IMSA Esports Global Championship: Porsche Coanda and Veloce Thrustmaster win series-first sprint races

The 75-minute races at Long Beach and VIR were both, to varying degrees, affected by rain, and also had mixed fortunes for Coanda’s teams. 

GTP

Porsche Coanda took pole at Long Beach in the GTP race for the third time this season, already sealing the AMD Pole Award for car #91 with a round to spare. Such was the threat of rain, the Apex Racing Team started the race on wets, for reasons which would soon become clear. 

Spots hit the windscreens just three minutes into the race, and of the leaders, Jake Denehan was first to duck in, followed by Diogo Pinto a lap later, and Elvis Rankin the lap after that. Alxander Spetz also stopped early and would lead the charge of those on new wet tyres past three teams who tried, and failed, to brave it out. 

With 52 minutes to go, Gustavo Ariel wanted to be the one leading the group, and fired down the inside into T1, misjudging his braking point and scraping along the side of the Drago Racing BMW.

It would earn the Brazilian a penalty and take away Spetz’s momentum, as he would lose the lead to Charlie Collins 10 minutes later. 

With half an hour to go, the other Redline BMW had caught Collins, before making a calm pass down the inside at T1, however, Collins’ lack of fight soon became clear, as it was confirmed that Redline’s early stops to undercut Porsche Coanda earlier meant they hadn’t fulfilled their minimum drive time.

Therefore, they would drop to third and sixth by the finish, while Collins brought the Porsche Coanda GTP over the line for their second win in a row, giving them a 75-point deficit to their arch-rivals, who are tied on points at the top. 

GTD

The championship leaders weren’t off to a great start at VIR in the GTD-only race either, qualifying all the way down in 9^th and 13^th, respectively. It made way for Daniel Lafuente of the Scuderia Ferrari Esports Team to take pole, and he led the field around a very lightly damp formation lap. 

Lafuente held the lead on another clean lap one, but received a penalty for failing to maintain his speed towards the start line, giving Daniel Antunez the lead for Veloce Thrustmaster.

Only Yohann Harth of the Apex Racing Team could stay with Antunez, and that remained the case even through a very small rain shower before the pitstops. 

Taking over the Veloce Thrustmaster Ferrari, Kody Deith was subject to extreme pressure from Luka Kita, now driving the Ford Mustang in behind, but with less than five minutes to go, Kita got a slow-down penalty coming out of the first sector, and the leading battle was settled.

Coanda Esports #181 had been rescuing a decent finish from a difficult day, but received a late penalty, handing the series lead to their teammates, who finished eighth, and giving 10 teams a mathematical chance of winning the title at the Daytona finale in two weeks’ time.