IMSA News: Vanthoor wins IMSA pole for BMW at Laguna Seca

Dries Vanthoor claimed the Motul Pole Award in qualifying at the first three venues on the slate in the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8. But victory in all three races went to Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963.

–by John Oreovicz/IMSA–

The first part of that consistent trend played out again Saturday at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, as Vanthoor and the No. 24 BMW rinsed the competition at the TireRack.com Monterey SportsCar Championship for the Belgian driver’s fourth consecutive pole. It’s the first time a driver was the fastest qualifier for IMSA’s top class in four straight events since 2011 (Ricky Taylor had six consecutive overall poles in GRAND-AM in 2011).

Now Vanthoor and his co-driver Philipp Eng are desperate to not see a repeat of this year’s Porsche domination at Daytona International Speedway, Sebring International Raceway, and the streets of Long Beach, California, where the No. 24 achieved its best 2025 race result of third place.

With BMW M Team RLL founder Bobby Rahal serving as Grand Marshal for the IMSA weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca – a track where the uphill stretch to the legendary Corkscrew turn sequence is named after him – the potential storylines for Sunday’s 2-hour, 40-minute race set up nicely.

“For sure I’m very happy to have four consecutive poles,” said Vanthoor. “A bit sad that I don’t have any wins out of them, but we have a chance now to make that happen tomorrow. It’s important that we put that behind us and come away from here answering a different question than: ‘When are we going to win?’

“We’re very motivated and we are going to push hard tomorrow in every area and every aspect,” he added. “Hopefully we will get the result we deserve.”

Vanthoor felt he was held up by one of the Porsches during his final qualifying laps and was convinced he could have produced an effort faster than the 1 minute, 12.854-seconds (110.588 mph) lap he turned just past the halfway point of the 15-minute session.

That lap was quick enough to edge Matt Campbell, who clocked 1:12.859 in the No. 6 Porsche he shares with Mathieu Jaminet. Nasr and Tandy will line up third, Nasr having also broken the 1:13 barrier with a 1:12.932.

“It was very close,” said Vanthoor. “I was a bit upset that the Porsche was blocking me a bit too much the last two laps, but we still managed to get it.

“Hopefully we can have a great race tomorrow,” he continued. “It’s much needed from our side, because I think it’s obvious we haven’t been executing flawless races. Too many mistakes, but I think we’ve been really working hard since the last race to come here fully prepared.”

“Second place and just five-thousandths of a second behind the leading BMW,” said Campbell. “Our #6 Porsche 963 definitely had the pace for pole. Unfortunately, I got held up several times by other cars. Not ideal, but it’s not the end of the world either. We’re on the front row, and that’s what really matters on a track where overtaking is so tricky.”

“It was an exciting qualifying session with incredibly close gaps between the top cars,” said Felipe Nasr. “Once again, the #7 Porsche team did a stellar job. Starting second and third on the grid puts us in a strong position for the race. We worked hard in practice to find the perfect setup for race day, and I’m confident we have a solid package. We’re definitely aiming to bring home our next win.”

The top five entries lapped the 11-corner, 2.238-mile WeatherTech Raceway course within 0.204 seconds. The close competition in the GTP class was also demonstrated by the fact that all 11 cars that participated in qualifying were within 0.864 seconds.

Conditions for the race are expected to be about 10 degrees cooler than qualifying, which took place under sunny skies with temperatures in the low 70s.

“We just need to have flawless execution and take care of the tires, because I think tire wear will be a big factor tomorrow,” said Vanthoor.

NBC will carry live flag-to-flag coverage of the TireRack.com Monterey SportsCar Championship from 3-6 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 11. The race will be streamed domestically on Peacock, while IMSA’s official YouTube channel is the streaming destination for international race fans.

Qualifying Results