Turner BMW launches six-car IMSA effort for 2025

"No, that's not a typo!" headlined the release announcing Turner Motorsport's 2025 IMSA plans, as the most experienced BMW racing team of all time announced its line-up of not one, not two, but six BMWs that will compete across all IMSA championships at Daytona later this month. Last year, Turner set the record for the most entries by a BMW racing team, and this year Will Turner and company begin their 27th professional racing season.

Leading the way is the new No. 96 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, running for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar GTD Championship in 2025.

The No. 96 team will feature familiar names, led by BMW M Motorsport factory driver Robby Foley and co-driver Patrick Gallagher, who enter their third season together. 18-year-old Jake Walker Jr. returns for the Michelin Endurance Cup events, and Jens Klingmann, another BMW M factory driver, will complete the team in Turner's 15th Rolex 24 At Daytona start. Foley and Gallagher finished fourth in the 2023 IMSA GTD standings, and improved to second in 2024, with a race victory at Road America and three runner-up finishes.

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Turner's iconic blue and yellow livery will be present in the Michelin Pilot Challenge paddock as the team also adds two new BMW M4 GT4 EVOs, both of which will compete for the GS (Grand Sport) title.

After spending two seasons in GS in separate Turner cars, Francis Selldorff and Dillon Machavern will team up for the first time in the No. 95 BMW. Matt Dalton and Patrick Gallagher will split the season with Vincent "Vin" Barletta and Robby Foley in the No. 96 car. And as confirmed this week, Barletta will join Dalton and Gallagher for the four-hour BMW M Endurance Challenge at Daytona.

“I’m really looking forward to being back for my seventh full-time season with Turner Motorsport,” said Foley, Turner's lead driver. “We have a lot of momentum coming off a strong 2024 season, but equally some new challenges.

“In the No. 96 GTD car, we have a lot of continuity with Patrick and Jake, and Jens ‘The Maschine’ for Daytona, so it's business as usual there. Of course, there are a lot of new aspects on the technical side with the beautiful new BMW EVO car, but also from IMSA,” he adds, in reference to IMSA's new torque sensors that will be mandatory in GTD this year. “This will keep us on our toes, but we're ready for the challenge. Plus, it's always exciting to debut new cars at Daytona, and I'm excited to see how we stack up!”

Three Turner BMWs will run in the VP Racing SportsCar Challenge opener at Daytona, including two BMW M4 GT3s in the new GTDX (GT Daytona X) class.

GTDX is a new category open to GT3 models that participated in the previous year's IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (meaning that the M4 GT3 EVO is not yet eligible) and will not use torque sensors.

After three seasons in Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America, the aforementioned Walker will run full-time in the VP Challenge series -- driving the No. 6 BMW M4 GT3 -- as he looks to gain more experience in the category.

“It’s great having Jake and Francis continue to move up in their racing careers with Turner Motorsport. We’ve almost created a driver development program with the way our drivers have shuffled around and moved up,” said team owner and namesake Will Turner. “It started with Robby learning under Bill [Auberlen] and now Robby is mentoring the next wave of talent. Patrick is coaching Matt as well, and as a team owner, you couldn’t ask for a better group of drivers all working to improve themselves but also as a team.”

At Daytona, Walker will be joined by the No. 95 BMW M4 GT3 of Barletta, and the No. 96 BMW M4 GT4 of Dalton.

“As usual, it’s been a crazy off-season to get this fleet of BMWs set for 2025,” Turner said “It’ll be a busy two weeks in Daytona, but I can’t wait to get to the track with the BMW M4 EVOs. It’ll take a lot of tacos to power my crew across six BMWs but we’re up for the challenge.”