Vanthoor Leads BMW Front Row Lockout at Long Beach
Dries Vanthoor scores third consecutive GTP pole in hard-fought Long Beach qualifying...
Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA
Dries Vanthoor maintained his undefeated pole streak in this year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season by leading a BMW Team RLL front row lockout for Saturday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Vanthoor stormed to a best time of 1:11.539 in his No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 to edge out teammate Sheldon van der Linde by 0.250 seconds.
It marked Vanthoor’s third pole in as many WeatherTech Championship races this season.
Nick Tandy made a late-session improvement to third in the GTP championship-leading No. 7 Penske Porsche 963 ahead of teammate Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 6 car.
Nick Yelloly and Tom Blomqvist completed the top-six in their pair of Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06s.
The No. 31 Action Express Racing entry of Jack Aitken was the best of the Cadillac V-Series.Rs in seventh, followed by the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing entry of Filipe Albuquerque.
Tijmen van der Helm and Louis Deletraz completed the top-ten for JDC-Miller Motorsports and WTR, respectively, followed by the Heart of Racing-run Aston Martin Valkyrie of Ross Gunn, which was 1.8 seconds behind pole-sitter Vanthoor.
GTD class pole honors went to Parker Thompson for the second year in a row.
Thompson, in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, reeled off a chart-topping 1:17.877 lap time to edge out Jonny Edgar’s No. 177 Porsche 911 GT3 R by 0.060 seconds.
Tom Gamble put the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo third in class, followed by Manny Franco’s No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 in fourth.
The No. 36 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Robert Wickens set the fifth quickest time, but lost the time due to bringing out a red flag in Practice 2.
Wickens will line up eighth in class in his GTD debut.
Five different manufacturers qualified in the top-five, with Patrick Gallagher fifth in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO.
The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach gets underway Saturday at 2:05 p.m. PST (5:05 p.m. EST) with live coverage on USA Network, Peacock and IMSA’s YouTube channel for international viewers.
RESULTS: Qualifying
