foray into GTD PRO, with activations planned at future events to increase the brand’s exposure and reaffirm its commitment to the IMSA platform.
The Canadian team has won championships two of the last three years in IMSA competition, claiming the GTD title in 2021 with Zacharie Robichon and Laurens Vanthoor and the inaugural GTD PRO title last season with Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet. The Toronto-based team has been associated with Porsche since its entry into IMSA competition in 2019, but Pfaff also has a long history with the McLaren brand.
Pfaff Automotive Partners is the official importer for McLaren in Canada, and owns and operates McLaren retail locations in Toronto and Vancouver. The company has co-created two special-edition vehicles for Canada with McLaren Special Operations and has also won the McLaren Retailer of the Year award. Lithia Motors Inc., the parent company of the Pfaff dealerships and title partner Driveway.com, also has a global footprint with the brand, and owns several McLaren retail points in the U.S. and the United Kingdom.
“Pfaff has been proud to represent McLaren in Canada since 2012; our partnership with the brand has spanned road and track for many years,” said Chris Pfaff, Pfaff Automotive Partners President and CEO. “Adopting the 720S GT3 Evo platform for the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship demonstrates our confidence in McLaren as a business, a racing partner, and retail partner. We’re excited about the future of the McLaren brand, and excited to be part of building that future with them.”
On the competition side, Pfaff and McLaren are no strangers to on-track success. McLaren Toronto General Manager Chris Green has driven a 570S GT4 in the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge and IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge series, and Pfaff Motorsports also leveraged the 570S GT4 to win the 2022 FEL Sports Car Championship Canada GT4 Class in 2022 with Zachary Vanier.
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“We are delighted to have Pfaff Motorsports onboard as one of our racing partners,” said Ian Morgan, Director of Motorsport, McLaren Automotive. “The IMSA series is one of the highest-profile GT championships in the world, and to be working with a team with whom we have a strong and established history, both on and off the race track, is fantastic news. We look forward to supporting the team with their GTD Pro campaign and building on the strong relationship, as well as the McLaren brand in North America.”
McLaren has been represented in the WeatherTech Championship in recent years by Inception Racing, which has campaigned a 720S GT3 in GTD. Crucial Motorsports has also raced a GTD-class 720S GT3 in a few events. Motorsports In Action is running an Artura GT4 in the Michelin Pilot Challenge. Pfaff’s single-car effort in GTD PRO, however, brings the supercar manufacturer to a new level in IMSA competition.
“Pfaff Motorsports is proud to partner with McLaren in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship starting in 2024 – and we want to make the latest chapter in McLaren’s iconic racing history an exciting one,” said Pfaff Motorsports General Manager Steve Bortolotti. “We look forward to building an increased presence at IMSA events with them next season, and sharing the thrill of sportscar racing with their passionate road car customers at the track and at their retail stores.”
Drivers will be named at a later date, but a McLaren factory driver is expected to be on the roster. Pfaff expects to receive its 720S GT3 Evo sometime after the December homologation test, but in plenty of time to do some testing ahead of the Roar Before the 24 at Daytona in January.
Pfaff is looking to close out its 2023 season and its run with Porsche by securing second place in the GTD PRO championship at this weekend’s Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
On the heels of the announcement that McLaren Automotive has chosen United Autosports in a bid to compete in the LMGT3 class of the FIA World Endurance Championship last week, the super car manufacturer has partnered with Pfaff Motorsports to …
On the heels of the announcement that McLaren Automotive has chosen United Autosports in a bid to compete in the LMGT3 class of the FIA World Endurance Championship last week, the super car manufacturer has partnered with Pfaff Motorsports to campaign a 720S GT3 Evo in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD PRO class. It will mark McLaren’s first GTD PRO effort in the WeatherTech Championship, where it before had a single full-time customer team (Inception Racing) in GTD. It’s unlikely that the timing of the announcements is coincidence.
“The impetus is really the excitement around the brand and where they’re heading,” explained Pfaff Motorsports General Manager Steve Bortolotti. “We believe there’s so much opportunity for growth within McLaren brand both on the retail side of our automotive business, but also in the motorsport landscape as well. Ultimately when the chips are on the table, that was a deciding factor – McLaren being a true partner of ours, we weren’t just like any other customer, which is something we’ve been striving to achieve for our program for a number of years. But then also looking ahead to the future what may be coming down the pipeline. Obviously there’s no guarantees in this sport that anything goes the way you want it to, but making sure that we’re positioned appropriately for any future opportunities that may come our way.”
