Bleu Mercure Esport, Rizi Competitzione by GnG claim IMSA Esports Global Championship class wins in Kinetic 240 at Road Atlanta

September 28th, 2026 by

The 2026 IMSA Esports Global Championship is officially underway, and two new winning teams stood atop the classes after two hours and 40 minutes around Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, the Kinetic 240, on Sunday afternoon.

In the GTP class and overall, the No. 31 Bleu Mercure Esport Acura driven by Atte Kauppinen and Alx Spetz held off a late charge from the No. 8 Grid-and-Go.com eSports Valkyrie driven by Jake Denehan and Sean Campbell. It was still a celebration for the GnG group as a whole, however, as the No. 107 Risi Competizione by GnG Ferrari piloted by Nicolas Mateo and Daniel Pásztor held on for the GTD class victory over the No. 161 VØRAX Mercedes-AMG wheeled by Beckham Jacir and Manuel Troncoso.

Neither winners dominated the day, nor started from their top spots in class, but they each survived the early and wet chaos and found themselves on the correct strategy to capitalize into virtual victory lane.

For the winning GTP, Spetz started the day behind the wheel, setting the car up to be in winning position. “Track position was super, super important in the start, so I’m super happy we P2 in quali.” He handed the keys over to Kauppinen during the second of what would be three total pit stops. “The last few laps was complete chaos,” Kauppinen said post-race. “I just tried to survive. When they got within 2.5 (seconds), I knew, one time, if I get stuck downhill, it’s going to be close with them. In the end, it was really nervous.” As also noted by Spetz, the team swept the weekend at Road Atlanta, winning the iRacing Petit Le Mans the day prior, a 10-hour event in the same machines at the same track.

As for the GTD winners, they went off strategy and opted for some white knuckle racing early in the going. With the track still wet from qualifying, the No. 107 was one of just a couple of teams to opt for dry tires instead of wet weather tires. The track would be actively drying out as the race progressed, with no further precipitation to come, but those first few laps were an absolute handful for anyone trying the alternate strategy.

“It was quite hard to manage the situation,” Mateo said post-race. “We were starting ahead on the grid, so everyone was coming from behind with the wet tire, with much more pace… They had to avoid me because I was 15 seconds slower. After a few laps, I thought the race was over, we were 50 second behind the leader… Suddenly, we started to gain time, and the strategy was perfect.” Mateo handed the car over to Pásztor from the second spot on the strategy, and from there, he was able to overcut the No. 161 on the same strategy to take the lead and ultimately the win. “It just feels surreal to me,” Pásztor said post-race. “I didn’t believe that we would have any chance after seeing what we were doing on the dry tires in the first stint.”

WET AND WILD AT THE START

The heavens began to open up around the end of final practice, and during qualifying, it was a fully-wet racing surface. In the GTP class, it was the No. 92 Vesta Sport Porsche with Niklau Beu on the pole, while the No. 114 EMM Esports Corvette with Jerome Fischer driving claimed the top spot in GTD. By the time it was time to grid for the main event, the rain was over, and the track was in the process of drying.

It was still wet, and the tire decisions were mostly towards putting on a wet set in both classes. It would pay off to be the better strategy in GTP by the end of the race, but it would be a starting dry tire winning in GTD by the end of the day.

Early on, the GTP battle saw the No. 92 challenged by the No. 91 Porsche Coanda entry, at that time with Dayne Warren behind the wheel. It took just 10 laps, however, before that GTP class started pitting to take off wet tires. It was within the window of the normal three-stop strategy, but surely, those on the dry tires at the start were hoping to stretch it for just two stops. The track just wasn’t wet enough for that to ultimately pan out.

When the tire swaps began, so did a lot of the carnage. Cars would reenter a wet track with cold, dry tires, and many hopefuls found themselves in trouble as a result. The No. 91 was among them, as Warren would crash and tow at Lap 16. On the same lap, the defending champions in the No. 1 BMW M Verstappen Sim Racing team, driven by Enzo Bonito, would also get caught up in some chaos.

Even nearly 10 laps later, the track was still wet enough at parts that the No. 89 BMW M Team BS+COMPETITION entry, at the time driven by Jaden Munoz, managed to clip a wet spot and spin out to their demise on Lap 25.

OFFSETTING STRATEGIES

The change over of the track going from wet to dry benefitted the No. 33 Verstappen Sim Racing BMW driven by Sam Kuitert at first. With most of their competition pitting for dry tires, this handed the lead over at Lap 15, and their tires were more than warm enough to handle to track at that state. With the No. 91 out of the picture, the No. 92 wound up at the forefront of the wet-to-dry strategy in the GTP class, followed by the No. 31.

As for the GTD class, they also had some strategies afoot. Teams like the No. 114 and the No. 124 TC Esports Corvette were able to pit for dry tires around their 10th lap as well. The No. 161, with Jacir behind the wheel, started back in 17th, well behind the No. 107 on the same strategy. However, some off-track excursions brought the two close, and ultimately landed the No. 161 in better favor by the time the others began to switch compounds.

