RLL BMW stays perfect with another IMSA pole in Long Beach

Dries Vanthoor is still perfect in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship qualifying in 2025, and on Friday, Vanthoor led an all-BMW M Team RLL sweep of the front row for Saturday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Vanthoor and the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 won their third straight pole of 2025 after the Belgian wrestled the top spot from his teammate Sheldon van der Linde in the No. 25 BMW. The pole time for Vanthoor was a 1m11.539s, only 0.2s behind the 2024 pole-winning time, but 0.25s ahead of van der Linde’s 1m11.789s.

The first four rows of the grid for the 100-minute sprint race are all-manufacturer aligned. Porsche Penske Motorsport locked out the second row; Nick Tandy qualified third in the championship-leading No. 7 Porsche 963, ahead of former co-driver Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 6 Penske Porsche who hustled his way to fourth.

Then it was the two Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06es, led by the red No. 93 of Nick Yelloly, ahead of the No. 60 of Tom Blomqvist, and then the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing car of Filipe Albuquerque in seventh.

Jack Aitken was seventh before all of his times were deleted for a breach of pit lane protocol from the Cadillac Whelen team. He will start 11th and last in GTP, behind Tijmen van der Helm, Louis Deletraz, and then the No. 23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie of Ross Gunn, just 1.8s off the pole time and continuing to find pace in every session.

Parker Thompson won his second consecutive GTD pole position at Long Beach. The Vasser Sullivan Racing driver held off all challengers and put his No. 12 Lexus RC F GT3 up front, ahead of AO Racing’s Jonny Edgar in second.

Edgar was the first driver to dip under the 1m20s range, taking provisional pole with a 1m17.937s aboard the No. 177 Porsche 911 GT3 R. But Thompson found some pace in reserve, and with a 1m17.877s, he took pole by just 0.06s.

Thompson and Jack Hawksworth will try and complete Vasser Sullivan’s Long Beach three-peat, starting alongside Edgar and the yet-to-be-defeated Laurens Vanthoor aboard AO Racing’s “Rexy.”

Heart of Racing’s No. 27 of Tom Gamble found traffic at the worst time and  his Aston Martin Vantage GT3 qualified third, only 0.062s short.

Behind him, Manny Formal was an impressive fourth place in the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3. Patrick Gallagher qualified fifth in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3, ahead of Vasser Sullivan’s second car, the No. 89 Lexus of Frankie Montecalvo in sixth.

Robert Wickens qualified eighth for his first race in the No. 36 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Driving with hand controls, Wickens’ best time of 1m18.239s was good enough to have put him on the third row of the grid (in fifth).

Due to an outstanding penalty for causing a red flag in the second practice session, he would fall back on a 1m18.411s, putting himself and Tommy Milner on the outside of the fourth row behind championship leader Russell Ward in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG, who was seventh.

After Trent Hindman crashed in the afternoon practice session, the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 did not set a representative time in qualifying and will start from the rear of the 27-car grid Saturday afternoon.

The green flag for the IMSA Grand Prix of Long Beach drops at 2:05 p.m. PT with live coverage in the United States on USA Network and Peacock, and live streaming coverage in most other countries on the official IMSA YouTube channel and IMSA.TV.