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Belgian Pair Have Both Wins, Both Poles Apiece in GTP
March 20, 2025
By Tony DiZinno
IMSA Wire Service
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Sibling rivalries rarely fail to disappoint in competition. One pair of siblings has made an immediate impact on the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – and it’s not the brothers you’d likely think of first.
The Taylor and Farnbacher brothers have been part of the IMSA fabric for more than a decade, and the van der Linde brothers shared the track in Daytona this year. Yet it’s the Vanthoor brothers, Laurens and Dries, who have started the new year off strongest. At least on track.
What they haven’t achieved in Ultraman Florida competition – as Jordan Taylor did in between the Rolex 24 At Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring with a great support team including brother Ricky – the two Belgians have achieved at both IMSA venues.
Laurens Vanthoor is two-for-two winning races overall and in Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) with Porsche Penske Motorsport.
Younger brother Dries Vanthoor is two-for-two winning overall Motul Pole Awards for BMW M Team RLL.
Yet through no fault of their own, both brothers’ fast starts have been overshadowed by circumstances outside their control, or stories that have added to the endurance sports car record books.
Dries’ pace in qualifying – nailing fast laps in limited green flag running – has stood out prior to the races. But both races have seen damage to the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 eliminate potential podium finishes.
Meanwhile Laurens’ role as third driver in the No. 7 Porsche 963 has somewhat flown under the radar due to his teammates. Defending, and three-time IMSA prototype class champion Felipe Nasr has closed both races to start the year while Nick Tandy’s efforts have secured him two more overall wins at Daytona and Sebring, adding to his personal rolodex of marquee overall endurance race victories.
That’s left the Vanthoors as an intriguing chapter of the early season IMSA story, but perhaps not the overriding one.
Dries, for his part, has excelled early as he starts his full-time IMSA career. He’d made only three WeatherTech Championship starts prior to 2025. At both Daytona and Sebring, he’s excelled in qualifying in two different types of sessions.
The cold in Daytona contrasted with the heat in Sebring. In both cases, he had to switch the Michelin tires on quickly.
“(The cold) made tire warming a bit more difficult for everyone, I guess,” Dries said after Daytona qualifying. “I think we’ve been improving on that quite a lot, especially over the last year, which has been a big struggle point for us last year. But it seemed it worked out today, and then it was just all about getting the lap together and trying to do the best that I could, and that worked out luckily.”
After scoring the first pole for the BMW GTP car in Daytona, he added an encore in Sebring, again with a red flag interrupting the session.
“The lap that should have been my lap was a pretty sloppy lap, I must say,” Dries laughed. “The last push lap was enough to get it in. The red flag didn’t cause any issues. We just needed to get the tires on as soon as possible and get the laps in, so I just sent it as fast as I could.”
Where Dries’ success has come on Thursday in Daytona and Friday in Sebring, Laurens – or “Larry” as he is often called on North American soil – has had his Sunday in Daytona and Saturday in Sebring.
His wins have ticked off career boxes previously unchecked. Laurens had never won at Daytona, and while he’d won twice at Sebring in class (GTD in 2021, GTD PRO in 2023), he’d not won overall.
“It’s always very difficult to describe your feelings a couple moments after it happened. But I’ve been wanting this very badly for a long time and came close a couple times,” Laurens said at Daytona.
As third driver in the No. 7 Porsche 963, Laurens is only racing at Daytona, Sebring and Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. Porsche traditionally only runs two drivers in the six-hour IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races. The longtime GT driver and two-time IMSA champion (GTLM 2019, GTD 2021) relishes racing in IMSA’s top class at the same time as he’s trying to defend his FIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar world title in 2025.
“If you go back 10 years ago, I would have dreamed to drive in back then it was P1 then hypercars, GTP, whatever you want to call it, to drive in that category,” he explained.
“There’s not a better brand to do so than Porsche. When I was in IMSA I always dreamed of being in those chrome trailers with Penske on it, to be part of that team. Now it’s all in one, and then three months we became world champions and today win the Rolex 24. I couldn’t dream of it. I don’t know how to describe it.
“It’s dreams coming true, and extremely grateful to be sitting here and to be part of this team and these boys. Maybe tomorrow I have some more detailed emotions, but that’s it for today.”
At Sebring, Laurens took even more time to extoll his teammates. He’ll be in a unique spot for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, though, where he’ll be in a separate Porsche 963 racing against Nasr and Tandy, as either car will try to complete a Daytona-Sebring-Le Mans-same year sweep. And, for that matter, also against Dries’ WEC-entered BMW, run by a different team.
“It’s great when you know you’re working and you know you can rely 100 percent on your two teammates,” he explained. “I know whether it’s Nick or Felipe, at the end it’s two pit bulls which will go for every gap and do anything in the restart, whatever, to go for the victory.
“That’s always a pleasant feeling to have that trust in your teammates. It’s been a pretty smooth and easy collaboration. Yeah, feel a bit sorry for them for Le Mans. But that’s what it is,” he laughed.
Dries has a busier schedule the rest of 2025 to look ahead to. He’ll race full-time in both IMSA and the WEC, although he’ll prioritize IMSA races on conflict weekends.
“So far it’s going very well,” he said. “It’s the first time for me at Sebring, so I’m really enjoying the track. It’s something different to what I’ve been used to, especially with all the bumps. It’s nice. I’m enjoying it a lot so far.”
There’s another car he’d like to drive in 2025, and it’s a BMW historic vehicle, the BMW CSL.
“This is something I would start to have a chat about to try those cars, or at least have a run on them,” he said. “They look amazing. They are nice, historical cars. I would love to have a drive on them. When I walk back, I’m going to have a chat about that.”
It’s a historic year for BMW, a historic start for Porsche Penske, and a historic start for the Vanthoor brothers. But all three still have more chapters to write.
