Campbell, Jaminet “Very Proud” of Porsche GTP Title Sweep

Photo: Jurgen Tap/Porsche

Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet said they’re both “very proud” to have helped deliver a sweep of GTP championships for Porsche Penske Motorsport following a relatively “smooth” day for the No. 6 Porsche 963 in Saturday’s Motul Petit Le Mans.

The longtime friends and co-drivers claimed their second IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship title together, three years after their first championship in the GTD Pro ranks with then-Porsche customer squad Pfaff Motorsports.

While originally slated to share their GTP entry with Julien Andlauer, the Frenchman was ruled out at the last minute due to a medical emergency, which saw the team’s third driver from the sister No. 7 entry, Laurens Vanthoor, get drafted in to pull double duty over the course of the ten-hour enduro at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

On top of that, the drivers barely made it to the track in time due to a massive traffic jam in what turned out to be a “complete sellout” of the event according to IMSA President John Doonan.

“The day didn’t start as good as we wished,” said Jaminet. “It took us 1 hour and 40 [minutes] to get to the track.

“There’s a lot of fans out there, so that was positive, but we nearly missed the recon laps, so Matt had to walk 3 km on the side of the road to get there.

“We then realized we had no third driver. Thank you Larry for jumping in. He saved our ass.

“Then we went racing at that point, and it went well. It went pretty smooth, I have to say. We had a very good car going into the race.

“The team did really good prep. We still had some question marks after qualifying but we made the right choices on setup and I have to say we had a competitive package in the day but also the night.

“Here we are on the podium and with the championship, so we can’t complain.”

Jaminet, who led the middle stages of the race, ultimately faded back to second, behind the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Earl Bamber, which were both saving energy in the hope of a late-race full-course caution.

However, the final 3 hours and 51 minutes of the race went caution-free.

“Obviously we tried to stretch it, hoping to make it to the end,” said Jaminet. “It was quite some saving in the last stint, but without a yellow it wasn’t really possible.

“So at some point we decided to follow the 31 [car] and giving up on taking too much risk and try go more than the podium and trying to win the win and maybe taking yourself out of the race.

“In the end, we quickly realized this is not the main target and we [were focused] on bringing it home at some point.”

While dropping to third after a final stop to top-up energy, behind the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Valkyrie of Roman De Angelis, Jaminet said he was content remaining in that position.

This was especially the case knowing he was already in prime position to help Porsche win the GTP manufacturers’ championship, by being ahead of the two Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06s.

“We knew we could seal everything,” he said. “I think the 7 [car] was a little bit further back. It was up to me and the team to not do a stupid mistake that would have been very costly.

“I was pretty relaxed but yeah, it didn’t make sense to push too much and make too much risks at that point.”

It marked back-to-back driver, team and manufacturer titles for Porsche Penske, although Felipe Nasr and Dane Cameron won the drivers’ championship last year.

Jaminet and Campbell become only the second driving duo to win an IMSA GT championship followed by a prototype title together, after Sascha Maassen and Lucas Luhr won American Le Mans Series GT titles in 2022 and 2023 followed by the LMP2 championship in 2006, also in a No. 6 Porsche entry run by Penske.

“That’s two years in IMSA partnering together and two championships,” said Campbell. “I’m very proud of that and doing it next to a good friend with Mathieu.

“We’ve formed a really good partnership over the last years, even though we might not have driven together the last couple [of years], coming back together this year has worked phenomenally.

“We’ve really hit the ground running.

“For sure it wasn’t the whole year we wanted, from the start of the year, lacking a little bit behind the 7 [car] but I think it really showed our consistency and our drive together that put us in this position for the championship title.

“It’s a very, very special day. A day I won’t forget and I’m extremely grateful to the whole team, Mathieu and also Larry stepping in. Unfortunately Julien had an issue.

“It’s a great day and clinching every championship it that much more special for the team as well.”

When asked if he considered that Saturday’s race could be the last time they’d be driving together amid a reduced and likely revised driver roster following Porsche Penske’s withdrawal from the FIA World Endurance Championship, Campbell said, “Yeah for sure.”

He added: “These things cross your mind but at the end of the day we were focused on the job at hand.

“We wanted to try and clinch this championship. What happens after this weekend is obviously a little bit out of our control.

“Nevertheless, we’re trying to make the most of these special moments because, to do it with this guy, it’s a really good feeling once again.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John