Pfaff looking to build upon solid Sebring debut for Lamborghini Temerario GT3

Pfaff Motorsports General Manager Steve Bortolotti looked back at a milestone race at last month’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, in which his team achieved almost all of the goals that it had set for the new Lamborghini Temerario GT3’s world racing debut.

Speaking to RACER after the race, Bortolotti said, “It went really well, I think. We were proud to make it to the end of the race. That was the goal going into it, and we executed on it,” as the trio of Andrea Caldarelli, Sandy Mitchell, and Franck Perera brought the No. 9 Lamborghini home to a tenth-place finish in GTD Pro, completing 319 laps.

“I was very proud of everybody at Lamborghini and Pfaff Motorsports for working well together, and achieving our collective goal that we set for ourselves for the event.”

Months of development, design, and testing culminated in the famous red and black buffalo plaid Pfaff Temerario’s first race weekend, where a crowd of over 115,000 spectators got their first chance to see and hear the car for the first time.

“Even though it was a new car, we went feeling ready, because we had done so much mileage in November (testing),” Bortolotti recalled. “Prior to that, to Lamborghini’s credit, they were very inclusive of all the teams, not just Pfaff Motorsports, in the development process. And that ultimately allowed us to be ready for the debut of the new car. I was proud that we accomplished our goal: To last the 12 hours. "

The Pfaff Temerario finishing two laps behind the class-winning Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R, just short of the lead-lap target that Bortolotti had set.

“We had one small brake issue with an hour and a half to go that made us lose a lap. I think we were really on pace to be on the lead lap, which was one of those ‘nice to have’ goals,” he admitted. “Which is a bit of a bummer, but at the same time, it was an issue that we had not seen in any of the testing.

“At some point, we have to just start, right? You have to just go enter a race, and there’s certain things that you can’t just replicate in a test, no matter how hard you try, what a race will do to a car. Anyway, we were glad that the car wasn’t damaged in having a brake issue, because that’s obviously a dangerous thing. We were able to rectify the problem and get back out there, and get to the finish, which was ultimately the goal.”

For Pfaff's Bortolotti, the main goal for the Temerario's debut race was to finish. With that box ticked, the team is now looking for a win. Jake Galstad/IMSA

Even if the new car wasn’t in a place to compete for a podium or victory in its very first race, making it to the checkered flag clears a big hurdle for the program as Pfaff embarks on the rest of its maiden season with the Temerario GT3. This includes a one-off GTD class entry at Long Beach, where Caldarelli will share the car (wearing No. 46 this weekend) with talented young Canadian driver Zachary Vanier.

From there, the process of learning how to extract more performance out of the twin-turbo V8-powered Temerario GT3 begins in earnest. “I think the aero window of the most modern GT3-spec cars is different from what the Huracán was built off of. So while there are a lot of similarities, the car is built and designed to a whole different aero specification,” Bortolotti explained. “We’re not there yet. I mean, we’re certainly getting there, I think we’re finding our way forward.

“We’ve got a robust test plan throughout the summer to get the car dialed in. We have a test at Laguna (Seca) after Long Beach, which will be great. And then we’ll test at CTMP, we’ll test at a few tracks that we feel like we can learn something and apply. It’s probably too early to say at this point, from a handling standpoint, but I know the drivers are very happy with the window we got the car into for the race.” 

And Bortolotti is also happy to work with three top-of-the-line Lamborghini Squadra Corse factory drivers in Caldarelli, Mitchell, and Perera to help push the Temerario’s development along. “The three of them get along extremely well together, both in terms of a working relationship and debrief, but also off the track as well,” he says of his drivers. “I got a glimpse of it at the test because those three drivers were at the test we were doing in November.

“But getting a chance to see it in a competitive environment was really great. I couldn’t be happier to have checked that box with the three of them, and look forward to working with Franck again at Petit (Le Mans) later in the year.”

In the time between Sebring and Long Beach, the Lamborghini Temerario GT3 has made its European racing debut. Though, a bit like Pfaff’s run at Sebring, Grasser Racing Team and Rutronik Racing would have been happy just to finish GT World Challenge Europe’s six-hour classic at Paul Ricard (and of the two, only GRT went the distance). They are proud teams with successful histories, and will want nothing less than to be competitive with their new cars as the season rolls on.

It’s the same story at Pfaff, a team that was given new life and purpose when partnering with Lamborghini for the 2025 season. This fan-favorite Canadian team is now the flag carrier for Lamborghini in North American sports car racing. Now that they’ve shown that the Temerario can finish a race with minimal strife, Bortolotti and his team want to snap a painful winless drought in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, one that’s now surpassed three years and two manufacturer changes.

“We went to that race [Sebring] with the goal of finishing, right? Now, those goals are going to change, come Long Beach, come Laguna,” he said. “We got the Twelve Hour box checked and now we need to go and change those goals to be podiums and top-fives, and then hopefully a race win before the year’s end.

“Our competitors are all pushing to do the same, but we want to be contending for race wins and podiums, week in and week out. And as the season gets towards the back half, that’s the goal. And if we’re consistently contending for podiums and wins, I truly believe that we’ll get one.”