This weekend’s Petit Le Mans will be the final race for the Plaid Porsche, and Bortolotti says plaid won’t be a prominent feature on the Canadian team’s McLaren livery, expected to be a bit more in McLaren’s corporate vein. It’s a big switch for a team that has raced Porsches for the entirety of its tenure in the WeatherTech Championship. It’s no secret that the latest iteration of the Porsche 911 GT3 R, based on the 992 platform, races very differently than its predecessors and the teams racing it have not always had an easy time of it. Pfaff, which earned the GTD title in 2021 and the inaugural GTD PRO championship last season, only has a single victory in 2023 in the Twelve Hours of Sebring, earned on a risky strategy call.
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So, enter McLaren. While drivers have yet to be announced, Bortolotti hints that a McLaren factory driver will be in the lineup. And while a latter December delivery date means that Pfaff will miss the December homologation test at Daytona, Bortolotti says there will be plenty of time to get the car sorted.
“The opportunity came together a bit late with with McLaren, but that’s no no reason not to proceed. So still plenty of time ahead of the Roar for us to get the car and get a couple of test days in with it ahead of the Roar. And then IMSA does a great job of giving us plenty of track time, over the Roar and the Rolex 24 weekends to ensure we’re prepared in time for the 24 hour. Ultimately pace isn’t the name of the game for that race anyway, so we’ll be sure to do plenty of testing at Sebring and other tracks in February and March to make sure we’re ready for the bulk of the IMSA WeatherTech season,” he said.
Where McLaren eventually goes with its sports car racing programs is yet to be seen, but the company certainly appears to be positioning itself for a bigger push. For right now, both McLaren and Pfaff’s priorities seem to be getting more McLaren GT racecars into the world.
“We want to make sure it ultimately comes down on a business case, right?,” said Bortolotti. “We want to get more McLarens in this market and more McLaren GT3 cars racing globally. And that’ll trickle down to GT4 and in the Artura series as well. So yeah, maybe a little bit of pre-planning on that, but it’s certainly exciting to see a lot of McLaren content in the news these days for sure.”
A rash of yellows late in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring allowed many GTD and GTD PRO cars to go far farther on fuel than they would have been able to otherwise, the top cars in both classes running around an hour and 50 minutes from their last …
A rash of yellows late in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring allowed many GTD and GTD PRO cars to go far farther on fuel than they would have been able to otherwise, the top cars in both classes running around an hour and 50 minutes from their last pit stop to the finish.
Pfaff Motorsports claimed the GTD PRO victory with Patrick Pilet, Klaus Bachler and Laurens Vanthoor in the No. 9 Porsche 911 GT3 R. It was a bit of redemption after a crash in qualifying that left the team with a host of repairs in order to make the race. While the No. 9 Porsche didn’t seem to have the pace to fight for the overall win against the No. 3 Corvette and the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG, the fuel strategy paid off in the end.
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“It’s just amazing. The whole group of people in the team just repaired the car until 1 a.m., I think, yesterday,” said Pilet.“ And they rock so much in the race with the strategy, with all the pitstops. Sometimes we get bad luck with yellows but we never give up, we always stay focused. We were not the quickest, but we have such such a good group of people. These two guys are amazing also. Klaus, it’s his first time here so we know how difficult it is to drive on this track and Laurens did an amazing job to bring back the car in front.
“They call me the expert of fuel saving. I have a lot of challenge with Laurens in the past in different cars and I was pretty good at that. They chose me to finish the race because we know it can be a big advantage and today it paid off. We were clearly not the quickest but we just we just gambled on the yellows and we won.”
The Corvette and Meercedes-AMG battle for GTD PRO honors raged for much of the race, and the pair usually separated themselves from the rest of the field. The No. 79 WeatherTech squad of Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon and Maro Engel ended up third, behind Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat and Kyle Kirkwood in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F. The polesitting Corvette had its own issues late, repairs for a broken spring putting them a lap down, then getting caught up in two separate incidents, including the final one that took out the top three cars in GTP, as well as the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296.
As the sun set over Sebring, Paul Miller Racing was setting up to lead home a GTD BMW one-two. Jake Galstad/Lumen
The No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW squad of Madison Snow, Bryan Sellers and Corey Lewis claimed GTD with a similar strategy for the trio’s second victory in the Twelve Hours.
