3/14/2025
Belgian Feels Right at Home in the WeatherTech Championship
By John Oreovicz
SEBRING, Fla. – There was no time to waste in Motul Pole Award qualifying for the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class at the 73rd annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
When the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R stalled on track to bring out the red flag in the early moments of the 15-minute session, it left the dozen other runners with barely enough green flag time to complete two flying laps of Sebring International Raceway.
If that time crunch created pressure, it didn’t affect Dries Vanthoor, who guided the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 to the GTP class and overall pole for the second consecutive race. Vanthoor, a 26-year-old Belgian who is embarking on his first full season in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, was also the fastest qualifier at the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona in January.
On Friday, Vanthoor lapped the 3.74-mile Sebring circuit in 1 minute, 47.091 seconds (125.724 mph), beating Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 by just 25 thousandths of a second (1:47.116). He’ll share the polesitting entry with Philipp Eng and Kevin Magnussen.
The result continued BMW’s recent streak of impressive form, which includes a 1-2 finish at the 2024 TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the pole at Daytona, and a front-row start in the opening round of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship in Qatar.
Vanthoor’s older brother Laurens is part of the driver lineup for the championship-leading No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Penske 963, the Rolex 24 winner, along with Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy, who is in pursuit of his first Sebring overall win. Nasr qualified the No. 7 Porsche third for Saturday’s 12-hour race.
“The red flag didn’t cause any issues,” Dries Vanthoor remarked. “We had a plan, so at the end, it didn’t change much. In a normal qualifying session, you maybe get two chances. Now you only had one. It makes a bit more pressure to get that lap together. It makes it a bit more difficult. But yeah, it also makes me a bit, how I would say, nervous or fired up at the same time. Looks like it’s working!”
Vanthoor is a BMW factory driver who is one of the marque’s core group competing full-time in both the IMSA and WEC championships in 2025. This is his first visit to Sebring, one of the most unique sports car racing venues in the world.
“It’s a long race, and it’s a difficult race, apparently,” he said. “I don’t know – it’s going to be my first time tomorrow, so I’m going to have to see how things go because apparently, it’s not easy. It’s definitely different from what I am used to, especially the bumps. We just have to survive and be there at the end.
“So far, everything is going very well and I’m enjoying it a lot.”
LMP2: Thomas is Tops in No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA
Steven Thomas and PJ Hyett waged an entertaining two-man battle for the Motul Pole Award in the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, swapping the top spot several times. Hyett and Thomas were the only two of 12 LMP2 drivers to break the 1-minute, 52-second barrier around Sebring International Raceway’s 17 corner layout.
Thomas finally clinched the top starting spot with a lap of 1 minute, 51.804 seconds (120.424 mph) in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2 07. That gave him a 0.115-second cushion over Hyett, whose best lap was 1:51.919 (120.300 mph).
The No. 11 had shown strong form throughout practice, with Mikkel Jensen leading two of the three sessions, including the fastest LMP2 lap of the weekend in the cooler conditions of Thursday’s night practice.
The pole was the sixth in IMSA competition for Thomas, but his first since the 2022 WeatherTech Championship Motul Petit Le Mans season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. Thomas also earned the LMP2 pole at Sebring in 2021.
“When they changed the LMP2 cars when the GTP formula started in 2023, the balance of the cars changed and I struggled that first year,” Thomas said. “I thought I was driving as fast as I ever had, but there are so many fast Bronze-rated drivers and every week it seems like it’s someone else.
“This feels really good for an old man to get a pole.”
Thomas paid tribute to his co-drivers – Platinum-rated Jensen and Silver-rated Hunter McElrea.
“The great thing about qualifying as a Bronze driver is we are all on our limit,” said Thomas, who will chase his sixth career win in the WeatherTech Championship. “Here at Sebring with the bumps, it’s very challenging to stay on your limit every corner the whole way round. Hunter and Mikkel coached my up and helped me get this pole, which I really enjoy.
“To be able to qualify the car means so much because it feels like you’re really contributing to the win at the end of the day,” he added. “We also start the race, and that gives you a chance to put your team in a good position. I think qualifying means a lot to all the Bronze drivers because it makes us a factor in the race, which is what we really want.”
Flag-to-flag coverage of the 73rd running of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring starts Saturday at 10:00 a.m. ET on Peacock in the U.S. and internationally on the official IMSA YouTube channel.
