Kaffer began karting in 1990 at the age of thirteen. He moved into single-seaters in 1994 with Formula Ford, then progressed through Formula Opel before spending five seasons in the German Formula 3 Championship from 1997 to 2001. The ground-level circuit experience accumulated in those years formed the foundation for his subsequent career in endurance and GT racing.
Kaffer's breakthrough in top-level endurance racing came in 2004 with Audi, when he co-drove an Audi R8 to outright victory at the 12 Hours of Sebring. The Sebring win placed him among the elite of sportscar racing and opened the door to a sustained relationship with Audi across multiple categories. For 2005 and 2006, Kaffer competed in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters for Audi Sport Team Joest, broadening his experience into prestigious tin-top competition before returning full-time to sportscar and GT racing.
The most celebrated result of Kaffer's career came at the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans, where he co-drove a Ferrari F430GT for the American team Risi Competizione alongside Brazilian driver Jaime Melo and Finnish driver and former Formula One competitor Mika Salo. The trio won the GT2 class. In the same 2009 season Kaffer also raced the Ferrari F430GT for Risi in the American Le Mans Series.
In 2012 Kaffer contested both the FIA World Endurance Championship and the European Le Mans Series, driving a Pecom Racing Oreca 03-Nissan in the LMP2 class, demonstrating his willingness to compete in prototype as well as GT machinery. He also built a long association with Porsche, competing in the Porsche Supercup and Porsche Carrera Cup Germany at various points in his career.
Through the 2010s and into the following decade, Kaffer maintained a heavy schedule across the IMSA SportsCar Championship in North America, the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup in Europe, and the Le Mans Cup. His career was described in motorsport media as that of an "Iron Man" of sportscar racing, reflecting the sheer breadth and continuity of his participation at high levels of GT and endurance competition across multiple continents.
Pierre Kaffer's career is defined by versatility and longevity. Starting in junior single-seaters and progressing through DTM to the highest tiers of prototype and GT endurance racing, he secured landmark victories at two of the most demanding events in motorsport — Sebring and Le Mans. His work for Audi and Ferrari as a factory-supported or factory-aligned driver, across both American and European series, marks him as one of the more widely travelled GT specialists of his generation.
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