DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The last two hours of the 60th Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway were “maybe the most stressful of” Mathieu Jaminet’s life.
After nearly five hours without a caution, there were two restarts during the final 90 minutes.
At the end of the last 30-minute stretch, the outcome of the GTD PRO class culminated in “a crazy fight” between Jaminet and his fellow Porsche driver Laurens Vanthoor.
On the final lap, with Helio Castroneves on his way to the overall win, Jaminet and Vanthoor capped off a show that had seen them trade spots multiple times in the previous half hour.
“It was sometimes on the limit, maybe even over,” Jaminet said. “In the end we took care, let’s say, and tried to made it to the end even though we had some small contacts. Last chicane was kind of crazy.”
The battle ended with the two drivers making contact going into the backstretch chicane, with Jaminet on the inside of Vanthoor. That contact sent Vanthoor and his No. 2 KCMG Porsche 911 GT3R into a spin.
The racing between Jaminet and Vanthoor was so intense, Jaminet “didn’t know it was the last lap” in the moment.
“I was just on the inside. I braked like very late,” Jaminet said. “He was braking later than me, so I knew this is not going to work (laughter). We basically both tried to make the corner. Yeah, we just couldn’t make it. He hit my rear right. I kind of lost the car. We touched and he spun. I nearly spun as well.”
Jaminet, who shared his No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R with Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr, raced on to take the checkered flag. Vanthoor wound up third in class.
It is the first Rolex 24 win for all three Pfaff drivers and the team in what was the first race for the new GTD PRO class.
“I have to say this guy made us go crazy the last laps,” said Nasr, who competed in his seventh Rolex 24. “We were really jumping out of our seats. I’ve lost my voice. It’s hard when you’re off the car, you’re just watching. What an incredible race. Those final laps were proper racing.”
The finish took on a deeper meaning given that Vanthoor competed for Pfaff Motorsports in 2021.
“We knew how good he was,” team owner Chris Pfaff said. “He actually played a big compliment to you Mathieu, about how you guys are very competitive. We saw that on the track. It was a lot of fun.”
Jaminet was asked why a 24-hour race can come down to contact between two cars on the last lap.
The 27-year-old Frenchman said he didn’t know.
“Obviously, the performance between the cars is super close, between the drivers as well,” Jaminet said. “In the last hours there (wasn’t) many, many yellows. Even though we raced for I think the last 31 minutes, but before that we were also super close with the KCMG.”
In the end “this is why … we love the sport,” Jaminet said. “We are here to race. We love the speed. We love the risk. Then we try to put on a good show.”