Can BMW and its new American-based WRT team break through with an IMSA GTP victory at Road America?
Based in Belgium, WRT added an American chapter this season after two years of fielding BMW M Hybrid V8s in the World Endurance Championship. Halfway through its first dual championship campaign, WRT is the hottest team in sports prototype racing.
Following wins in Spa and Sao Paolo, WRT has two WEC victories and was just 10.9 seconds away from winning at Le Mans. The American WRT team, started from scratch this year, has scored three podiums during its maiden IMSA WeatherTech Championship season.
The timing may be ripe at the Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix for WRT to move up to the top step of the podium at the end of Sunday’s six-hour race at America’s National Park of Speed.
The four BMW drivers who finished first and second at Road America last year for Team RLL are all returning. The difference is that Dries Vanthoor, who won last year, now pairs with Sheldon van der Linde in the No. 24 entry and winner Philipp Eng is co-driving with Marco Wittmann in the No. 25.
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The WRT’s #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Sheldon van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor during the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix in May.
The German manufacturer’s decision to send Bobby Rahal and RLL packing in favor of racing in both IMSA and the WEC under one team’s umbrella appears to have accelerated the development of the M Hybrid V8. But perhaps the car itself is just better. Following an unimpressive 2025 campaign by WRT—compared with four straight poles and a victory by the Rahal team—the car underwent a facelift. BMW’s signature radiator openings at the front end were reduced in size, which improved both aerodynamics and braking as well as the car’s appearance.
The American team has come a long way since the purpose-built squad raced together for the first time at the Rolex 24.
The new single team arrangement has the benefit of data collection from each of the championships that have the common element of drivers Vanthoor and van der Linde as well as the Michelin Pilot Sport Endurance tires used in both series. Under the guidance of co-owner and team principal Vincent Vosse, the key shared engineers are Adam Hardy, the technical director, and Bernhard Demmer, the over-all program manager.
Vanthoor said the American team has come a long way since the purpose-built squad raced together for the first time at the Rolex 24, where WRT scored a remarkable runner-up finish to the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport’s third straight victory at the Daytona International Speedway.
The W Racing Team, its formal title that refers to financier and co-founder Yves Weerts, is actually a motor racing conglomerate that builds cars and races in the major GT3 series worldwide. It’s the kind of operation that can build up a pretty good bench of crew prospects with 24-hour experience, which may explain the success out of the gate.
“We’ve got good people,” said Vanthoor, “and I do believe that it will get better, and we will be able to fight for victories. We’ve had good races already this season where we showed good pace and good strategy from the guys. So, we just have to keep working and keep making sure to get all the little, little mistakes out of our system.”
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The second place at Daytona and a third place in Round 4 at Laguna Seca resulted from the M Hybrid V8s gaining ground in the latter portions of the races, a tribute to the technical preparation of the hybrid’s race settings, which the team can change throughout an event. An “overcut” pit strategy led to a second place on the streets of Detroit. But inconsistent finishes have kept the team and its drivers from contending for the championships.
Racing on both sides of the Atlantic has worked for Porsche Penske Motorsports and its Porsche 963s, winners of two straight driving and manufacturing titles in GTP. But after cutting back to just the IMSA GTP schedule this year, Porsche’s factory team arrives at Road America with a winless streak of four races. (The privateer Porsche of JDC-Miller Motorsports that won at Laguna Seca, meanwhile, no longer receives as much of a break in Balance of Performance for racing its Porsche 963 without this year’s aero updates used by the factory team.)
The hottest team in IMSA prototypes? That would be Cadillac’s Action Express Racing, which has won two straight in GTP and has yet to miss the podium. But thanks to BoP, its V-Series.R will be carrying 46 pounds of additional weight on the 4.0-mile Road America course that features long straights and heavy braking zones, not to mention a difficult layout for overtaking.
Because the track’s length often introduces pit and fuel mileage strategies, race outcomes at Road America are all but impossible to forecast. It’s a lot easier to predict a good post-race crowd at the Siebkens bar in nearby Elkhart Lake.
For his part, Vanthoor recognizes that it was a bold strategy by the RLL team that gained enough track position to put the BMWs on top last year. He sees the American WRT effort as still in building mode and is thinking long term.
“We used to have small issues (on the American team) with getting things right on the car, making sure that communication is well within the team and small things like that, which are normal in a new setup,” said Vanthoor. “So, I think we are not far away, but I do think we still have some points on the car to improve. We still have to work hard. Maybe by the end of the year, or for sure next year, we will have a complete package where we can say that we can fight for something nice.”