With the ebb and flow of multi-class racing, the two were able to stay out of trouble mostly, but a choice by the No. 107 to stay out a couple of extra laps on the final pit stop proved to be the difference in their battle for the win.

LATE RACE BATTLES

While the No.33 furiously tried to make up the difference they lost early on by existing on dry tires on a wet track, they wound up third by the end of the day thanks to some fresher tires and better traffic management late from Luke McKeown. The No. 92 seemed to pivot to the No. 33’s strategy on the second round of pit stops, but it wound up costing them a third pit stop, and eventually, some unfavorable traffic conditions for Przemyslaw Lemanek that would result in a late race crash, forcing them to finish 16th.

In the GTD, it was a similar scenario, just a bit flipped. The No. 114 did have to make one extra stop as compared to the No. 107 and the No. 161, but even always on the optimal tires, Dáire McCormack could only salvage a third place podium run for the No. 114 EMM Esports entry.

Traffic would become a factor for both classes as the time clicked down to zero. The No. 31 had a lead of over six seconds, but as Kauppinen took the white flag, that gap was nearly down to one second. Denehan in the No. 8 was able to get the breaks through traffic, and had there been another lap, perhaps he could have gotten there.

As Kauppinen worked the traffic, he had to be aware of the other class’s battle as well, as did they of the GTP battle. Pásztor and Troncoso had enough of a gap that the GTP competition would equally get through them, and that gap stayed about the same to the checkers, at about two seconds in favor of the No. 107.

KINETIC 240 AT MICHELIN RACEWAY ROAD ATLANTA | ROUND 1 | GTP RESULTS

POS. ST. NO. TEAM MANUFACTURER DRIVER 1 DRIVER 2 INTERVAL PTS.
1 2 31 Bleu Mercure Esport Acura Atte Kauppinen Alxander Spetz 134 laps 382
2 6 8 Grid-and-Go.com eSports Aston Martin Jake Denehan Sean Campbell -1.124 345
3 8 33 Verstappen Sim Racing BMW Luke McKeown Sam Kuitert -7.523 323
4 9 32 Bleu Mercure Esport Acura David Adam Augustin Bernier -29.259 302
5 20 62 SOELPEC Precision Racing Aston Martin Markus Søholm Robin Schwanke -49.467 271
6 15 7 Grid-and-Go.com eSports Aston Martin Jere Lehtinen Darius Andrei -54.029 266
7 12 4 Mivano Acura Andrea Barilaro Tanguy Billon -1:08.107 259
8 10 81 Coanda Esports Porsche Dan Amor Victor Wolfsohn -1 L 251
9 7 98 P1Sim Pro Team Cadillac Lucas Bayle Josh Lad -1 L 244
10 19 3 Mivano Acura Marcus Hamilton Loïc Rabier -1 L 222
11 13 69 Tatum Res-Tech MOZA Racing Cadillac Mattia Isetta Matteo Aurucci -1 L 218
12 17 96 Tatum Res-Tech NordVPN Cadillac Roland Pali Nicolò Fioroni -1 L 204
13 18 78 Maniti Racing BMW Balazs Turoczy Philip Schiff -2 L 193
14 16 17 Maniti Racing Aston Martin Tristan Cabrera Chris van de Nesse -6 L 185
15 4 88 Deletraz Automotive by PCdesign Porsche Michal Zajac Aiden Mataisz -6 L 188
16 1 92 Vesta Sport Porsche Niklas Beu Przemyslaw Lemanek -8 L 185
17 5 89 BMW M Team BS COMPETITION BMW Jaden Munoz Bradley Leenards -14 L 166
18 3 91 Porsche Coanda Esports Porsche Alejandro Sánchez Dayne Warren -19 L 160
19 11 1 BMW M Verstappen Sim Racing BMW Enzo Bonito Diogo Pinto -118 L 140
20 14 43 XBD RACING SIMLAB Cadillac Unai Ortiz Carlos Boza Puya -120 L 127

GTP STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 1 AT MICHELIN RACEWAY ROAD ATLANTA

POS. NO. TEAM MANUFACTURER PTS. WINS POLES T-5’s T-10’s
1 31 Bleu Mercure Esport Acura 382 1 0 1 1
2 8 Grid-and-Go.com eSports Aston Martin -37 0 0 1 1
3 33 Verstappen Sim Racing BMW -59 0 0 1 1
4 32 Bleu Mercure Esport Acura -80 0 0 1 1
5 62 SOELPEC Precision Racing Aston Martin -111 0 0 1 1
6 7 Grid-and-Go.com eSports Aston Martin -116 0 0 0 1
7 4 Mivano Acura -123 0 0 0 1
8 81 Coanda Esports Porsche -131 0 0 0 1
9 98 P1Sim Pro Team Cadillac -138 0 0 0 1
10 3 Mivano Acura -160 0 0 0 1

