Rain decided the season opener, and nobody saw the result coming. Two weeks before the series moved to Sebring, new winners emerged in both classes of the IMSA Esports Global Championship. Now, in the fifth season of the series, 52 teams were heading into round two on Sunday, October 11, at Sebring International Raceway in Florida: 20 in the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class and 32 in Grand Touring Daytona (GTD).
What happened at Road Atlanta
The wet weather hit during qualifying. The track soaked through, and some heavy hitters were shuffled into the middle of the pack. The rain stopped before the green flag, but the surface stayed damp enough that tire choice mattered from the first lap. Some crews gambled on dry tires and simply tried to hold on.
In GTP, that gamble did not quite pay off. The No. 31 Bleu Mercure Esport Acura of Alxander Spetz and Atte Kauppinen started on wets, pitted early in its window to switch to dry tires, and held on for the win. The No. 33 Verstappen Sim Racing BMW started on dries and might have won with one fewer stop. It finished third. The No. 8 Grid-and-Go Esports Valkyrie took second in the car’s series debut.
In GTD, the dry-tire gamble worked. The No. 107 Risi Competizione by GnG Ferrari of Daniel Pásztor and Nicolas Mateo ran with the No. 161 VØRAX Mercedes-AMG up front late, then passed it on a later cycle and never looked back. The pole-sitting No. 114 EMM Esports Corvette, which began on wet tires, came home third.
Sebring, then and now
Coanda Esports swept the virtual day at Sebring last year, with the Porsche Coanda in GTP and the Coanda Corvette in GTD. In GTD the No. 118 started ahead of the No. 181, and the pair ended in the same order after a late fight between teammates. In GTP, the No. 91 Porsche Coanda had retired at Road Atlanta the race before, then won handily at Sebring.
The circuit asks a lot of a car. It is a 3.7-mile, 17-turn permanent road course in Sebring, Florida. The first race there was run in 1950, and it hosted the United States Grand Prix in 1959. It is better known for sports cars, and the IMSA 12 Hours of Sebring is held there every March. The tagline for this round: respect the bumps.
The race runs two hours and 40 minutes, and points are on offer in qualifying as well as the race. The top teams in each class earn $5,000 at the end of the season. Coverage starts at 1:45 p.m. ET (18:45 GMT) with the Countdown to Green pre-race show, and race coverage begins at 2:00 p.m. ET, on IMSA’s and iRacing’s social channels. The series then moves to Watkins Glen International in Upstate New York for the third race on October 25.
