2026 IMSA Esports Global Championship | Sebring International Raceway | Race #2 Preview
October 9th, 2026 by Justin Melillo
The IMSA Esports Global Championship continues on Sunday, October 11th, with the second round of the 2026 season at Sebring International Raceway. One race down in the fifth season, 52 teams continue their quest for the crown across two class championships, including 20 teams competing in the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class and 32 teams taking on the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class.
Two weeks ago, a new winner emerged in both classes as the No. 31 Bleu Mercure Esport Acura of Alxander Spetz and Atte Kauppinen held on for the GTP win, and the No. 107 Risi Competizione by GnG Ferrari of Daniel Pásztor and Nicolas Mateo won in the GTD class. Last year at Sebring, Coanda Esports swept the virtual day in Florida, winning with their Porsche Coanda entry in GTP and their Coanda Corvette in GTD. The top teams in each class will earn $5,000 at the end of the season.
Two hours and 40 minutes will be on the clock. Points will be on the line not only in the race, but also in qualifying. Who will respect the bumps and claim victory in the second round?
ROUND 2 | SEBRING INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY | ENTRY LIST: GTP
| CAR NO. | TEAM NAME | MANUFACTURER | DRIVER 1 | DRIVER 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BMW M Verstappen Sim Racing | BMW | Enzo Bonito | Gustavo Ariel |
| 3 | Mivano | Acura | Loïc Rabier | Marcus Hamilton |
| 4 | Mivano | Acura | Andrea Barilaro | Tanguy Billon |
| 7 | Grid-and-Go.com eSports | Aston Martin | Aleix Nogué | Peter Zuba |
| 8 | Grid-and-Go.com eSports | Aston Martin | Jake Denehan | Jere Lehtinen |
| 17 | Maniti Racing | Aston Martin | Chris van de Nesse | Tristan Cabrera |
| 31 | Bleu Mercure Esport | Acura | Alxander Spetz | Atte Kauppinen |
| 32 | Bleu Mercure Esport | Acura | Augustin Bernier | Maxime Brient |
| 33 | Verstappen Sim Racing | BMW | Diogo Pinto | Luke McKeown |
| 43 | XBD RACING SIMLAB | Cadillac | Alberto García Blasco | Unai Ortiz |
| 62 | SOELPEC Precision Racing | Aston Martin | Markus Søholm | Maximilian Muir |
| 69 | Tatum Res-Tech MOZA Racing | Cadillac | Matteo Aurucci | Mattia Isetta |
| 78 | Maniti Racing | BMW | Balazs Turoczy | Philip Schiff |
| 81 | Coanda Esports | Porsche | Elliott Vayron | Victor Wolfsohn |
| 88 | Deletraz Automotive by PCdesign | Porsche | Aiden Mataisz | Michal Zajac |
| 89 | BMW M Team BS COMPETITION | BMW | Daniel Alves Lourenco | Jaden Munoz |
| 91 | Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team | Porsche | Alejandro Sánchez | Charlie Collins |
| 92 | Vesta Sport | Porsche | Niklas Beu |
Przemyslaw Marek Lemanek
|
| 96 | Tatum Res-Tech NordVPN | Cadillac | Nicolò Fioroni | Raffaele De Santis |
| 98 | P1Sim Pro Team | Cadillac | Josh Lad | Lucas Bayle |
ROUND 2 | SEBRING INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY | ENTRY LIST: GTD
| CAR NO. | TEAM NAME | MANUFACTURER | DRIVER 1 | DRIVER 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 107 | Risi Competizione by GnG | Ferrari | Daniel Pásztor | Nicolas Mateo |
| 109 | Team Purple Coanda | Ford | Andrea Aymon | Diana Perez |
| 110 | MAHLE RACING TEAM | BMW | Felix Quirmbach | Rainer Talvar |
| 111 | Ronin-Sim-Sport.com | Ferrari | Henry Joslyn | Lewis Barlow |
| 112 | Fiercely Forward | Lamborghini | Niclas Laubisch | Rodrigo Meezs |
| 114 | EMM Esports | Chevrolet | Dáire McCormack | Martin Kadlečík |
| 115 | EMM Esports | Chevrolet | Jerome Fischer | Luca Alpert |
| 118 | Altitude FreeM eSports | Aston Martin | Francis Mcginn | Harrison Crowther |
| 121 | Ronin-Sim-Sport.com | Mercedes-AMG | Pablo Mercerat | Shoma Shintani |
| 123 | SDR Simracing | BMW | Fabrizio Belziti | Juan Bleynat |
| 124 | TC Esports | Chevrolet | Carlos Fenollosa | Pablo Espes |
| 125 | SDR SIMRACING | Ford | Dino Filippa | Marcos Saavedra |
| 126 | UNI-G Racing | Lamborghini | Dániel Oláh | Mate Varga |
| 127 | Vesta Sport | Mercedes-AMG | Roberto Rebechi | Samuele Spiezio |
| 128 | Vesta Sport | Ferrari | Gaël Valero | Sem Giesbers |
| 132 | Bleu Mercure Esport | Porsche | Corentin Lassine | Thibault Cazaubon |
