Dries Vanthoor is still perfect in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship qualifying this year. And on the streets of Long Beach, 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 #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 won their third straight pole of 2025 after the Belgian wrestled the top spot from his team-mate Sheldon van der Linde in the #25 BMW. The pole time for Vanthoor was a 1:11.539s, only two-tenths behind the 2024 pole-winning time, but a quarter-second ahead of Van der Linde’s 1:11.789s.
Porsche Penske Motorsport locked out the second row: Nick Tandy qualified third in the championship-leading #7 Porsche 963, ahead of former co-driver Mathieu Jaminet in the #6 Penske Porsche who hustled his way to fourth.
Then it was the two Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06es, led by the red #93 of Nick Yelloly, ahead of the #60 of Tom Blomqvist – and then the #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 #23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie of Ross Gunn, just 1.8 seconds 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 #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 one minute, 20 second range, taking provisional pole with a 1:17.937s aboard the #177 Porsche 911 GT3 R. But Thompson found some pace in reserve, and with a 1:17.877s, he took pole by just six hundredths of a second.
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’.
Tom Gamble found traffic at the worst time and his #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 qualified third by only 0.062s.
Behind him, Manny Formal was an impressive fourth place in the #34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3. Patrick Gallagher qualified fifth in the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3, ahead of Vasser Sullivan’s second car, the #89 Lexus of Frankie Montecalvo in sixth.
Robert Wickens qualified eighth for his first race in the #36 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Driving with hand controls, Wickens’ best time of 1:18.239s was good enough to have put him on the third row of the grid (in fifth).
Because of an outstanding penalty for causing a red flag in Practice 2, he would fall back on a 1:18.411s, putting himself and Tommy Milner on the outside of the fourth row behind championship leader Russell Ward in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG, who was seventh.
After Trent Hindman crashed in the afternoon practice session, the #45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 did not set a representative time in Qualifying and will start from the rear of the 27-car grid tomorrow afternoon.
The green flag for the IMSA Grand Prix of Long Beach drops at 2:05 PM PT (local time) with live streaming coverage in most countries on the official IMSA YouTube channel and IMSA.TV; the race will be shown throughout the United States on USA Network and Peacock.
Images © Perry Nelson, Michael L. Levitt, Brandon Badraoui / IMSA / LAT