“It was tricky for us because you know, we made that final stop, then a bit more than an hour and 36 or something it went yellow,” explained Sellers. “And we debated whether we would come in or not because a couple of cars behind us had stopped a little bit sooner and we were worried that they would fill faster than us at the end. We made a call to pit with the leaders and the No. 27 (Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage) stayed out; when he stayed out, we stayed out. Once that happened our fate was kind of sealed once that yellow came again because now we were just over an hour left and those cars had only stopped two laps ago. So we had no option. For us if the only thing was to run as long as we could and hope for another yellow. A couple of the other cars stopped, and I’m not sure I understand why they stopped because everyone else was making it to the end, and so then you were basically kind of relegated to fifth or back. For us, we backed ourselves into a corner and got super fortunate with how it came out.”
The Heart of Racing squad would have their own difficulties in the closing stages, breaking steering and going off when Marco Sorensen caught caught in the middle of a GTD PRO battle between the No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán and the No. 3 Corvette.
It was a BMW one-two, as Robby Foley, Patrick Gallagher and Michael Dinan finished second in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport M4. New-for-2023 team Kellymoss with Riley pulled of a third place finish with David Brule, Alec Udell and Julien Andlauer in the No. 92 Porsche 911.
The final practice session and qualifying for tomorrow’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring saw several crashed cars, but indications are that most of the damage was not severe in all three cases, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, the cars will …
The final practice session and qualifying for tomorrow’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring saw several crashed cars, but indications are that most of the damage was not severe in all three cases, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, the cars will be on the grid tomorrow.
The Porsche Penske Motorsports crew has stripped the No. 7 963 that Matt Campbell crashed in Turn 1 during qualifying, and was preparing to replace the gearbox and rear suspension assembly with a new one, at a relaxed pace. That procedure may have happened anyway to prepare for the Twelve Hours. Otherwise Porsche reports the damage was limited to bodywork, and the car will be ready to go for tomorrow’s race.
The No. 9 GTD PRO Pfaff Motorsports 911 GT3 R sustained a little more damage in Klaus Bachler’s qualifying crash in Turn 1, the team having to replace two corners and a steering rack, plus some bodywork, but team manager Steve Bortolotti reports that there shouldn’t be any problem getting the car ready, and it shouldn’t even be a late night for the crew.
“We don’t believe we’ll have any issue being on the grid for tomorrow’s race,” he said. “Luckily Klaus is OK — it was quite the hit. But the car took it amazingly well, so that was very encouraging. And the team had all the spares ready, built up already. I’m very proud of how prepared they were to put the car back together in a very quick amount of time. We’ve just got to repair some carbon and get get some things situated better. But we should have no reason why we shouldn’t be on the grid tomorrow. It’s not the way you want to qualify but we won in 2021 from last on the grid, so hopefully we can repeat this here.”
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Bortolotti says the biggest hurdle may be securing a new firebottle, the fire system having been set off at some point in the crash and recovery. However, the team believes they’ve located one reasonably close by.
The No. 91 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 911 GT3 R that Kay van Berlo spun into the tires at Turn 17 last night was quickly repaired by the crew and made it out for the warmup and qualifying this morning. Alan Metni qualified the car 15th in GTD.
Everything changed for Pfaff Motorsports in 2022 – campaigning a new class in GTD PRO and new drivers, both of whom were experiencing their first full season in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition. The results, however were the same, …
Everything changed for Pfaff Motorsports in 2022 — campaigning a new class in GTD PRO and new drivers, both of whom were experiencing their first full season in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition. The results, however were the same, if not more superlative: a championship for the team and drivers on the back of five victories.
It’s all new again in 2023 for the Toronto-based team, which was recently inducted into the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame. Two new Porsche factory drivers, one of whom looking at his first full season of IMSA, and a new car, the brand-new 992-generation 911 GT3 R. Fortunately, on the drivers’ side, switching each year isn’t too much of a challenge.
“There’s a small adjustment period, but I think that’s what makes the Porsche drivers so special, is that that adjustment period is a fraction of what it would be from someone outside of the network, if you will,” explains team manager Steve Bortolotti. “Porsche does an amazing job of grooming their drivers from through their ladder system, and once they’re contracted drivers to Porsche, they do a really good job of teaching them how to act and helping them understand the car, frankly.
“So it makes our job as a team substantially easier to have the revolving door, I guess, that we’ve had the last three years. It’s certainly not easy, but there’s a leg up with the work that Porsche has done in the background with the drivers that has made them a much easier fit than someone who doesn’t know the brand or the unique nature of the car.”
For this season, the driver lineup includes Patrick Pilet, well known to IMSA fans for having been one of Porsche’s GTLM drivers, including winning the 2015 championship. Pilet is partnered with Klaus Bachler, for whom many of the North American circuits will be new. Laurens Vanthoor joins in for the endurance races.