| 134 | natural elements by Walkenhorst | Aston Martin | Gregory Hovesen | Josh Thompson |
| 141 | THE FARM | Ferrari | Enzo Tebani | Nicolas Lux |
| 142 | THE FARM | Porsche | Evan Girod | Geoffrey Leemans |
| 144 | TC Esports Academy | Chevrolet | Miroslaw X Kravchenko | Vicente Aparicio |
| 161 | VØRAX | Mercedes-AMG | Beckham Jacir | Manuel Troncoso |
| 162 | VØRAX | Mercedes-AMG | Felipe Cabrera Loyola | Nicolás Rubilar |
| 171 | BMW M Team MOUZ | BMW | Maximilian Benecke | Yurica Kasdorp |
| 177 | Zero7 Racing | Porsche | Juan Lemus | Lorenzo Castellani |
| 178 | Maniti Racing | Ford | Ryan van de Grijp | Tim Kern |
| 179 | Alpha One by SX | Porsche | Lewis Woods | Luca Wunsch |
| 187 | WSR Esports | Aston Martin | Andrew Caron | Kamil Grabowski |
| 188 | WSR Esports | Aston Martin | Lukas Prada | Marley Joffe |
| 190 | UNI-G Racing | Ford | Balazs Palla | Mate Mihalidesz |
| 196 | BS TURNER | BMW | Daniel Lafuente | Oskari Rinne |
| 198 | Nova Legio Racing | Lamborghini | Daniel Antúnez | Ricardo Rico R. |
| 199 | Nova Legio Racing | Lamborghini | Kevin Ellis Jr | Yohann Harth |
Full Entry List (Click Here)
LAST RACE: BLEU MERCURE, RISI COMPETIZIONE WIN AT ROAD ATLANTA
Two weeks ago, some wet weather threw a wrench into the opening round of the IMSA Esports Global Championship’s 2026 season. Through Qualifying, the track got soaked, and some heavy hitters were relegated to starting in the middle of the pack as a result. The rain stopped before the green flag, but the track would stay damp enough for wet tires to matter at the start. Still, there were some teams opting for the dry tires at the start, all they had to do was hold on.
The dry tire strategy wasn’t completely successful for the GTP competition, as Blue Mercure started on the wet tires and took an early pit in their window to swap to dry tires. The No. 33 Verstappen Sim Racing BMW opted for dry tires at the start, and if they could have made one less pit stop, it would have worked a treat. Instead, the No. 33 was relegated to finishing in third as the No. 31 took the win and the No. 8 Grid-and-Go Esports Valkyrie finished second in that car’s debut in the series.
It did, however, work in the GTD ranks. The No. 107 Risi Competizione Ferrari was one of two late front runners on the strategy, along with the No. 161 VØRAX Mercedes-AMG. On one of the later cycles, the No. 107 got ahead of the No. 161 and never looked back, while the pole-sitting No. 114 EMM Esports Corvette that started on wet tires finished in third.
LAST SEASON AT SEBRING: COANDA SWEEPS CLASSES AT SEBRING
In a similar fashion to how it is laid out for the 2026 schedule, Sebring also followed up the opening round of the 2025 season at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. In the GTD class, the Coanda Corvettes were just as potent as they were in the opening round, but at the start, the No. 118 was ahead of the No. 181. Those spots were flipped the race prior, and they would end up in that order again after a battle late amongst teammates.
Speaking of teammates, their GTP sister car, the No. 91 Porsche Coanda, found redemption after retiring the race prior at Road Atlanta, winning handedly in the GTP class at Sebring.
SEBRING TRACK FACTS
Respect the bumps! Sebring International Raceway is a 3.7-mile, 17-turn permanent road racing fixture located in Sebring, Florida. The first race held at the circuit was in 1950, and in 1959, it hosted the United States Grand Prix. However, Sebring is better known and suited for sports car racing, hosting the IMSA 12 Hours of Sebring every March.
NEXT RACE: BACK TO THE BIG APPLE
After Sebring, the series continues for the third race of the season in two weeks at Watkins Glen International in Upstate New York on October 25th.
Each race of the IMSA Esports Global Championship will be broadcasted live on IMSA’s and iRacing’s social channels with the Countdown to Green pre-race show beginning at 1:45 p.m. ET (18:45 GMT). Race coverage begins at 2:00 p.m. ET.
For more information on the IMSA Esports Global Championship, visit iracing.com/imsa-esports.
For more information about the Virtual Competition Organisation (VCO), visit vco-esports.com.
For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit iracing.com.
You may also like...
OFFICIAL PARTNERS:
