As the New Year Beckons, Here Are the Next Five Full-Season Youngsters to Keep An Eye On
By John Oreovicz
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – We looked at the first batch of young drivers who more or less traded their open-wheel paths for sports car careers earlier this week. You can see that Part 1 here.
Now, in alphabetical order, are the second five of 10 drivers 30 and under we’ve selected to keep an eye on, who are slated to compete full-time in the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Ross Gunn, 28, No. 23 Aston Martin THOR Team Aston Martin Valkyrie (Grand Touring Prototype, GTP)
Gunn ran a single season of Formula 4 single-seaters before contesting the Aston Martin Evolution Academy in 2015. He and Jamie Chadwick teamed to win the British GT4 championship (similar to the Grand Sport or GS class of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge) and for ’16 he was named an Aston Martin factory driver.
He made his WeatherTech Championship debut in 2020 and was a mainstay of Heart of Racing Team’s GTD and GTD PRO campaigns since ’21, co-driving to eight race wins. In 2025, he and De Angelis were teamed together for Aston Martin’s entry into the GTP class with the Valkyrie, giving Aston Martin THOR Team one of IMSA’s most dynamic young driver pairings.
“I think to end the season with a result like that in any given year is great, but for the first year of the program, in a year where we hadn’t really finished better than P6, it came as a bit of a surprise, to be honest,” Gunn reflected on the Valkyrie’s Motul Petit Le Mans podium. “We knew that it might be a track that suited the car in some ways, but it was also the track that we had done our first ever American test on. It was great to end the season in that way and everyone is super motivated to start next year on a similar footing.”
Harry King, 24, No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R 992 (Grand Touring Daytona Pro, GTD PRO)
King will be a new name to IMSA audiences for 2026, but he’s been a successful junior driver in his native Great Britain and Europe for several seasons.
King started in karting before moving into Ginetta cars in the late 2010s, ultimately winning a Ginetta GT4 Supercup title in 2019 and then into Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain the next year where he won the title as a rookie.
He’s added two other championships to his resume too, in Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux and GT World Endurance Cup’s Gold class. Racing alongside Nick Tandy in the fan-favorite “Rexy” No. 77 AO Racing Porsche will certainly put a lot of eyes on King in his rookie season.
Dries Vanthoor, 27, No. 24 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 (GTP)
Unlike his older brother Laurens, who competed in Formula 3 for four years and won the 2009 German F3 title, Dries Vanthoor shifted from open wheelers to sports cars after a single season. His association with Belgian team WRT began in 2016, and over the last decade, his performances in WRT Audis and BMWs established him as one of the top GT3 racers in the world. His record includes three victories at the Nürburgring 24 Hours (two overall) and class wins at the Bathurst 12 Hours and Le Mans 24 Hours.
His associations with WRT and BMW carried him into BMW’s M Hybrid V8 prototype program, where he has claimed race wins in both the WeatherTech Championship and the FIA World Endurance Championship. Vanthoor started the 2025 IMSA campaign with four consecutive Motul Pole Awards and added a win in a BMW 1-2 at Road America. Now in 2026, he’ll be part of both teams across both championships.
Sheldon van der Linde, 26, No. 24 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 (GTP)
Three years younger than older brother Kelvin, Sheldon van der Linde set out to race sports cars from the beginning, starting with single-make Volkswagen series in their home country. Both ultimately became factory GT drivers for Audi, Kelvin remaining so through the end of 2024. Sheldon left Audi after a single season to begin an association with BMW that netted the 2022 DTM championship and ultimately led to his joining BMW M Team WRT’s Hypercar program in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2024. Sheldon contested the full WEC and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship campaigns for BMW in ’25 and will continue in that role.
“Coming from South Africa with my parents funding my career, I never really had a chance to drive open-wheelers,” Sheldon said. “I would have loved to, don’t get me wrong, but I wanted to get to the DTM, and I was able to do that through GT3 and TCR racing. I still got to my goal, but my path was a bit different.
“When the Hypercar (GTP) regulations came out, I knew that’s what I wanted to do and BMW gave me the chance to do both championships. It’s super-cool; it was a no-brainer-to say yes to. For Hypercar, they usually choose open-wheel drivers who have experience with downforce cars. I had to make my own path to Hypercar, and I’m just happy I got the chance to prove I can drive a downforce car as well. Traveling the world, driving the Hypercar for a living in IMSA and the WEC championship as well is literally a dream come true for me.”
Neil Verhagen, 24, No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO (GTD PRO)
The Connecticut native had a definite open-wheel path ahead of him with success from karting into F1600, F2000, Formula Renault and European Formula 3 ranks, and at just 15 was a recipient of the prestigious Team USA Scholarship. He was inspired by a Kyle Busch NASCAR diecast he received as a kid that set him on his way.
“A couple of months later, there was a go-kart under the Christmas tree,” Verhagen told IMSA.com earlier this year. “We just did it as family fun with my brother and I. We just played around very unseriously and had fun with it. It was fun to do it with my father and learn everything,” Verhagen said. “We just had the kart in the back of our pickup truck. We had a little tent, and we’d set it up and we’d go to these events and try to compete with all the big teams and their fancy equipment.”
Flash forward and after shifting into sports cars with BMW in 2020, Verhagen quickly set sail and even scored a class win on debut at the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring. He moved from GT4 spec BMWs into GT3s where he’s been a regular for several years. Already an IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup champion in GTD PRO in 2024, Verhagen secured his first WeatherTech Championship win at Road America in 2025 and was recently confirmed for another full season with Paul Miller Racing in 2026 as part of an all-American lineup.
Stay tuned for Part 3 looking at a half dozen part-timers in IMSA under 30 who will be ones to watch.