The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship held its second race of the year on Saturday, with the 12 Hours of Sebring in Florida. It was a disappointing race for the pair of M Hybrid V8s in the GTP prototype class but a very strong race for the pair of M4 GT3 EVOs entered in GTD Pro.
This year’s Sebring race was a special one for BMW, as it was the 50th anniversary of the overall win at Sebring in 1975 with a 3.0 CSL driven by Brian Redman, Alan Moffatt, Sam Posey, and Hans Stuck. 2025 is also the 50th anniversary of BMW of North America, and the pair of BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8s were sporting special livery at Sebring to commemorate the success of BMW over the last 50 years, including the overall wins at Sebring in 1975 and 1999 (with the V12 LMR).
The race weekend got off to a great start for one of the M Hybrid V8s, with Dries Vanthoor putting the #24 car on the GTP class pole for his first time at Sebring. It was his second straight pole this year after taking pole at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January. Unfortunately, the #25 M Hybrid V8 could only manage a tenth-place qualifying effort before Sheldon van der Linde had an off-track excursion in the super-fast turn one and ended up in the wall.
Dries Vanthoor has been on the GTP class pole at both Daytona and Sebring.
In GTD Pro and GTD qualifying, the Paul Miller Racing M4 GT3 EVOs had a very solid session, with Neil Verhagen putting the #1 car in third on the grid in the GTD Pro class behind the #81 Ferrari and the #77 Porsche. Verhagen’s time was just 0.441 seconds off the pole time of the Ferrari. Dan Harper was right behind Verhagen in the #48 M4 GT3 EVO, with a time just 0.102 seconds behind Verhagen. In GTD, Robby Foley qualified the #96 Turner Motorsport M4 GT3 EVO in tenth, around 1.651 seconds off the pole time of the #21 Ferrari.
Once the race started, things went downhill quickly for the #24 M Hybrid V8. Dries Vanthoor had a good start and kept the lead in the opening laps but was called in to serve a drive-through penalty for moving out of line before the start/finish line (rules state that cars must stay in the position they start in and not make any race moves until after crossing the start/finish line). The penalty put the car well down in the order. They fought back to some degree, but another car hit the #24 car in the pits with three hours to go, requiring repairs that dropped Vanthoor, Kevin Magnussen, and Philipp Eng down to twelfth out of thirteen cars.
The #25 M Hybrid V8 driving trio of Marco Wittmann, Sheldon van der Linde, and Robin Frijns had their own challenges, having to start from tenth in the highly competitive GTP class. The trio worked the car up in the class and were in fifth at the end.
“It was a weekend of mixed feelings,” said Wittmann. “It looked good for a while; we worked our way back to the front and were on course for a podium. But in the end, it was only fifth place for #25. That’s somewhat disappointing, as we were good in terms of speed, even though the Porsches were stronger in the end. Now, we need to make the car even faster in the race.” The Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s finished first and second in the GTP class, followed by the #93 Acura.
In contrast to the BMWs in the GTP class, the pair of M4 GT3 EVOs entered by Paul Miller Racing in the GTD Pro class had a very consistent race of running at the front. Dan Harper took the lead early on in the #48 car, and both the #48 and #1 cars were leading the class or running in the top three for most of the race. With around an hour left after the last pit stops, the pair of BMWs ran second and third behind the #77 Porsche.
Ultimately, the #48 BMW driven by Max Hesse, Dan Harper, and Jesse Krohn couldn’t find the speed to pass the Porsche but finished a strong second. They were joined on the podium by the third-place #1 M4 GT3 EVO, driven by Madison Snow, Neil Verhagen, and Connor De Phillippi.
“P2 for us and P3 for our sister car here in Sebring – a great result for the team,” said Harper. “We can be delighted with the results as we also scored important points at the four and eight-hour marks for the Endurance Cup. In the end, the winning Porsche was just a little bit too quick. Although we didn’t have a perfect race, we can be happy to spray some champagne.”
Paul Miller Racing had six drivers on the GTD Pro class podium From left, Jesse Krohn, Dan Harper, Max Hesse. From right, Connor De Phillippi, Neil Verhagen, Madison Snow.
The GTD class is just as competitive as GTD Pro and has the most entries, with 20 cars versus the 11 in GTD Pro. The Turner Motorsport #96 M4 GT3 EVO driven by Robby Foley, Patrick Gallagher, and Jake Walker was the only BMW in the class. The team had a consistent day of running as high as the top five but ultimately didn’t really have the pace to compete for a podium finish. Still, they finished a solid sixth in class. The #57 Mercedes won the GTD class, followed on the podium by the #12 Lexus and the #27 Aston Martin.
The next race for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will be at the Long Beach, California street circuit from April 11th to 12th, for the GTP and GTD classes only.
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy LAT Images, BMW]
