IMSA Esports Global Championship: Team Redline sweep to one-two

The IMSA Esports Global Championship is back for a fourth season in 2025 on iRacing, with a now traditional four-race calendar. However, unique to sim racing, the two classes will race separately at different venues on the penultimate round of the season, marking a change to the other standard 160-minute races at Road Atlanta, Sebring and Daytona. 

For the opener at Road Atlanta, it was Jordan Caruso who took pole, a substitute driver for the Porsche Coanda team, while one of Coanda Esports’ newer signings, Alejandro Sanchez, was fastest in GTD.

At Petit Le Mans last month, Alxander Spetz put in one of the performances of his career, coming exceptionally close to beating Redline single-handedly for Drago Racing, but any chances of repeating that would end immediately in this race, as he got loose into the first corner and slid through the grass on lap one. 

Caruso led comfortably into traffic for the first time which, within five minutes of the start, tripped him up already.

As he passed the Simufy GTD Porsche, he tried to take the racing line at the second part of the chicane, but with the Porsche still alongside, contact was made. Fortunately, he was shunted the right way again, and not too much damage was done, but it did allow Soelpec Precision Racing into a surprise early lead. 

It didn’t last long, though, as in the second run through traffic less than 10 minutes later,  Jordan Johnson went wide for Soelpec while passing a GTD, and Caruso took them three wide for the lead. This gap would extend to nine seconds before the first pitstops, while Coanda Esports extended similarly in GTD, the gap was three seconds. 

Team Redline did more laps in their first stint and short-fuelled to get track position off Caruso, but on cold tyres, they weren’t able to hold off the Australian, who raced away again. But the big moment would happen as one of the greatest sim racers of all time, Josh Rogers, got into the car at the second stop. 

While on cold tyres, Rogers was put under pressure by the Crowdstrike Racing Acura, and as it went to the inside into the esses, Rogers tried to block, ending up shunted off the race track and into the wall. The car was toast, and their chances were too, ending up more than 10 laps down. 

With Soelpec picking up a penalty, Team Redline was by far best placed to pick up the pieces, and was unchallenged thereafter, coming home one-two by over 20 seconds. In GTD, Coanda Esports #181 were only challenged by their teammates, who got within five seconds by the finish, but it was a 1-2 for both of simracing’s best in the two classes. 

And while the battles for the win were a sideshow, especially in the final hour of the race, the battles down in the midfield were more than enough to keep the viewer entertained, the three-wide finish for eighth place underscoring that.

The show moves onto its only week off through the short campaign now, before Sebring begins the season-ending triple-header.

IMSA Esports Global Championship 2025 Race 1 results

GTP

1. #33 BMW M Team Redline BMW
2. #34 Team Redline
3. #69 Drago Racing
4. #89 BMW M BS+COMPETITION
5. #95 Channel 199 Sim Racing

GTD

1. #181 Coanda Esports
2. #118 Coanda Esports
3. #168 Drago Racing
4. #199 Apex Racing Team
5. #101 Team Redline