Pfaff Motorsports revealed an all-new driver lineup Monday (Nov. 13) that will contest the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season in the GTD Pro class. While the Porsche 911 GT3 R as raced at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in October is shown above, the team will field a new McLaren 720S GT3 Evo in 2024.
For the full season, the new McLaren will be driven by Oliver Jarvis and Marvin Kirchhoefer. These drivers will replace Klaus Bachler and Patrick Pilet. For the Michelin Endurance Cup races at Daytona, Sebring and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, Jarvis and Kirchhoefer will be joined by the previously announced INDYCAR veteran James Hinchcliffe. Finally, Alexander Rossi will join the team for Daytona.
“I am really excited to be joining Pfaff Motorsports driving a McLaren 720S GT3 EVO,” Jarvis said. “The opportunity to join a proven championship-winning team and to return to IMSA full-time after winning the championship in 2022 made it an easy decision. Whilst it will be my first full season competing in {GTD Pro] in IMSA, I am relishing the opportunity together with my new teammates to fight for victories and ultimately the championship. A huge thanks to everyone at Pfaff Motorsports and McLaren for making this happen!”
Jarvis has years of IMSA experience in prototypes. Most recently, he raced full-time for Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian in 2022 in their Acura ARX-05 alongside Tom Blomqvist. The duo won two races (Daytona and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta) and won the final DPi championship.
In GT equipment, Jarvis’ experience is fairly minimal. He has only two career GT starts in North America. The first of those came in the 2013 Rolex 24 at Daytona for Alex Job Racing. Jarvis was part of the winning GT team, which was the first-ever GT victory for Audi in Grand-Am.
This past season, Jarvis primarily raced overseas with United Autosports. Jarvis was full-time in the team’s No. 23 ORECA 07-Gibson in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s LMP2 class. He finished fifth in points with a victory at Portimao and an additional second-place finish at Spa. In addition, Jarvis raced in the European Le Mans Series. There, Jarvis won three races and finished second in the LMP2 points.
Kirchhoefer has only one career start in IMSA. That came for Inception Racing in the Rolex 24 at Daytona back in January, where he finished third in the GTD class. He is entering into his fourth year as a factory driver for McLaren.
“I’m super excited and I really can’t wait to get the season started,” Kirchhoefer stated. “I’m feeling very honored that I’ll be part of the Pfaff Motorsports family. This is a big dream for me coming true and racing in the United States is something I’ve always wanted to do especially after my single-seater career in Europe. This year at Daytona was one of the most enjoyable races I’ve ever done – I love the atmosphere, I love the fans, and it’s just such a great environment to be in.”
While Kirchhoefer has only one IMSA start, his career in recent years has been focused on GT series in Europe. He has spent most of his time with McLaren racing for Garage 59 in the Intelligent Money British GT Championship and Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS.
For Hinchcliffe, 2024 will be a new experience for him, but he’s game.
“Being a proud Canadian, and with Pfaff Motorsports as Canada’s top professional race team, I am absolutely thrilled to partner with them in 2024 for the three long endurance races,” Hinchcliffe stated. “Since we came up with this concept back in 2021 and as I looked to make a transition from IndyCar, being in this series and with this team has always been part of my goal. Being part of this next chapter with McLaren and with their last few years of on-track success, there is a lot of pressure, but a lot of optimism.”
Hinchcliffe’s experience in sports car racing has been somewhat limited. Between the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, he has seven career starts. He has raced a number of different cars, including Daytona Prototypes, GT cars and the Mazda RT24-P DPi car. He has not raced in a major sports car racing series since 2017.
Rossi is also in new territory. He has 11 previous IMSA starts, but they have all come in prototypes. All but one of those races was in an Acura ARX-05, including his overall victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona with Wayne Taylor Racing back in 2021.
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.
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