The switch from full plaid to papaya hasn’t always been smooth for Pfaff Motorsports, and not every fan was happy as the Toronto-area team left Porsche for McLaren. The results, though, are beginning to show as the team heads to its home race at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.
Third-place finishes in GTD PRO for the No. 9 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo in two of the last three races – at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and the six-hour race at Watkins Glen International – plus what should have been a podium in Detroit, are showing that the team hasn’t lost anything in the switch, it’s just taking some time.
“It’s been a trying start to the year.,” declares Pfaff’s team manager, Steve Bortolotti. “Besides Daytona, I’d say the other events haven’t really been much fault of our own. Proud of Laguna, Detroit was tough … but we feel like we’re starting to get somewhere now. And the support has been fantastic from McLaren. The operating costs, surprisingly, have been well below what we’ve experienced in the past.
“So there’s been a lot of positive that we’re seeing from the relationship. We’re just sort of starting to get into the bulk of our testing program for the year now, so I think you’re going to see us start to take some steps forward, and CTMP will be nice, because it’s our home track, and we’ve got a pretty solid platform to be competitive there with the McLaren.”
Pfaff’s core driver lineup of the very experienced, although less so in GT cars, Oliver Jarvis, and McLaren factory shoe Marvin Kirchhöfer, seem to be a good pairing as they build on each other’s strengths. Jarvis is well familiar with the circuits on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and Kirchhöfer obviously knows the McLaren. Together they’re learning from each other.
“I think it’s a really good combination,” says Jarvis. “Because Marvin been able to help me a lot with the car, and I can give him, hopefully, some useful insight into the tracks. But it’s definitely a lot for us to learn as a collective. The team is still learning the car, but I think we’ve made huge progress from our first rollout in Daytona. We’re definitely on an upward trajectory, we just need to get some results now.”
“It’s super helpful to have him as a teammate,” adds Kirchhöfer. “Basically from Laguna on I didn’t know the tracks, I learned a lot from him. And I’m trying to give something back regarding the car setup. But I think we‘re both really up to speed and we just need a bit more luck now.”