The impressive streak in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IWSC) continued at Laguna Seca (USA). Dries Vanthoor (BEL) in the BMW M Team RLL #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 once again was the fastest man in qualifying. He claimed his and teammate Philipp Eng’s (AUT) fourth pole position in as many races this season.
In the race itself, the #24 car battled for victory right up to the end and secured third place after a dramatic finish. This marks the second podium of the IMSA season for Vanthoor/Eng, following their result at Long Beach (USA). In the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8, Marco Wittmann (GER) and Sheldon van der Linde (RSA) also delivered a strong performance, taking fourth place – their best result of the season so far.
At the start of the two-hour and 40-minute race, Vanthoor maintained the lead and held a several-second advantage over the field for the first 50 minutes. Only when lapped traffic began to factor in were the chasing cars able to close the gap, kicking off a tight battle for the top three. After a late first pit stop, Eng rejoined the race in third place with car #24. Both he and later Vanthoor managed to stay close to the leading two Porsches. In a tense and uninterrupted final phase without any full course yellows to neutralise the field, the outcome remained wide open. Vanthoor was only a few tenths of a second behind in third place, waiting for his opportunity to attack. In a dramatic fight for the win, he was touched in the final corner and spun off the track. Nonetheless, Vanthoor was able to get the #24 car going again and cross the finish line in third.
In the sister car #25, van der Linde and Wittmann also confirmed the competitiveness of the BMW M Hybrid V8. Starting from sixth on the grid, they pursued an alternate strategy and made an early first pit stop, which initially dropped them further down the field. However, after around 90 minutes of racing, Wittmann climbed from seventh to fourth within just a few laps. The #25 ultimately crossed the line right behind its sibling car, rounding off a strong showing for BMW M Team RLL with fourth place.
The BMW M4 GT3 EVO crews faced a tough race at Laguna Seca. In the GTD-Pro class, Dan Harper (GBR) and Max Hesse (GER) took fifth place in the #48 car from Paul Miller Racing. Their teammates Madison Snow and Neil Verhagen (both USA) were tenth in the #1 car. In the GTD class, the #96 BMW M4 GT3 EVO from Turner Motorsport, driven by Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher (both USA), finished ninth.
Comments after the race:
Andreas Roos, Head of BMW M Motorsport: “The race weekend at Laguna Seca confirmed that we’ve continued to close the gap and are now fighting for top positions with the performance of our BMW M Hybrid V8. Dries Vanthoor taking the fourth consecutive pole position was sensational. Sheldon van der Linde in car #25 was also quick and secured sixth place in a very tight qualifying session. Both cars delivered a strong performance in the race as well. In a race shaped in part by strategy, the team and drivers executed a flawless collective effort. It was extremely intense right up to the final corner, and we were fighting for the win. In the end, Dries Vanthoor and Philipp Eng secured their second consecutive podium, and Sheldon van der Linde and Marco Wittmann achieved their best result of the season so far with fourth place, finishing right behind. The trend is clearly upward, and now we’ll continue working hard to take that final step and reward everyone’s hard work with a victory.”
Dries Vanthoor (#24 BMW M Hybrid V8, BMW M Team RLL, 3rd place): “I think P3 was almost the maximum we could have achieved today. The Porsches were again strong but we had a good race, the team did a great job. We did the best we could. That I was pushed off in the last corner was unfortunate. It was a racing incident, even though I think it was unnecessary. We still have work to do but having had two podiums in two races is a very nice achievement, but we just want more after the qualifying achievements and win a race.”
Philipp Eng (#24 BMW M Hybrid V8, BMW M Team RLL, 3rd place): “It was a very exciting race and a very good weekend overall. Qualifying again was great from Dries and the entire team. The race was tricky but good fun. P3 is another good result but of course we wanted to get the victory. We had the pace and the package but in the end it didn’t quite work out. We will just work harder from here. Thanks to the whole team.”
Marco Wittmann (#25 BMW M Hybrid V8, BMW M Team RLL, 4th place): “It was a difficult weekend for us, we had some issues in FP2 and qualifying. We tried to fix them for the race but went a bit blind into the race. Nevertheless we made some good progress, gained a couple of positions, had some good fights and good fun out there. Obviously the aim was to step on the podium which was not in our reach here though. We were lacking the pace a bit which we have to investigate. Still we can be fairly happy with how the race went and with P4 considering how the weekend went. Now we need to look into the data and find some performance for the next races. Then the aim is to bring both cars on the podium and ideally chase the win.”
