The plaid Pfaff Porsche finished the race where it started – at the head of the class.
In the Canadian team’s return to its home track, Pfaff Motorsports extended its points lead in GTD PRO with a nearly perfect flag-to-flag victory by Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell in the No. 9 Porsche 911 GT3R.
Jaminet, who won the Motul Pole Award on Saturday, started Sunday’s Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park up front. He surrendered the lead briefly with 1 hour 6 minutes left in the two-hour 40-minute race when he pitted after a 53-lap stint. Not long after, the No. 9 Porsche was back in front.
“It’s extremely special,” Campbell said. “To come away with a victory like that is super special. (The team) put so much effort and work into this one race. We’ve had so many supporters and fans here this weekend. It’s been fantastic to see.”
After Jaminet’s stop, Campbell took over and brought the No. 9 to the line 1.434 seconds ahead of the No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD co-driven by Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia.
While it may have looked simple, Jaminet said, it was anything but.
“It wasn’t easy, not at all,” he said. “Luckily it worked out. Starting up front was one of the keys today. Amazing job from the boys.”
Jaminet, Campbell and the Pfaff crew never faltered, even as the No. 3 Corvette and the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 co-driven by Alex Riberas and Ross Gunn challenged valiantly. At times midway through the race, the three cars were separated by less than a second.
“It was tough,” Jaminet said. “The car was hard to drive, but in the end, we managed to keep everybody behind.”
After Campbell replaced Jaminet, Ben Barnicoat, who was off pit sequence in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, led the GTD PRO class. When Barnicoat pitted under caution with 59 minutes left, Campbell regained the lead for the No. 9, then held off Garcia’s attempts to pass him.
“I could see he was pushing all the time, and I could see where he was starting to look at places if he was close on the restarts and such,” Campbell said. “I could see where the car was strong, but I always wanted to make sure I had a little bit of a buffer and gap going into those places.
“I was just trying to manage the tires. It wasn’t easy up there to be able to keep him off, especially at the end of the race, but we got there in the end.”
