For the first time in over three years, the Pfaff Motorsports team will travel home as winners, after emerging triumphant at Road America with the new and improved Lamborghini Temerario GT3. The result ends a winless streak that dated back to Sebring 2023, when its Porsche 911 GT3 R won in fine style at the hands of Klaus Bachler, Patrick Pilet, and Laurens Vanthoor.
This weekend, the Pfaff team, with its updated Temerario GT3 sporting a new Brembo brake package, achieved what it could not with the McLaren GT3 Evo or Lamborghini Huracán: put together a class win, notably in the second-ever IMSA endurance round for its car.
It also marked the team’s second podium of the season, after a second-place finish back at Detroit. While that P2 result just across the border may have seemed like a one-off, the Canadian crew’s performance this weekend has made a statement about what the Temerario is capable of.
Starting the race down in eighth position after a tricky qualifying, the #9 Lamborghini looked to hang back and try an alternative strategy that could catch the leading Porsches and Corvettes.
“I think the Porsches were very fast, even yesterday in qualifying, so at the beginning we were just holding position. Then we got a couple of good calls on the pit strategy,” commented Andrea Calderelli post-race.
Just before the halfway mark of the six-hour contest, ‘Lady Luck’ was on the team’s side when a full-course caution cropped up while it was in the pits for its second stop of the race.
“There was one yellow, the last one before we changed from Sandy to myself, which, when we pitted, the yellow came just a couple of laps after, and that gave us a couple of positions,” Caldarelli added.
The #9 cycled out to restart the race third in class, challenging alongside the #911 Manthey Porsche and the alternative-strategy #59 RLL McLaren before losing two positions to the charging #77 AO Racing Porsche and #4 Corvette Racing cars. However, it was not long before they were back up into the top three after scheduled pit stops for the competition ahead.
Lightning struck twice when they wheeled the Temerario in from third position to end driver Sandy Mitchell’s stint with two hours and two minutes remaining, just five minutes before the #7 Porsche Penske 963 car got beached at Turn 6, bringing out another opportune full-course caution. This handed longtime Lamborghini driver Calderelli the lead, which he would carry to the chequered flag.
“There was another yellow where I’m pretty proud of the team and the communication we had, because I was off-sync with the strategy. They told me to save energy during the yellow, then push in the middle of the lap, because there were people in the pit lane. That was actually what gave us the P1 that we kept until the end,” said Calderelli. “I think it was a bit of luck, but at the same time, it was a massive strategy job from the guys.”
Pfaff Motorsports journey with the Temerario started months before it brought it to its first IMSA race at Sebring earlier this season. Testing it for the first time in October of last year, the Canadian crew has been integral in the development of the Temerario programme worldwide, and was responsible for its global race debut in March at Sebring.
“There’s been so much work behind the scenes throughout this year, as well as developing the car last year, and continuing that development into this year, whether that’s at the race events or testing in the background,” said Sandy Mitchell.
Since its debut, the Temerario has had some growing pains, but that has only pushed the Pfaff team to dig deeper.
“Of course, it’s been challenging at times. It’s never easy to come into such a competitive championship like IMSA [with a new GT3 car] and be competitive straight away,” Mitchell said.
“But to have a P2 and a win this season at this point is more than what we would have expected. So just super happy for everyone that’s involved in this programme because it’s been a really big effort.
“Just super proud of everyone at Lamborghini Squadra Corse and, of course, Pfaff, for continuing to keep pushing forward with the car.”
The Temerario GT3’s prospects this weekend were not immediately obvious. The car finished the first and only dry practice session last in GTD Pro, and the second practice session sixth in wet conditions.
Because several rival teams tested in Elkhart Lake ahead of this weekend, Pfaff Motorsports had some catching up to do on the Temerario’s first appearance at the track. Following Qualifying on Saturday, the team stayed late to trial a new set-up that apparently gave it what had been lacking up to that point in the event, Calderelli revealed.
“We didn’t come here for testing like most of the other teams did a couple of weeks before, so we were a bit behind in qualifying,: he added. “We worked really hard overnight, and we tried the setup that worked in the race, but we didn’t know if it was going to work.”
The result in Detroit came in part from the Lamborghini keeping its nose clean in the calamity caused by its competitors. This time, once it got rolling, Pfaff put together an entirely spotless race with excellent performances from the drivers, strategists, and mechanics. Compared to their happenstance podium at Detroit, this was the kind of performance race teams hope for week in, week out.
“This one, I think, feels more special because we did everything right,” said Calderelli.
“I think we had everything: we had strategy, we had pace, we had a car that actually didn’t break down. It’s a massive thing, and we can’t forget this is the first year of the car. We didn’t have any reliability issues, so this one feels — especially for an endurance race, which is the first victory for the Temerario — it’s very special.”
Going forward, the Temerario will continue to benefit from a new upgraded brake package that could put the new GT3 firmly in contention for big results. The improvement from Mosport to Road America was noticeable, with the team reporting a significant performance gain that bodes well ahead of the season’s closing races.
“It’s a part of the small upgrade package that we’re planning to roll out worldwide for the car in the races to come during the rest of the season, and it seemed to work well,” commented Mitchell. “We were happy with how that went, so I think it’s going in the right direction, but I think it’s one small part of a lot of things this weekend that we improved.”
“We are learning a lot race by race, as a team, and as drivers and everything, so it was a really good step forward.”
Image courtesy of Jack Webster
