Dries Vanthoor Wins IMSA Long Beach Pole

BMW M Team RLL’s Dries Vanthoor claimed his third straight IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole Friday (April 11) when he won the pole for the IMSA Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach with a lap at 99.034 mph.

“No, [I didn’t expect to be on pole today],” Vanthoor told NBC Sports’ Dave Burns. “We’ve been really strong today. As soon as we put the car on the ground, we were very, very competitive. It’s the third time [qualifying on pole], but now’s the time that we finish it off. It’s been fun, but a race win would be much more rewarding.”

Vanthoor’s lap was a quarter of a second faster than teammate Sheldon van der Linde. Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet will share the second row, while Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Nick Yelloly will start fifth.

The BMWs were the fastest cars in both of the practice sessions Friday in Long Beach and qualifying was no different. Sheldon van der Linde put the No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 on the provisional pole early on, then dropped his time down into the 72-second bracket.

Teammate Dries Vanthoor, who was fastest in the morning session, was able to top van der Linde briefly. However, van der Linde was able to put himself back on top shortly afterwards.

Vanthoor got the provisional pole back with six minutes to go and had the rest of the field take him on. However, no one could prevent Vanthoor from taking the pole.

There were no red flags during the session. However, Yelloly hit the wall exiting turn 1 late in the session. The hit was hard enough to potentially cause suspension damage.

In GTD, teams had to scramble to be able to get their tires up to temperature. With 16 cars in class, it could get crowded as well.

Winward Racing’s Russell Ward was fastest early on, but he was trounced by Adam Adelson in the Wright Motorsports Porsche. This is the first race weekend for Adelson as an owner-driver in IMSA since his acquisition of the Wright team.

Adelson’s time on top was short-lived as Vasser Sullivan’s Parker Thompson put himself on top. That was topped by Ward, then Turner Motorsport’s Patrick Gallagher, then Ward again.

The fight continued all the way to the checkered flag. Thompson put himself back on top with five minutes to go, then improved his time. That was beaten by Jonny Edgar in the AO Racing Porsche with The Heart of Racing’s Tom Gamble.

Thompson was able to come back with a lap at 90.974 mph with two minutes to go to retake the pole. Gamble was on pace to beat Thompson on his final lap, but got held up by Gradient Racing’s Jenson Altzman. That was enough to give Thompson the pole.

Thompson won the pole by .06 seconds over Edgar. Gamble will start third in class, then Conquest Racing’s Manny Franco and Gallagher.

DXDT Racing’s Robert Wickens qualified only .534 seconds off the class pole in his Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R. He will start eighth in his first WeatherTech race with hand controls.

There were no red flags in the session. However, Korthoff Competition Motors’ Seth Lucas ended up in the runoff at turn 8. He was able to continue without issue.

Wayne Taylor Racing’s Danny Formal was unable to set a competitive time during the session. In an interview with NBC Sports’ Dave Burns, Formal indicated that the car had suffered a mechanical problem during Practice No. 2. The team attempted a fix prior to qualifying, but the issue re-emerged during the session, resulting in Formal pulling into the pits after only completing an out lap.

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Qualifying Results

The IMSA Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is scheduled to go green at 5:05 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon. Coverage will air live at 5 p.m. ET on USA Network.