Poles are great, but wins are 'much needed' - Dries Vanthoor

Dries Vanthoor is visiting several American circuits for the first time ever, or at least in a long time, in 2025. Already his mastery of IMSA qualifying is something not seen since the unification of American sports car racing.

In the midst of a four-race pole position streak, Vanthoor and the rest of BMW M Team RLL want the second part of this story to go differently than it has the last three times the No. 24 BMW has qualified on pole.

Whether they have to defeat Porsche Penske Motorsport, Acura Meyer Shank Racing, any of Cadillac’s three factory cars — they would like to finally win a race in 2025, especially with team owner/namesake Bobby Rahal serving as the Grand Marshal of the Monterey SportsCar Championship at Laguna Seca.

“For sure, I’m very happy to have four consecutive poles. A bit sad I don’t have any wins out of them, but maybe we’ve got a chance now to make that happen tomorrow,” Vanthoor said after qualifying.

“Indeed, it was very close. I was a bit upset with the Porsche, they were blocking a bit too much for me in the last three laps. But at the end of the day, I still managed to get , so I’m very happy about that. Hopefully, we can execute a great race tomorrow — I think it’s much needed from our side.”

Vanthoor’s four consecutive premier-class pole positions in IMSA is the longest streak since Ricky Taylor took six poles in a row during the 2011 Grand-Am Sports Car Series. For all his qualifying mastery, Vanthoor and co-driver Philipp Eng have just one podium finish to show for it.

“For sure, it’s nice to have poles, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t bring us anything at the moment,” he said. “We haven’t been executing any flawless races — too many mistakes. I think we’ve been really working hard since the last race to come here fully prepared. I think we are as prepared as we can be, so that’s very nice to see.

“We just need to have flawless execution, take care of the tires, because I think tire wear will be a big factor tomorrow as well. Then I think we just have to stay out of trouble and be clean,” he added.

The younger Vanthoor brother was still getting used to running full-time in IMSA by the time new team principal Jay Frye was appointed for the Long Beach Grand Prix. Perhaps it’s too soon for Vanthoor to notice any changes in how things are done, but overall he feels that the atmosphere within RLL has been healthy.

“It’s been nice working with them. Everybody is very motivated, everybody’s pushing hard, everybody is behind each other. I think that’s very important in the team,” he continued. “There’s no negative vibes, so that’s also very positive.”