How Pfaff put the plaid into Lamborghini

Pfaff Motorsports’ Steve Bortolotti is proud – and confident – after putting together a new program with Lamborghini that has helped not only keep the well-loved Canadian team in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, but to potentially return to fighting for podiums, victories, and a GTD PRO title from the outset.

It’s been a rollercoaster ride over the past few months. Back towards the end of the 2024 IMSA season, it seemed that a mutual separation from McLaren after just one year would also lead to the team scaling back its involvement in motorsport.

“I think they and us weren’t getting out of the partnership what we both wanted. So come late summer, early fall, it was becoming obvious that we needed to find something else to do. It was unfortunate. For a moment there, it looked like we weren’t going to be on the grid just around Petit (Le Mans),” admitts Bortolotti.

“And then after that, the deal we were working on to stay on the grid, fell through. So frankly, we told our staff, ‘Go find work – we’re not racing.’ So it was disappointing.”

Sitting in the Pfaff team truck with RACER, he turns and gestures towards a photo of the team’s first IMSA win, looking at people who’d been with the team since the beginning of this adventure. It was difficult, he recalls, to have to tell those people that it was over, to prepare to reorganize and regroup further down the sports car racing pyramid.

It was a staggering fall from 2021 and 2022, when Pfaff won consecutive GTD and GTD PRO titles with the 911 GT3 R. Bortolotti was behind the equally difficult decision to leave Porsche for McLaren in the first place. And unfortunately, the new union of team and manufacturer just wasn’t a good fit, though Bortolotti doesn’t place blame on either side of the equation.

Fast-forward to the off-season and it was Lamborghini that provided the team a lifeline. The Italian manufacturer wanted a full-season GTD PRO presence but needed a new team to provide that presence amidst its own high-profile separation from Iron Lynx.

As he recalls, “It was like a random Tuesday night. I was walking the dog, and I got a phone call from a number I didn’t have saved in my phone. I ignored it, and sure enough, I get a text saying, ‘Hey Steve, it’s Erik (Skirmants, Lamborghini Senior Manager of Motorsport). It’s my new number – can we have a call?’ So I called him right away, and I was like, ‘Man, it’s late, but here’s hoping it works out. Let’s give it a shot.'”

Very quickly, Bortolotti and Lamborghini worked to assemble a partnership that would work for both parties.

“I didn’t want to entertain an Endurance Cup thing – for me, it was full-season or nothing,” he says. “That race in Canada means everything to us. Even Detroit – frankly, that race means a ton to our partners as well.

“From my side, I needed to see what could happen to entertain it. And then from Lamborghini’s side, they were like, oh, that’s an option that was even better for them. It was a match made in heaven. They had what I needed, which was, ultimately, an entry in a car – or at least have access to a car.”

After rushing to put Pfaff’s band back together, Bortolotti is thrilled to be starting fresh with a Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2, dressed in its finest plaid and armed to the teeth with some of the best personnel that Lamborghini Squadra Corse can provide.

Pfaff landed with Lamborghini after several strong years running Porsches (above) and then a more difficult season with a McLaren. Barry Cantrell/IMSA

“A lot of the technical support is going to be there from them in the background,” he says. “With engineering and that sort of stuff, we’re very fortunate. Our new engineer has experience with the Lamborghini – he won the DTM Championship last year with SSR, so he’s been fantastic. They’re definitely going to be a lot more involved in our program than we had in the past.”

With Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli leading Pfaff’s full-season GTD PRO effort, Pfaff has assembled one of the strongest and most competitive line-ups in the field that stacks up well against some of GTD PRO’s bigger teams – not unlike how Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell excelled for Pfaff in 2022.

Bortolotti couldn’t heap enough praise on his new drivers. “It’s amazing having people who truly, truly know the car. And in Marco’s case, he’s been there from day one,” he says. ”

It’s huge. You know, for us it’s a new car. The drivers; they know where to drive the setup, they know the direction, they know the IMSA championship.

“It’s invaluable having their experience, and obviously they’re extremely talented – and they seem like they get on really well too! That goes such a long way for team morale. Because the morale in the team is incredible as a result of that friendship. They all want to make the drivers happy.”

Along with Rolex 24 reinforcement Jordan Pepper, Pfaff Motorsports was able to retain another fan-favorite Canadian motorsport icon, James Hinchcliffe, despite the uncertainty within the team during the Autumn months, and the uncertainty around Hinch’s own broadcasting future which has now been settled.

“He knew when we were not racing – and he was one of the first people to know when it looked like we might be,” Bortolotti recalls. “Having that transparency was everything. I know he had some feelers out there, other opportunities, but we were thankfully able to put a deal together with him for Daytona, Sebring, and Road Atlanta.”

Perhaps it would have been wise to expect Pfaff and Lamborghini to have modest expectations considering how quickly everything came together and how late the new car actually arrived in the Ontario shop, but yet, Caldarelli’s top time during the Roar Before The 24 has raised those prospects somewhat.

“I don’t want to sound too bullish, but I think we have the driver line-up that can compete for a championship,” Bortolotti says. “With Lamborghini’s support, we were able to get the right people in the right places to help move that along. It’s going to be a steep learning curve, for sure.

“The platform is amazing. And honestly, getting the car late was less of an issue than I anticipated it to be. The guys at Wayne Taylor Racing and Forte Racing have been open book – like, ‘Here, this is what we’re doing.’ And they helped us get up to speed. I attended a test here in December with them. We didn’t have our car yet, but they’re just like, ‘Hey, bring a notebook, take all the pictures you want. Sit in debriefs and really get immersed!’ So that was awesome.

Pfaff anticipates a steep learning curve with the Lamborghini, but is still setting high expectations for the season based on the strength of both the car and the team. Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

“The car is very established – I won’t go as far as to call it simple, compared to what we’ve seen in the past. But it’s very reminiscent of a car that’s well-sorted. Like any car, it’s got things that it does really well.

“Being able to service it and work on it is one of those things that, I think, is one of the strengths of the car. The mechanics, from day one, have been like, ‘Wow, this is a great car to work on!’ It’s by no means easy – it’s still a GT3 car, they’ve become a lot more complex – but just the way the car goes together, it’s very modular, sections come on and off quite easily.

“It’s a lot more rewarding when you can just change a whole corner in five minutes versus having to pull the whole car apart.”

After the difficulties of 2024 and switching manufacturers once again, Bortolotti is making it clear that this new venture with Lamborghini will bring the team the long-term stability it’s been missing.

“It’s definitely meant to be a long-term relationship,” he asserts. “I didn’t want to leave Porsche – in reality, Pfaff was racing Porsches since before I was born. So for us to leave, that was such a big decision for us.

“I don’t want to be one of those teams that’s just bouncing around. We really want to dig our roots in and have a home with a manufacturer. In a perfect world, we have a long-term relationship with Lamborghini, and we continue to do that for many years to come.”

With praise for the vision of new Lamborghini Squadra Corse’s new Head of Motorsport, Maurizio Leschiutta, Bortolotti feels good about where both his team and the manufacturer are heading towards the future, with the new Temerario GT3 right down the pipeline. “That’s going to take us, as a collective, to a very good place in the future,” he says.

After all, Bortolotti – who is connected to sports car racing’s growing, opinionated fan base – would like to show just how good this new-look plaid Lamborghini can be.

“I think I’ve put us in a position, starting in 2025, to really take this to the next level,” he says. “Because I want to be at the front, man. I want Pfaff Motorsports to compete against the best race teams in the world, week in and week out, and try to prove to the sports car racing community that Pfaff Motorsports can take on giants like Corvette Racing.”