Dries Vanthoor

Dries Vanthoor (born 20 April 1998 in Heusden-Zolder) is a Belgian racing driver who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship and the IMSA SportsCar Championship for BMW M Team WRT. In his previous role as an Audi factory driver, Vanthoor amassed multiple accolades, winning the Bathurst 12 Hour in 2018, the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2019 and 2022, and taking three consecutive GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup titles from 2020 to 2022 alongside Charles Weerts. Dries is the younger brother of Laurens Vanthoor, a Porsche and McLaren factory driver. Vanthoor began his career in karting, a discipline he remained in until 2014. In 2015, he stepped up to junior formula, driving in the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup as part of Josef Kaufmann Racing. With a win at Assen and a third place at the Nürburgring, Vanthoor ended up sixth in the standings. For the 2016 season, Vanthoor switched to sportscar racing, where he would perform double duties in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup and GT Series Sprint Cup for Team WRT, partnering Frédéric Vervisch in both series and being joined by brother Laurens Vanthoor in the former championship. During the year, the rookie scored two podiums in the Endurance Cup, leading to an eighth place overall. This included a second place at Silverstone, where Vanthoor briefly took the lead from Rolf Ineichen before being passed by eventual winner Jazeman Jaafar a lap later. The Sprint Cup season began with difficulties, as Vanthoor caused a collision with Maxime Soulet in the season-opening Misano main race.