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Vanthoor joins Robichon at Pfaff Motorsports in IMSA

Porsche driver Laurens Vanthoor will partner Zach Robichon at Pfaff Motorsports in the 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship

Vanthoor, who won the IMSA GT Le Mans championship in 2019 and also the GTE Pro class in the 2018 Le Mans 24 Hours, became available following Porsche's decision to withdraw its 911 RSRs from IMSA competition this year.

However, the 29-year-old Belgian remains a factory Porsche driver and will drive Pfaff's #9 Motul-sponsored Porsche 911 GT3 R in the GT Daytona category alongside Robichon for the full season.

The pair will be joined by Porsche development driver Lars Kern for the four Michelin Endurance Cup rounds - Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, Sebring 12 Hours, Watkins Glen 6 Hours and Petit Le Mans.

The squad's fourth driver for the Rolex 24 will be Australian Porsche factory driver Matt Campbell, who also drove a couple of rounds for the works GTLM squad in 2020, and who, like Vanthoor, won at Le Mans in 2018 - co-droving the Dempsey-Proton 911 GT3 R to GTE Am-class victory.

"When Porsche announced the end of the current GTLM program, I was disappointed because I love racing in America," said Vanthoor.

"So to be able to continue here and build on my future in IMSA with Pfaff is something I'm very happy about.

"I've done my homework on Pfaff Motorsports and have heard a lot of good things, so I think together with Zach Robichon, we have a very good package to go for the championship. That's clearly our goal and mine as well, so I'm very much looking forward to that."

"I don't think we can underestimate the excitement that myself and the team have just to be racing again," Robichon said.

"Looking at both our performances from [Daytona and Road Atlanta] last season, we believe that we can accomplish a lot going into 2021."

"Obviously we started last season showing some great promise, and we're looking to pick up right where we left off," said Pfaff team manager, Steve Bortolotti

"Primarily, I'm looking forward to our four drivers working together; in some way, Lars, Matt and Zach have all worked together.

"Laurens will be working with the three of them for the first time, but he obviously comes with some incredible experience and an impressive resume, so I'm sure it will be a seamless adaptation between all of them.

"We're really looking at the bigger picture in 2021. In 2019, we proved that we had the pace, but I think our downfall was that we were too focused on winning every race we attended.

"Going in with the mindset of maximising points week in and week out, I believe with our driver line-up and the team we've built that we can contend for the championship. Within that, the wins will come."

Vanthoor's former stablemate in the Porsche works team, Nick Tandy, recently announced he would be joining the Chevrolet Corvette squad for next year's IMSA campaign.

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