The 2025 IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship season from BMW Motorsport continues to show a strong qualified performance, but the team is still pursuing its first victory. In the third race of the season in Long Beach, Dries Vanthoor again put the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 on Pole and completed a hat trick after previous pole positions in Daytona and Sebring. Sheldon van der Linde secured second place in Auto #25 and gave BMW another closure in the front.
Despite the lead at the beginning of the race, both BMW M -Team -Rll submitted entries during the pit stops under the first yellow flag. Philipp Eng, who took over the No. 24 from Vanthoor, took the team the first podium of the season in third place. Marco Wittmann, who replaced Van der Linde in Auto No. 25, recovered tenth place to reach fifth place.
While BMW’s one-round pace is still a strength, the team has difficulty converting strong qualification results into victories. This season, the BMWs started off the bar in every race of Pole, but still have to tell themselves. The Porsche Penske Motorsport team No. 7, which was powered by Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy, secured victory in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship in a row and in the GTP class in a row and Grand Touring Prototype (GTP).
In the championship ranking, BMW is currently second in the title race of the manufacturer, shortly before Acura, but more than 130 points behind Porsche. In the driver’s ranking, Vanthoor and closely with 875 points are third place, while van der Linde and Wittmann are sixth with 832 points. The leading driver duo from Porsche has already scored 1,140 points.
Andreas Roos, head of the BMW M motorsport, recognized both the progress and the challenges: “The third pole position in the third race of the season for Dries Vanthoor and the entire first row in BMW M Motorsports hands – that was fantastic. But we lost valuable positions.
In the GTD class, Turner Motorsport took fifth place with the BMW M4 GT3 Evo driven by Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher.