KINETIC 240 AT MICHELIN RACEWAY ROAD ATLANTA | ROUND 1 | GTD RESULTS

POS. ST. NO. TEAM MANUFACTURER DRIVER 1 DRIVER 2 INTERVAL PTS.
1 7 107 Risi Competizione by GnG Ferrari Nicolas Mateo Daniel Pásztor 121 laps 374
2 17 161 VØRAX Mercedes-AMG Beckham Jacir Manuel Troncoso -2.012 334
3 1 114 EMM Esports Chevrolet Dáire McCormack Jerome Fischer -10.406 335
4 13 171 BMW M Team MOUZ BMW Maximilian Benecke Moritz Löhner -15.539 298
5 8 132 Bleu Mercure Esport Porsche Vasilios Beletsiotis Thibault Cazaubon -1 L 283
6 4 134 natural elements by Walkenhorst Aston Martin Josh Thompson James Beumee -1 L 278
7 2 124 TC Esports Chevrolet Carlos Fenollosa Pablo Espes -1 L 272
8 5 144 TC Esports Academy Chevrolet Vicente Aparicio Diego Fernández -1 L 256
9 28 110 MAHLE RACING TEAM BMW Felix Quirmbach Rainer Talvar -1 L 223
10 23 196 BS TURNER BMW Phil Denes Daniel Lafuente -1 L 218
11 6 199 Nova Legio Racing Lamborghini Yohann Harth Kevin Ellis Jr -1 L 225
12 21 126 UNI-G Racing Lamborghini Dániel Oláh Mate Varga -1 L 200
13 22 128 Vesta Sport Ferrari Sem Giesbers Gaël Valero -1 L 189
14 19 125 SDR SIMRACING Ford Marcos Saavedra Santiago Baztarrica -1 L 182
15 18 118 Altitude FreeM eSports Aston Martin Francis Mcginn Harrison Crowther -1 L 173
16 15 187 WSR Esports Aston Martin Andrew Caron Ross Macfarlane -1 L 166
17 20 179 Alpha One by SX Porsche Lewis Woods Luca Wunsch -1 L 151
18 29 112 Fiercely Forward Lamborghini Niclas Laubisch Samuel Ward -2 L 132
19 27 190 UNI-G Racing Ford Mate Mihalidesz David Toth -2 L 124
20 25 188 WSR Esports Aston Martin Lukas Prada Marley Joffe -2 L 116
21 30 127 Vesta Sport Mercedes-AMG Samuele Spiezio Roberto Rebechi -2 L 101
22 11 142 THE FARM Porsche Geoffrey Leemans Evan Girod -2 L 110
23 12 123 SDR Simracing BMW Roman Pascucci Fabrizio Belziti -2 L 99
24 26 177 Zero7 Racing Porsche Lorenzo Castellani Alessio Bonino -2 L 75
25 14 162 VØRAX Mercedes-AMG Felipe Cabrera Loyola Nicolás Rubilar -2 L 77
26 32 178 Maniti Racing Ford Tim Kern Ryan van de Grijp -2 L 51
27 16 121 Ronin-Sim-Sport.com Mercedes-AMG Leif Sebastian Shoma Shintani -3 L 55
28 31 109 Team Purple Coanda Ford Victoria Thomson Andrea Aymon -4 L 31
29 24 198 Nova Legio Racing Lamborghini Daniel Antúnez Benedek Vida -4 L 27
30 9 141 THE FARM Ferrari Enzo Tebani Nicolas Lux -7 L 32
31 3 111 Ronin-Sim-Sport.com Ferrari Lewis Barlow Henry Joslyn -7 L 40
32 10 115 EMM Esports Chevrolet Raphael Rennhofer Luca Neudeck -36 L 31

GTD STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 1 AT MICHELIN RACEWAY ROAD ATLANTA

POS. NO. TEAM MANUFACTURER PTS. WINS POLES T-5’s T-10’s
1 107 Risi Competizione by GnG Ferrari 374 1 0 1 1
2 114 EMM Esports Chevrolet -39 0 1 1 1
3 161 VØRAX Mercedes-AMG -40 0 0 1 1
4 171 BMW M Team MOUZ BMW -76 0 0 1 1
5 132 Bleu Mercure Esport Porsche -91 0 0 1 1
6 134 natural elements by Walkenhorst Aston Martin -96 0 0 0 1
7 124 TC Esports Chevrolet -102 0 0 0 1
8 144 TC Esports Academy Chevrolet -118 0 0 0 1
9 199 Nova Legio Racing Lamborghini -149 0 0 0 0
10 110 MAHLE RACING TEAM BMW -151 0 0 0 1

KINETIC 240 PROTEST REPORT

LEAVING ROAD ATLANTA

One race down, and this year, there are four races to go from here for both classes. Last year saw five races, with two of them on the same day at different venues, each a single class.

This year, Long Beach and VIRginia are gone, replaced with Watkins Glen and Laguna Seca in the third and fourth rounds of the season. Sebring, of course, will be the second round of the season once again, and is up next. The season concludes as usual at Daytona in November.

NEXT RACE

After Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, the series continues for the second race of the season at Sebring International Raceway, in two weeks on October 11th.

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.

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