'Pfaff-style race' in Detroit nets first Temerario podium for Lamborghini

Keeping a level head when many other IMSA GTD Pro contenders lost their composure played a major role in helping Pfaff Motorsports take the Lamborghini Temerario GT3’s first-ever podium finish in worldwide competition this Saturday in Detroit.

Caldarelli and Sandy Mitchell went from the back of the ten-car GTD Pro grid to finish second, just under two seconds behind the winning No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R of Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims.

“I would say it was a Pfaff-style race,” said Steve Bortolotti, the general manager of Pfaff Motorsports. “We had a clean start, we didn’t make any mistakes in the pits. The drivers, to their credit, didn’t make any errors on track, stayed out of everyone else’s fierce battles, and we picked up the pieces.

“We made a lot of headway on the car this weekend. From where we were in practice and qualifying, to where we were in the race, we felt like we made some good steps on the handling of our car. And we’re really proud of the first podium for the Temerario GT3 globally.”

It’s the first podium for Lamborghini’s new GT3 car in what has been an otherwise-troubled first year of limited-scale competition across IMSA, GT World Challenge Europe, and the DTM.

The Temerario GT3’s early DTM struggles, in particular, led to a scathing report from German publication Motorsport-Total after its first DTM rounds at the Red Bull Ring. It suggested that Lamborghini would have been better off reverting back to the previous-generation Huracán GT3 EVO2, and that “only an Evo version would save the project” due to issues in braking, cornering, and driver assist systems.

Bortolotti and his team have effectively tuned it out, making significant progress with the car in the last three IMSA races, including a competitive GTD one-off at Long Beach, and a top-five finish at Laguna Seca.

That progress culminated in this first podium, a result which should be a major morale boost for the staff at Lamborghini’s Sant’Agata Bolognese headquarters, and for the Temerario GT3’s fellow launch customers overseas.

“Lamborghini has been an incredible partner through this whole process, and the teams in Europe are making some big strides with the car as well,” Bortolotti stated. “And we’re proud to get the first podium.

“We just want to help them sell some cars in this market and grow the Temerario GT3 platform here in North America. That’s our goal, and that’s our commitment to Lamborghini, and we can only do that by having it on the podium consistently.”

It wasn’t a result achieved by sheer pace, though Caldarelli’s fastest lap was the third-quickest of all the second-stint drivers.

But when the GTD Pro class in particular was marred with so many incidents as a result of drivers taking needless risks under the temptation of Detroit’s tight confines, a clean race for the blue and white Lamborghini was a remarkable achievement.

The only close call with disaster in the last few laps came when Caldarelli tapped the left-rear of Aaron Telitz’s No. 15 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus when attempting to pass him at turn three. Telitz was able to keep all four wheels pointed forward though, and milliseconds later, an incident between RLL Team McLaren’s Max Esterson and Ford Racing’s Dennis Olsen behind them rendered the former incident insignificant.

“He can be spicy when he wants to be,” Bortolotti said of the Italian driver, who brought the car up from eighth place after Mitchell’s 30-minute opening stint. “But I think today, he drove an incredible race.

“He was very calm out there. He was very tactful, and when he was able to take positions, especially his pass on the No. 1 car (Paul Miller Racing BMW), I thought it was clean, but aggressive. He was able to pick up the pieces when others had issues.”

One day later, fellow customer Rutronik Racing’s Temerario GT3 scored a season-best seventh-place finish at the GT World Challenge Europe 3 Hours of Monza; just like Detroit, Rutronik escaped the lowest moments of a carnage-filled race to achieve a breakthrough result, reinforcing the value of a clean race.