Forte to Lend Spare Lamborghini Chassis to Pfaff After FP2 Crash

Photo: John Dagys

Forte Racing has lent its spare Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 chassis to Pfaff Motorsports for the Canadian squad to make tomorrow’s Motul SportsCar Grand Prix following an accident by Marco Mapelli in Saturday’s practice session at Road America.

Mapelli and the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson of Benjamin Pedersen had contact going up the hill on the front-straight, sending the Italian’s GTD Pro Lamborghini hard into the concrete barriers.

The impact, which damaged the concrete wall, resulted in terminal chassis, engine and gearbox damage according to Pfaff team manager Steve Bortolotti, who along with the help of Lamborghini Squadra Corse, reached out to their fellow GT3 teams for assistance.

Both Forte and Wayne Taylor Racing offered spare chassis, although only the Forte Lamborghini was on-site.

“The Lamborghini family has been amazing,” Bortolotti told Sportscar365. “They didn’t have to do this but we’re obviously very thankful to [Forte] and Wayne Taylor, who both had solutions that we could implement.

“We’re not planning to make qualifying. I think our plan is to just get the car up to 2025 IMSA-spec, with the torque sensors and all of that today and take our time and do it right and be ready to rock for tomorrow.”

Forte team owner Shane Seneviratne said the decision to lend their spare car to Pfaff  “came without any hesitation.”

“I think it’s a pretty simple thing,” Seneviratne told Sportscar365. “IMSA is a big family. If the 57 car crashed and I had a Mercedes, I would give it to them.

“We’re so close to Lamborghini. We’ve had a great working relationship; we share data. We operate as a group and Lamborghini has put some great people into place and we’re trying to build that group together.

“I think it’s just the right thing to do. It came without any hesitation.”

Seneviratne said the chassis was most recently shaken down at Buttonwillow Raceway Park in California prior to the Long Beach weekend in April, although the car needs to be updated to IMSA’s latest specification, which includes the installation of the mandatory torque sensors.

“I’m happy to help,” he added. “The car should be good to go. We want to wish them all the luck in getting the scrutineering stuff transferred.

“It’s a smaller grid for them [in GTD Pro], so even if they start from the back, I think they have opportunities to make up some good points.”

Seneviratne revealed that his own team faced a similar situation two years ago, which saw the team swap to a Lamborghini-owned chassis to make the race based on a handshake with the Italian manufacturer, which had a spare car on site at the time.

“Misha [Goikhberg] crashed the car in first practice and we qualified the next day and we raced,” he said. “They’re in the same situation.

“That’s one of the things I love about racing. When things happen, everyone is willing to help and it becomes family.”

When asked about the incident in practice, which Pfaff was due to lose their fastest lap in qualifying due to bringing out a red flag, Bortolotti said: “I’m disappointed with what happened in practice.”

Jonathan Grace contributed to this report

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