PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports revealed their driver lineup for the full 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Thursday (Dec. 5). Unlike 2024, they will operate separately from Inter Europol Competition.
Mathias Beche and Rodrigo Sales will drive the No. 52 ORECA 07-Gibson full-time in the LMP2 class in 2025. They will be joined by former INDYCAR racer Benjamin Pedersen for the five Michelin Endurance Cup races. Finally, Ben Keating (pictured above at Road America) will rejoin the team for the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
For Beche, he doesn’t have a lot of IMSA experience. He only has two previous WeatherTech starts, both coming in 2017. One was for JDC-Miller MotorSports, while the other was for Rebellion Racing.
Much of Beche’s major prototype experience came with Rebellion in the FIA World Endurance Championship. He drove for the Swiss team for six years, earning an overall victory at Silverstone in 2018 and finishing as high as fifth in the LMP1 points. At the time, finishing fifth meant that you were the best of the non-factory drivers (only Audi and Toyota factory drivers were ahead of him).
More recently, Beche has been racing in the European Le Mans Series’ LMP2 Pro-Am subclass for Richard Mille by TDS alongside Sales and former Formula 3 racer Gregoire Saucy. The trio claimed two subclass wins (Paul Ricard and Mugello) and finished fourth in Pro-Am points. A retirement at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps cost them the title.
“After five years of racing in Europe and Asia, I’m looking forward to my return to the IMSA paddock,” Sales stated. “Bobby [Oergel, team co-owner] and I have known each other for several years and I’m excited about the opportunity to drive with PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports. The current level of competition in LMP2 is extremely high, but I believe we have a strong package that will be capable of fighting at the front.”
Sales has primarily raced overseas in recent years. He started out in what is now TC America before switching to GT3 and GTE equipment in Europe.
He has raced LMP2 more or less exclusively since the end of 2021. He won the 2021-22 Asian Le Mans Series LMP2 championship with Nielsen Racing alongside Ben Hanley and Matt Bell. In WeatherTech, Sales has four career starts, two in LMP2 and two in LMP3.
To American fans, Pedersen is best remembered as racing full-time in the NTT IndyCar Series for AJ Foyt Enterprises in 2023. Unfortunately, his sole season in INDYCAR was a struggle. His best finish was a 15th at Texas en route to a 27th-place finish in points.
In 2024, Pedersen drove the second half of the European Le Mans Series season for Nielsen Racing. He ended up 22nd in LMP2 points with one point for a 10th-place finish at Mugello in September.
Keating rejoins the team after spending the 2024 season racing for United Autosports in their No. 2. There, Keating teamed up with Hanley to win the LMP2 class at Road America. The rest of the season was a struggle at times, including multiple crashes in the Motul Petit Le Mans. Ultimately, Keating finished fifth in LMP2 points.
Inter Europol Competition was confirmed at IMSA’s State of the Sport address in October as having their own full-time entry, No. 43, for the 2025 season. They confirmed Monday that they will have defending LMP2 champion Tom Dillmann alongside Jon Field for the full season.
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
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