Jarvis Impressed by Pfaff Amid Late McLaren Delivery

Oliver Jarvis says he’s seen Pfaff Motorsports’ title-winning qualities shine through amid a rushed build-up to the Rolex 24 at Daytona with its new McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.

Jarvis is contesting the full IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season this year for the first time since he won the DPi title for Meyer Shank Racing in 2022, partnering McLaren factory driver Marvin Kirchhoefer in the GTD Pro class.

It also marks his return to GT cars since his final outings with the now-defunct Bentley GT3 program in 2020.

Jarvis said he was convinced to join the McLaren-backed effort when he realized that it would be run by Pfaff, which won the title in the GTD category in 2021 before repeating the feat in GTD Pro in 2022, both times with Porsche machinery.

“I had a few options in LMP2, but McLaren asked if I would be interested, and I said ‘absolutely’ when I heard who was running the car,” Jarvis told Sportscar365. 

“I made the decision very quickly: full pro line-up, double championship-winning team. They didn’t get the car until mid-December, they’ve done an incredible amount of work.

“But even last year, we saw Inception [Racing] was quick, so you would like to think that has stayed the same. Hopefully we can be reliable, stay out of trouble, and be there at the end.”

Jarvis was unable to drive the 720S GT3 Evo in the IMSA-sanctioned test at Daytona International Speedway as Pfaff didn’t take delivery of the car until afterwards, although he did sample a test car in a rain-affected private test at Estoril late last year.

On McLaren’s relative lack of success in the GT3 arena compared to some of its rivals, he added: “McLaren have gone about it a different way from some manufacturers with full works programs, but in Pfaff they’ve got a fantastic team.

“Already after a short time I can see how professional Pfaff is and why they have won two titles in the past three years.”

Jarvis was entrusted with qualifying the Pfaff McLaren on the final day of the Roar Before the 24 on Sunday, setting the sixth-fastest time in GTD Pro.

“Obviously I’d like to be a bit further up, but the way the qualifying worked with our shortened session (after a crash for the Kellymoss by Riley Porsche), I really only had one lap to do the time,” he said. “So ahead of the 24 Hours, it’s not a bad starting place at all. 

“We have a good car and we’re learning every session, including myself. Every session we’ve been making positive steps, so we’re pointed in the right direction ahead of next weekend.”

Pfaff team manager Steve Bortolotti, meanwhile, stated that the Canadian squad’s main goal for its first Rolex 24 with new GT3 partner McLaren is “just get to the end” as it looks to build experience with the 720S GT3 Evo.

“We’re starting a little on the back foot,” he told Sportscar365. “I honestly think (it would be good) if we can go out there and have a clean race. 

“Our car doesn’t have a lot of miles on it, which might even work to our benefit as some of these cars have seen a lot of testing miles. If we can just have a clean race and we get what we get, we’ll be happy.

“The goal is to just run for all 24 hours, have a clean race and start the relationship off (strong). Even if it’s a 24-hour test period, it will be valuable.”

John Dagys contributed to this report