Jaminet and Vanthoor recall epic 2022 GT battle at Daytona

This weekend, Mathieu Jaminet and Laurens Vanthoor are racing together in an attempt to bring home a Rolex 24 At Daytona victory for Porsche in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963. Two years ago, however, they were locked in an intense battle for the inaugural IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD PRO victory on two different teams, and it produced one of the most memorable fights in Daytona history.

Jaminet was driving the 911 GT3 R for Pfaff Motorsports along with Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr. Vanthoor was in the KCMG Porsche 911 GT3R with Patrick Pilet, Dennis Olsen and Alexandre Imperatori. For the final two hours, the battle between Jaminet and Vanthoor raged, with Jaminet ending up in front for the final stint and trying to hold off Vanthoor.

Two laps from the end, Vanthoor attacked Jaminet on the outside in Turn 1, cut back inside at Turn 2, got alongside in Turn 3 and finally, after several incidents of contact as the two Porsches went side-by-side in the Kink, took the lead. Jaminet wasn’t done, however, as he attacked in Turn 3 to take the lead back on the final lap.

As they headed into the Le Mans chicane, Vanthoor pulled alongside again and the two had side-to-side contact with Vanthoor getting the worst of it and going into a half-spin. Jaminet continued to take the victory for Pfaff. Had they tangled more intensely, though, victory would have been handed to the Risi Competizione Ferrari.

“Those last two hours have been maybe the most stressful of my life,” Jaminet said at the time. “I mean, what a crazy fight with Laurens. We all know how good he is — one of the best GT drivers out there in the world. We had a great fight. It was sometimes on the limit, maybe even over.”

What Jaminet remembers now, though, is the moments after the checker.

“[I remember] the celebration afterwards coming into the into the pits, because, honestly, crossing the line, I didn’t know I won,” he recalls. “I was exhausted from the battle. I wasn’t sure if I had a penalty — I didn’t even know it was the last lap at the time, I had no radio. [Then] I realized we won, but I wasn’t sure it was really happening. So all the emotions and tension really came out, when I came into victory lane and I parked the car and then I saw all my teammates shouting.”