Laurens Vanthoor Tag

By IMSA Wire Service The Northeast Grand Prix on a sweltering Saturday at Lime Rock Park delivered excitement to the checkered flag, with a pair of first-time winners in the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe collected their first win in nearly a year, capitalizing on a three-stop strategy in the Ford Chip Ganassi Racing No. 67 Ford GT to earn the victory in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class. Westbrook didn’t take the race lead until less than seven minutes remained and pulled awayRead More

By IMSA Wire Service LAKEVILLE, Conn. – Laurens Vanthoor picked up his first career IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole position, setting a new GT Le Mans (GTLM) class track record at Lime Rock Park in a 1-2 sweep of qualifying for the Porsche GT Team ahead of this afternoon’s Northeast Grand Prix. Vanthoor posted a best time of 49.133 seconds (108.000 mph) in the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR, breaking the previous record of 49.754 seconds (106.6 mph) set last year in qualifying by Antonio Garcia in the No. 3Read More

By IMSA Wire Service BOWMANVILLE, Ontario, Canada – It doesn’t matter which side of the border they’re on, there is no stopping Porsche right now in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The hottest manufacturer currently in the WeatherTech Championship, Porsche scored a record fifth consecutive GT Le Mans (GTLM) class win Sunday in the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix presented by Acura with Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor co-driving the No. 912 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR to the victory at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The five straight winsRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer The 2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship heads to Watkins Glen International this weekend for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen, the third of four races in the Michelin Endurance Cup. The scenic 3.4-mile road course has 37 cars on the entry list compared to 38 for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, so let’s take a look at the differences. With this being a shorter endurance race, many teams are not opting to use a third driver in their endurance racing lineups. Acura TeamRead More

By IMSA Wire Service In the grand tradition of great collaborations, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship fans are witnessing another in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class. They’ve become known as #Bamthor. It’s the new nickname taking hold in social media for the co-drivers of the No. 912 Porsche GT Team 911 RSR, Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor. The name is taking on a life of its own after the duo’s back-to-back victories in the BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach last month and the Acura Sports CarRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio– The GT Le Mans and GT Daytona class pole position battles came down to a fight for optimal track conditions and Sebastien Bourdais and Richard Heistand played that game perfectly to earn pole positions for their respective classes ahead of Sunday’s Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Bourdais piloted his No. 66 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT around to a fastest lap of 1 minute, 19.124 seconds around the 2.258 mile permanent road course toRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer LONG BEACH, California– Helio Castroneves brought Acura Team Penske their first pole position of 2019 ahead of Saturday’s BUBBA Burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach. The 2001 Long Beach Indy car winner set a fastest lap of 1 minute, 11.332 seconds, averaging 99.321 mph around the 1.968 mile street circuit in the No. 7 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 DPi. Felipe Nasr qualified second in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi with a lap of 1 minute, 11.550 seconds. Castroneves qualified fourth lastRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer SEBRING, Fla. — Records were sure to fall in qualifying for the 67th Annual Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring and fall they did. Breaking the old IMSA pole record by over one and a half seconds, Dane Cameron wheeled his Acura ARX-05 DPi around the 17-turn, 3.74 mile circuit with a pole lap of 1 minute, 45.865 seconds to average 125.837 mph to put Cameron and co-drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Simon Pagenaud up front. The old pole record for the race was a 1Read More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer SEBRING, Fla. — The No. 47 Precision Performance Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 entry for the 67th Annual Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring crashed during Thursday’s second practice session at the 3.74 mile circuit. Coming out of the first turn, Don Yount was getting up to speed after having just completed his second flying lap but then he hit a bump that unsettled the car. That unsettling caused Yount to go off track and hit the wall heavily coming through Turn 2. “I got on theRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Each December, Porsche and BMW racers from all over the world gather at their respective manufacturer’s headquarters in Germany to celebrate the past season of competition, while the manufacturers take advantage of the opportunity to also detail plans for the next season. This year, these special celebrations took place on consecutive evenings. This past Friday night was the BMW Motorsport Season Review in Munich, where the manufacturer’s driver lineup for the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship was unveiled among other global motorsportsRead More