Matt Campbell was content to bide his time until he found the right moment to move into the lead of the FCP Euro Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park. Campbell, who claimed the Motul Pole Award on Friday, lost the lead during the first round of pit stops of Saturday’s two-hour, 40-minute IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship contest. But once the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R found its way back to the front of the GT Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) field, it showed unmatched speed.

Campbell stalked and passed Jack Hawksworth in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 just past the halfway point, then handed the car over to teammate Mathieu Jaminet, who extended to a 10-second lead before the only full-course caution of the event flew in the closing stages.

Jaminet aced the restart, then cruised to a 1.883-second margin of victory over Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas (No. 23 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3), with Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat finishing third, 4.078 seconds back.

The series-leading fourth race win of the season for Campbell and Jaminet extended their lead in the GTD PRO championship standings to 215 points over Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia, who finished fourth at Lime Rock in the No. 3 Corvette Racing Corvette C8.R.

“We stuck to our strategy, and it really paid off well for us,” said Campbell. “There was a lot of fuel saving at the beginning, and a few cars went off strategy and we really had to push to make our strategy come back to us. Being in front in clean air is so critical to tire management, and that was the key to our race and our strategy. I had to be patient in the middle stint and be smart in traffic.”

“The key was Matt’s performance in qualifying and the first two stints, because it was all about managing tires,” Jaminet added. “I think the guys that pitted early in their first stint compromised their race. Amazing job again by the Pfaff crew with fast pit stops and faultless strategy. It’s looking good for the championship.”

The Heart of Racing earned podium finishes in both the GTD PRO and GTD classes for the third race in a row, as GTD drivers Roman De Angelis and Maxime Martin in the No. 23 Aston Martin matched the second-place finish achieved by Gunn and Riberas in GTD PRO.

In GTD AM Wrights Motorsports had a tough race but were able to climb up from tenth place to fight for fifth in the final laps, with only 20 minutes lest on the clock a full course yellow came out after a competitor Ryan Eversley in the No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Acura NSX GT3 spun off and hit the tire barrier resulting in the course crew having to fix the barrier. This meant that on the restart Wright Motorsports were back in the mix with the leaders of the race, but after the restart after the full course yellow with only 10 minutes left to race contact from another car dashed those hopes after their car was hit from behind sending the car spinning of the track and dropping them down into sixth place.

By finishing fourth, the No. 32 Team Korthoff Mercedes and co-driver Stevan McAleer retained the GTD season points lead, expanding it to 40 markers over Jan Heylen, Ryan Hardwick and the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.