Long Beach. Dries Vanthoor (BEL) and Sheldon van der Linde
(RSA) finished the first sprint race of the season in the IMSA
WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IMSA Series) in the BMW M Team
WRT #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 in fifth place. The #25 sister car started
from second position after a strong qualifying by Marco Wittmann
(GER), but Philipp Eng (AUT) dropped a long way back during his
stint following a collision and subsequent repairs. Turner
Motorsport celebrated a major success with second place for Robby
Foley and Patrick Gallagher (both USA) in the #96 BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

 

Comments after the race:

 

Andreas Roos (Head of BMW M Motorsport): “Fifth place
is not what we had hoped for. The starting position for car #25 was
very good after Marco Wittmann’s strong qualifying, but unfortunately,
due to the contact and subsequent repairs, we couldn’t convert it into
a corresponding race result. Car #24 didn’t have an ideal qualifying,
but at least managed to gain a position in the race. Fifth place means
important points for the championship, but we wanted more. Turner
Motorsport gave a strong performance in the GTD class and rightly gets
to celebrate on the podium.”

 

Vincent Vosse (Team Principal BMW M Team WRT): “The
points for fifth place with our car #24 are important, especially as
we are competing in a long championship season, but of course, we had
hoped for more. Unfortunately, the collision involving car #25 made
our race much more difficult. In the end, fifth place is okay, but
nothing more. We accept the result and focus on Laguna Seca.”

 

Dries Vanthoor (#24 BMW M Hybrid V8, BMW M Team WRT,
5th place GTP): “Of course, it’s not the result
we had envisioned. We weren’t completely sorted at the start of the
weekend, which also put us behind in qualifying. In the race, I tried
to preserve the car and the tyres so that Sheldon could push hard
towards the end. That worked well, but we struggle in direct fights
with other cars. We collected important points, but now we need to
take a step forward.”

 

Marco Wittmann (#25 BMW M Hybrid V8, BMW M Team WRT,
11th place GTP): “We got off to a good start
this weekend and, with a front-row starting position, had a great
chance to fight for the podium. However, those opportunities vanished
with the accident – luck just wasn’t on our side today. So now we have
to look ahead. As a team, we’ve made progress in various areas. We can
carry this positive trend into the next race at Laguna Seca, bounce
back, and earn the reward we deserve.”

 

Robby Foley (#96 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, Turner Motorsport,
2nd place GTD): “It was a fantastic day for us
at Long Beach. Patrick had an excellent first stint and stayed out of
trouble. After that, we were able to take advantage of a few
opportunities during the restarts to pass competitors and then defend
second place. We achieved a great result and earned important points
for our team. Now we need to carry this momentum to Laguna Seca and
try to pick up right where we left off.”