Porsche’s ‘CamJam’ pairing has another championship to celebrate

Sometime three years ago, when Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet were on their way to winning the IMSA GTD PRO Championship with Pfaff Motorsports, collective nicknames for the pair were pitched.

Ultimately, portions of the sports car racing collective settled on “CamJam,” the way their Porsche seniors Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor came to be known as “BamThoor” when they raced together in IMSA.

“We’ve been driving together since 2019,” Campbell said, referring back to their emergence in top-level GT3 racing after success in Porsche one-make competition. “Two years in IMSA, and two championships – it’s a very special partnership. And actually, since we’ve been driving together, we’ve only finished outside of either first or second in a championship once.”

Three years after they were champions in GTD PRO, the “CamJam” team has won another IMSA championship. This time, in the premier GTP category for the factory Porsche Penske Motorsport outfit.

But with the announcement last week that Porsche Penske Motorsport would withdraw from the FIA WEC after 2025, focusing on its two-car IMSA GTP effort, and with several factory drivers’ futures with Porsche looking uncertain, Petit Le Mans may have been the last race for Campbell and Jaminet as co-drivers at Porsche.

“For sure, these things cross my mind,” Campbell admitted, “but at the end of the day, we’re all focused on the job at hand, and we wanted to try and clinch this championship. What happens after this weekend is obviously a little bit out of our control, but nevertheless, I try and make the most of these special moments.

“To do it with this guy,” he gestured towards Jaminet, “it’s a really good feeling once again.”

It’s a fact that Porsche Penske will only have room for four full-time factory GTP drivers next year, not enough to accommodate Jaminet, Campbell, Nick Tandy, Felipe Nasr and the four displaced WEC Hypercar drivers. Porsche will announce its 2026 factory driver line-ups in the coming weeks.

Should it come to pass that Jaminet and Campbell are separated in 2026, it would be the sixth season in a row that the driver and team combination that won IMSA’s top-level prototype championship (in either DPi or GTP) would not remain intact the following year.

“What the future holds, we’ll have to wait and see,” Campbell admitted.

“I might miss him… maybe not,” added a jovial Jaminet. “But let’s see. We’ll still get to hang out around each other. If it’s not in the same car, then we’ll be outside the racetrack. Easy.”

It might have been just third place this time, but it was enough for Cambell and Jaminet (third and second from right) to claim the year's big trophy. Michael Levitt/IMSA

Third place ended up being enough for Jaminet and Campbell to win the GTP crown, adding to the full set of titles which Porsche Penske Motorsport defended from last year. But the day started off on a sour note for the CamJam crew with a delayed arrival at the track and the news that teammate Julien Andlauer could not drive. Andlauer later revealed on social media that he was suffering from back pain after a few checks at the circuit.

“It took us one hour 40 [minutes] to get to the track because there’s a lot of fans out there, so this is positive. But we nearly missed the recon lap, so Matt had to walk another 3K on the side of the road to get there," Jaminet explained. “Then we realized we have no third driver, so ‘Larry’ (Vanthoor) jumped in. He did great, by the way – so thank you for jumping in and saving our ass!

“And then we went racing, finally, and it went well. We had a very good car going into the race. The team did a really good prep. We still had some question marks after qualifying, but we made the right choices on setups, and I have to say we had a competitive package in the day, but also in the night.

“So here we are. Grabbed the podium and the championship, so I can't complain!”

Though they only won one race this year, at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Campbell says that win was a turning point in the season after three straight podium finishes behind the sister No. 7 Porsche of Nasr and Tandy, who reveled in three straight wins to open the season.

“For sure, Laguna was a turning point,” Campbell said. “I would say it was after Laguna where it really started to look like something was maybe going to be possible.”

Aided by a mid-season chassis change for the No. 6 crew, Campbell and Jaminet remained consistent, only finishing outside the top five once all season – even after a Balance of Performance override at Detroit tilted the competitive edge back towards the struggling Acuras and Cadillacs. That consistency also helped Porsche keep the manufacturers’ championship after a surge from Acura in the second half of the year.

“Consistency is key in a championship run, and more or less from Laguna onwards, that's where we were consistent and getting those valuable points,” Campbell noted.

“Let's say we weren't always the most competitive car, but we were punching above our weight in those races towards the end of the year and scoring those points, which is important, and making sure we finished races.”