Jaminet “Maximized Everything” for Pfaff’s Fifth Victory of Year

Photo: Rick Dole/IMSA

Mathieu Jaminet said he “maximized everything” to help deliver Pfaff Motorsports’ fifth victory of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.

The Frenchman and fellow Porsche factory driver Matt Campbell have virtually clinched the GTD Pro title, needing to only start the season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans to be crowned champions, following another controlling win Sunday at Virginia International Raceway.

Jaminet was one of the first cars to make his final pit stop, with the Canadian squad electing to take on fuel and fresh rear Michelin tires to maintain the class lead ahead of the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD of Jordan Taylor.

While not initially in a fuel save mode, Jaminet’s gap to the Corvette was considerably reduced in the closing laps as he had to stretch the mileage of his Porsche 911 GT3 R.

“It was super tight,” he admitted. “Guys went on different strategies without a stop. And we took only two [new] rear tires, which is not very common.

“The car was super hard to drive but I had to push flat out.

“We were pretty tight on fuel in the end, so we had some quite big savings in the last two laps. We knew the Corvette was going to catch back.

“It was pretty tight and on the in lap we ran out of fuel. It was a good calculation from the boys. We maximized everything and it’s one more win in the bag.”

Jaminet ran in seventh overall with with 25 minutes to go, prior to a series of pit stops for splashes of fuel for five of the six cars that had elected to stay out in the hopes of getting a late-race yellow.

He got around the GTD class No. 27 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Maxime Martin for the overall lead with four minutes to go.

“It wasn’t easy,” Jaminet said. “At the restart I was kind of blocked behind the [Hardpoint] Porsche and [Magnus] Aston with a big pressure from the [RLL] BMW.

“I think they were able to turn on the tires a little bit better than us.

“We had a fight and some big, big pressure in the first two or three laps. But then I could definitely manage and pass the GTD cars and pull a gap.”

With the duo holding a 265-point lead over Corvette’s Taylor and Antonio Garcia with only one round to go, Campbell said they can enter October’s season finale with significantly less pressure.

“As we said going into the weekend our approach — even with the championship more or less in the bag — was still exactly the same as we had done for the whole year so far, and that was to try and do the best job possible and try to get another win,” he said.

“Luckily enough we were able to do that with the strategy and the boys on the stand.

“It was an incredible race and result. It’s a fantastic feeling with five wins on the board and now we can try to have some fun at Petit and send the car off with another win for the last time.”

Campbell described the season as “very magical” for he and Jaminet, who have been the measure of consistency in the new-for-2022 category.

“It’s hard to beat a season like the one we’ve had,” he said. “It’s fair to say we’ve been pretty dominant.

“We’ve only been off the podium once the whole year. I think it just shows the level the whole team is at.

“Mathieu has done a fantastic job all year and as a group we’ve been working really, really well together.

“I think as a package, we’ve for sure been the strongest down pit lane overall in all areas, which is very, very cool.”

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