Pfaff Motorsports Announces Its Withdrawal from the IMSA Championship

Pfaff Motorsports will close its program in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at the end of the 2026 season. This was confirmed by Chris Pfaff in interviews with RACER and DailySportscar, one day after Andrea Caldarelli and Sandy Mitchell secured for the Lamborghini Temerario GT3 its first victory in the IMSA GTD PRO category, at Road America. Seven years of history in the category come to an end so the company can focus its resources elsewhere.

Photo By IMSA

The main reason is Pfaff Automotive's involvement in the purchase of Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The historic Ontario circuit will absorb a large part of the budget and the team has chosen to invest there instead of maintaining the IMSA racing program. Chris Pfaff said that the structure will not disappear and that other sports projects are already being studied. He also did not rule out a return to IMSA, but the current effort will end when the championship does. "The structure will remain active, just somewhere else. The cars are being put away, but they are not retired," he stated.

The legacy of the Scottish plaid

The news hits hard because Pfaff's legacy is much bigger than its recent results. The team entered IMSA in 2019 with a Porsche 911 GT3 R and a Scottish plaid livery that was born almost by accident. It was winter of 2018, it was cold in Ontario, and several team members were working in the workshop wearing flannel shirts. Someone mentioned that design would look good on the race car, and creative director Laurance Yap put together a quick mockup in Photoshop. To Chris Pfaff it was a hit, Castrol gave the green light, and the red and black plaids became the team's hallmark. Zacharie Robichon, a driver from that era, said that the livery represented exactly what they were: ordinary people, racing fans, approachable because they dressed like the fans.

Photo By IMSA

With that identity, Pfaff built one of the most successful independent projects in North American motorsports. With Porsche it won the GTD championship in 2021, the first GTD Pro title in 2022, and the class win at the 24 Hours of Daytona that same year, as well as victories at Sebring, Laguna Seca, Lime Rock, VIR, and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Laurens Vanthoor, Matt Campbell, Mathieu Jaminet, Patrick Pilet, and Dennis Olsen all drove for the team. The plaids became so popular that in 2022 they decided to paint them directly onto the championship-winning Porsche instead of using vinyl, because they had already become part of its identity.

The victory at Road America

When they left Porsche in 2025 and became the main partner for Lamborghini in GTD Pro, the plaids went with them. Pfaff was the first team in the world to put the Lamborghini Temerario GT3 in an official race, at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2026. Andrea Caldarelli, Sandy Mitchell, and Franck Perera were part of that debut. Months later, in Detroit, the same car achieved the first top-three result for the model in IMSA, and last weekend at Road America, Caldarelli and Mitchell gave the Temerario its first GTD PRO victory. Steve Bortolotti, general manager, said the car's reliability was incredible and that the pace would come with time. Caldarelli, who has been with Lamborghini for ten years, commented that seeing where they were twelve months ago and ending up winning with that car was crazy.

Photo By IMSA

The success at Road America ended a 36-race winless streak for the team, which had not celebrated since Sebring 2023. It was a bittersweet celebration, because the following morning Chris Pfaff announced the closure of the program. The relationship with Lamborghini will also end at the end of the year, although the owner said he does not rule out working with the Italian brand again at another stage.

Before the curtain falls, Pfaff will contest the three remaining rounds on the calendar: Virginia International Raceway, Indianapolis, and Petit Le Mans. They will be the last races for a team that earned its place in IMSA history with drivers who knew how to win, a livery that started as a joke, and a way of understanding racing that fans always appreciated.