IMSA Esports Global Championship: Team Redline and Coanda Esports claim 2025 titles

Sim racing’s best teams shared the spoils this season in the IMSA Esports Global Championship, with Redline on top in GTP and Coanda in GTD, both winning the final race of the season at Daytona. 

After a short four-race season, it was expected that the IMSA Esports Global Championship would have a final race with titles on the line, and it delivered just that. Redline and Coanda were in the driving seats in their respective classes, but especially in GTD, there were plenty of sharks circling them. 

Coanda’s Alejandro Sanchez responded to that by taking yet another pole position, while the title contenders in GTP were pushed back in the field by Fiercely Forward and Aleix Nogue, who surprisingly led the field to the green after getting the pole.

Nogue held the lead well through lap one in GTP, while Coanda coordinated their efforts in GTD to run one-two after the start, giving them an advantage for the draft-heavy race. 

Overall, Nogue extended a one-second lead after just eight minutes, with Redline second and third until car #34 got damaged, and slipped back.

Fiercely Forward were 4.5 seconds ahead of the other Redline BMW before the stops, but a short stop from Redline, and a drive-through penalty for Nogue in the next stint, gave Redline a championship and race-leading advantage at half distance. 

In GTD, there were still seven cars in the lead drafting group by the first pitstops of the race, but on the outlap, Coanda Esports #118 spun coming onto the banking, very nearly taking out their teammates, and reducing the front group to three. Williams Sim Racing’s longer stint gave them the lead, ahead of Coanda #181 and the Apex Racing Team. 

Drago Racing caught the trio inside one hour to go, but another round of pitstops immediately jettisoned them from the group. Williams went long again, forcing a four-second chase by Coanda, who made it, and Apex, who didn’t. 

Overall, Team Redline were controlling the race, and while Grid and Go #7 did reduce their lead to six seconds in the final hour, but the champions in waiting had more than enough in hand to take the final race of the season, and with it, the IMSA Esports Global Championship title.

Behind, Porsche Coanda caught the #7 and passed them in a photo finish for second at the line. 

In GTD, there was another photo-finish. Coanda Esports, who at times threatened to break the slipstream to Williams Sim Racing entirely, led through the bus stop on the last lap, and despite Williams gaining in the Lamborghini all the way to the line, Coanda won it by inches.

They took three out of four race victories in the season and were involved in two photo finishes throughout the season. 

While the eventual champions were perhaps unsurprising, the routes to get there had twists and turns, even through a short calendar. It’s been one of the best seasons yet in the IMSA Esports Global Championship, and the feeling of real-world IMSA racing has once again been successfully brought to iRacing. Let’s hope for more of the same in 2026. 

IMSA Esports Global Championship 2025 championship standings

GTP

1. BMW M Team Redline – 1373 pts
2. Team Redline – 1290 pts
3. Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team – 1277 pts
4. Grid-and-Go.com eSports – 1100 pts
5. BMW M Team BS+COMPETITION – 1083 pts

GTD

1. Coanda Esports – 1330 pts
2. Coanda Esports – 1283 pts
3. Apex Racing Team – 1205 pts
4. DRAGO RACING – 1092 pts
5. MAHLE RACING TEAM – 1024 pts