Toronto-area motorsport team headed to Daytona for 24-hour race

Mechanics from Pfaff Motorsports put the finishing touches on their plaid-painted Porsche 991.2 GT3 R race car inside a Vaughan, Ont., vehicle shop on Saturday.

They fine-tuned the suspension, checked the aerodynamic settings, and set the wing angle, all before they loaded the car up in a long-haul truck for the trip to Daytona Beach, Fla. — a city synonymous with high-speed car racing.

The Greater Toronto Area-based motorsports team is headed stateside to compete for the fourth time in a gruelling 24-hour endurance race.

The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as Rolex 24, will start with the wave of a green flag at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 28 at the Daytona International Speedway and end the next day at the same time. Drivers will dash around a 5.73 km (3.56 mile) course, stopping only for pit stops, with some cars reaching speeds as high as 280 km/hr.

"The first race is our biggest race. So we start the season with our Super Bowl," said Steve Bortolotti, general manager of Pfaff Motorsports. "It's twice around the clock. There's no break in between."

Plaid-clad racers

Pfaff Motorsports is one of only two Canadian-owned and -operated professional motorsports teams that compete in the International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Their Canadian roots inspired the car's paint job, Bortolotti said, making them easy "fan favourites" among the mostly American crowd.

After aborting the 2020 season amid COVID-19 lockdowns, Pfaff won the championship upon returning to racing last year for the best overall performance throughout the 2021 season.

It was a challenge, particularly given the pandemic border and travel restrictions. Nine out of their 10 races in a normal year are in the U.S.

"We racked up enough time in quarantine or cross-border trips to qualify as cross-border workers," Bortolotti said.

This year, after moving from a mixed professional-amateur category to a full professional one, the Pfaff team is hoping for a podium finish in front of tens of thousands of fans.

"We've been successful over sections of the 24 Hours of Daytona. We've led a bunch of laps. We've been fast," said marketing director Laurance Yap. "This is our opportunity to prove ourselves over the 24 hours."

The Porsche, a factory-built race car that has 530 horsepower, will be driven by a rotation of three "factory drivers," one each from Australia, France and Brazil. They'll take turns at the wheel, switching every three hours or so at pit stops.

Yap said the key is for everyone on the 20-or-so member team — from the engineers to the mechanics to the drivers to the pit stop crew — to be hyper-focused on their tasks and to avoid making mistakes.

"If that happens, all of the pieces fit together and you have a successful weekend," said Yap.

'Looking for that extra tenth of a second'

Technical director and lead engineer Andrew Marangoni is in charge of making sure the car is in its best shape possible, because "you're always looking for that extra tenth of a second."

But precious time can also be also saved by practicing the pit-stop routine until perfect.

"To put it in perspective, you go to ... a lube shop to get your oil changed, your brakes done. You're there for an hour or two hours — these guys do it in 45 seconds," said Marangoni "It takes a lot of effort and choreography to get it down to that speed."

In two weeks, they hope all of the preparation will push the plaid Porche past the finish line — ahead of the competition.