Jaminet Serves up Home Cookin’, Puts Pfaff Porsche on GTD PRO Pole

The plaid Porsche from Canada was nearly perfect on its home track in GTD PRO qualifying for the Chevrolet Grand Prix. Mathieu Jaminet recorded a lap of 1 minute, 15.468 seconds (117.300 mph) Saturday to secure the Motul Pole Award for the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship team based less than an hour away from Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in suburban Toronto.

“That’s the best present I can give to the boys,” Jaminet said of the Pfaff crew. “They’ve been working hard the last two days to make it happen and improve the car. Even after (practice), we weren’t really sure what we had. But they put together a really good setup to make it better.”

Jaminet will start 13th overall in Sunday’s two-hour, 40-minute race. He’ll co-drive the fan-favorite Porsche with Matt Campbell after Jaminet’s pole-winning effort added another 35 points to their class-leading total.

It’s the first time the WeatherTech Championship has raced at CTMP since 2019 and the first Jaminet and Campbell time will race at the track, so they used videos of past performances to acquaint themselves with the 10-turn, 2.459-mile layout.

“This was pretty much it for our preparation,” said Jaminet, who was able to test recently at CTMP. “We also watched the last IMSA race there on TV. We’ll see tomorrow. We’ve already seen in practice (that) traffic is difficult with the (prototypes). Let’s see how it plays out, for sure we’ll have to be careful in traffic.”

Alex Riberas posted the second-fastest lap in GTD PRO – 1:15.890 (116.647 mph) – in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 he co-drives with Ross Gunn. John Edwards moved up to third late in the 15-minute session with a lap of 1:15.899 (116.633 mph) in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL BMW M4 GT3 he shares with Connor De Phillippi.

Sunday’s GTD race counts toward the IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup and not for the overall season championship. Snow, Sellers and the No. 1 BMW lead the Sprint Cup standings, now by 138 points over Bill Auberlen, Robby Foley and the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW. Montecalvo and the No. 12 Lexus are in third, 183 points from the lead.

Sunday’s race airs live at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.