“It’s a big honor to be here with this great team, when they won the last two years the championship. Then together with Patrick, he has won the championship in GTLM, so he has so many races here, so much experience.”
Both drivers know maintaining the success that Pfaff has had in recent years will be no easy task, especially as they and the team work to achieve the best setups on the new car and figure out what it wants on circuits where it hasn’t seen any mileage. But they also understand the culture within Pfaff meshes with their own, and believe that even if the start is slow, they will get the team back onto the top step of the podium.
“It’s always difficult to win, and what they achieved is something really special,” declares Pilet. “We should not forget that we should stay humble because it’s a brand-new car; it’s not like you’re coming in with a past car that you know perfectly, you have all the setup and everything. We have to learn this car, we have to learn how to work also with a team. I’m not scared about this, because we have exactly the same philosophy and, and the way they work is really nice. It’s a really good approach of racing, and there are real racers. But, yeah, we will go step by step. We will try to improve every race and championship is long.”
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The latest generation of Porsche’s GT3 racer had an inauspicious debut at the Rolex 24 At Daytona, where Pfaff soldiered through the race to finish fifth in GTD PRO, a lap down. IMSA usually tries to bring in new cars as underdogs, and adjust Balance of Performance parameters up to bring the car into contention. However, at Daytona, the Porsche teams were shockingly off the pace. The 992-based GT3 R is a rather different machine than its predecessor, and some of those differences are not only making it difficult for teams to adapt, but also played a part in what making might have been a small handicap — 5mm smaller intake restrictors than the previous generation — into a big one.
“It’s certainly a lot more work, I think, than we were expecting coming into the season, because the car is so dramatically different in philosophy from the previous car,” says Bortolotti. “That said, the struggles that were well documented from Daytona are something that we feel are… there’s two sides to every story, right? Certainly a function of it can be attributed to Balance of Performance, but then the drivers aren’t coming off saying, ‘The car’s perfect — put a cover on it,’ either. So we have to focus on controlling what we can control and developing the platform we have.
“That’s where our team’s focus needs to remain with a new car, because the car is, from a suspension geometry point, substantially different from the old car; it doesn’t appear to make as much mechanical grip as the previous-generation car. So that’s posed some new challenges and the way the car makes the lap time with its downforce, compared to the old car. It’s different. That doesn’t mean one is better or worse than the other, it’s just different and it’s not a build-off of what we had in the past. It’s like we’re starting fresh, and we just need to follow our engineering processes and the data and make sound decisions as a group to improve the car as best we can within the parameters set up by IMSA.”
BoP might make the process of improvement complex, but Pfaff feels the proven ingredients of its successful program will help the team find its way back to the front. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
In introducing new GT3 cars, manufacturers aren’t always trying to make them faster, because it’s a homologated, Balance-of-Performance class. The goal is usually to improve reliability, drivability, comfort, tire degradation, and widen the setup window wherever possible. But in doing so, there are new things for the teams to learn.
“Handling-wise, as a driver, there’s some big differences to the old car, for sure,” explains Bachler. “It’s four years younger, so a lot has changed. The car is more balanced, mechanically, and also aerodynamically. In general, the ABS and (traction control) was improved. But those are small things; it’s still a 911, so it’s not a revolution. It’s evolution. And in the end, we just need to be as fast as possible with developing the setup, because this is new on this car.”
As the team heads into the second round of the WeatherTech Championship, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring — a race in which they weren’t really in contention in 2022 — they’re confident there are some improvements to be made over the Daytona result. A change to the BoP will certainly help, and the team has a race of learning the new car under its belt. All that, plus just the way the team does things, its overall philosophy, have them believing that they’ll be in contention again in the near future.
“It really starts with us doing a good job over the last few years of really defining our process that we feel has led us to success, and believing in that process and working the process,” says Bortolotti. “It sounds cliche, but the reality is we feel we’ve got a very open and contrarian culture where we’re not afraid to disagree with each other and challenge each other with new ideas, and it’s very collaborative. I believe that has actually only helped us with a new car and helped us find success quicker, because we’re not afraid to speak up to one another. And that’s not in a confrontational or negative way. I mean — it’s certainly in a healthy, respectful way that we communicate with each other.
“But at the end of the day, it’s the people that need to hear that stuff, that might be hearing something for the first time, having the confidence in what they do and in their employment, to hear criticisms from someone else, then apply the learning and understand what’s being said. So I truly feel that the success has been well documented on our side and we just have our little recipe that we know what makes us great, I hope, and we’ve got to continue to work the plan.”
