With the team’s seventh podium placing from nine rounds of the IMSA championship GTD Pro class so far, and a string of five top-three finishes, the Pfaff Motorsports plaid Porsche is virtually guaranteed to win the drivers’ and teams’ championship in 2022 with two rounds remaining. As the Porsche team continues to run from strength to strength in 2022, the team is more than happy to watch several other drivers squabble over second position behind them. While Pfaff drivers Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet would have preferred to have won the race over the weekend in Wisconsin, a second place finish is still quite good. The previously-second-placed-in-the-championship Corvette team finished behind the Pfaff car, while the Lexus runners won out front, bumping the Corvette from second to third in the championship, and giving Pfaff even more breathing room leading into the closing segment of the championship. Only two rounds remain for GTD Pro, and the team has a strong 227-point cushion.
After a long and unpredictable race at Road America this weekend which saw rain and a race-ending caution with ten minutes to go—thanks to one of the Prototype class championship contenders running headlong into the wall—the Pfaff team managed to finish in second place after running there pretty much the entire race. The Lexus team put together a strong car and even stronger race strategy to win, and the Porsche pairing did everything in their power to top them, but ultimately couldn’t. Campbell qualified the #9 Porsche on the front row, right behind the Lexus of Ben Barnicoat. About an hour into the race Barnicoat made a mistake under braking on the drying track and allowed Jaminet to sneak past into the lead. The final pit stop of the race saw the Lexus move back in front of the Porsche, and that’s how it finished. Jaminet was on a late-race charge, but that was cut short by the race-ending caution.
The Pfaff team has always done quite well at Road America, having won here the previous two years. Capping that three-year streak off with a GTD Pro runner-up only continues to build that legend.
Matt Campbell: “A win would’ve been nice, but we’ll take P2 and there’s only good points for our championship. There are only positives to take away from this weekend, no negatives. We had a really good race. I think it was a little unfortunate there with the last yellow, maybe we would’ve been able to capitalize otherwise, but nevertheless, it was good for our championship and it’s always nice extending the lead.”
Mathieu Jaminet: “I thought we were going to win this one. We had the right pit stop at the right time, but we also gambled and rolled the dice and in the end, it worked for them with the yellows and fuel. For sure, it’s disappointing because I have a feeling that we were the strongest once again as a team. The team did an awesome job, but today it was a little bad luck. We’ve had luck a lot this year, so sometimes you have to accept it. But it was a very good day for the championship, increasing the lead with two rounds to go, so can’t complain too much.”
The penultimate round of the championship will go down at Virginia International Raceway in three weeks time. That event will be a GT-only event, giving the prototype runners some respite before the season-ending Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta on October 1.