BMW M Team Redline, Coanda Esports claim titles through IMSA Esports Global Championship wins in Michelin 240 at Daytona

To win the 2025 IMSA Esports Global Championship class titles, winning wasn’t a requirement. However, in the Michelin 240 at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday afternoon, both race winners would also wind up hoisting their respective championship trophies alongside.

In either case, it wasn’t outright domination from flag-to-flag. The No. 33 BMW M Team Redline crew didn’t take the lead until after the first pit cycle in the GTP class. As for GTD, it looked as though the No. 118 Coanda Esports Chevrolet had their teammates in the No. 181 beaten on pace early in the going—that is, until their first pit cycle as well, where they spun on cold tires from the lead. Even from there, the No. 181 crew never truly had it until the line, where they held off the No. 167 Williams Sim Racing Playseat Lamborghini at the line by a nose. It wasn’t a win they were required to get, but it surely put a bow on an already excellent season.

For both classes, while there were other threats in the fold to take the titles, like the No. 91 Porsche Coanda machine, or the No. 199 Apex Racing Team Ford, the results from Long Beach and VIRginia International Raceway set up for two heads up battles among teammates, with the No. 34 Team Redline BMW entering tied at the top of GTP, and the No. 118, despite not having a win, leading the No. 181 by eight points in GTD. At the end of the day, the two teams that did the most in their classes were crowned as rightful champions over the four-race spectacle.

The IMSA Esports Global Championship is over! BMW M Team Redline scores the win and title in the GTP ranks! Coanda Esports wins it all in GTD! Congratulations to all on a fantastic season!@IMSA | @vcoesports pic.twitter.com/I0iOcNCDqJ

— iRacing (@iRacing) December 7, 2025

The GTD battle came down to the very end. While the No. 118 had spun out, they managed to recover and ultimately finish nine seconds back. If the No. 181 had any concerns on fuel, it could have fallen right back into the No. 118’s hands. At the end of the day, even in a photo finish, the No. 181 Coanda Esports crew managed to win it all, scoring their third win of the 2025 season to take the title.

“A golden end to such a great season,” Alejandro Sánchez, co-driver for the No. 181 Coanda Esports GTD said post-race. “Really happy for Coanda and for everyone that led us to this point. The car was pretty much insane. We’ve worked really hard to get here, and I am especially proud of my very young teammate, Xander Reed, who will, for sure, be—I mean, he is already a Global Champion now—but he will be one of the all-time greats, for sure.”

“It was a really good battle,” said Xander Reed, the other half of the No. 181 Coanda Esports GTD entry. “I was just trying to manage the gap the best that I could… I definitely got a little tensed up on the last lap, trying to make sure we kept P1… I can’t thank Alex and can’t thank Coanda enough for all the work they put in the offseason. It was a pretty spectacular season.”

As for the top class, the GTP contingent, early on it looked as though the No. 34 had the title-winning machine underneath them. Qualifying panned out to have the No. 34 Team Redline BMW starting third while the No. 33 was mired down in eighth. The No. 33 definitely had race pace, however, as they were able to clear through into second place before the end of the first stint, and took control of the race as the first pit cycle concluded. From there, it was all about managing the gaps and traffic.

“It was insanely close qualifying,” said Chris Lulham, co-driver of the No. 33 BMW M Team Redline entry. “For sure, the race pace was a little bit better. The strategy was really, really well executed. Some aggressive moves in the opening stint kind of won that race for us, I would say.”

“Chris did all of the hard work for me,” said Diogo Pinto, the other driver of the No. 33 BMW M Team Redline BMW. “I just had to bring the car to the end. I think in these moments, it’s important, of course, to not take it too easy, otherwise you might make a mistake. In this race, it was all Chris, I just had to do the easy work and bring the car to the end.”

Both winning organizations took first and second in the final standings. Their winning teams pocket $5,000, while second place takes $2,500. Prizes are paid out to the top-10 in both classes. Each championship combination will be invited to compete again in the next IMSA Esports Global Championship season.

THE RACE

Drama surrounded the event before the field even saw the green flag. During qualifying, the No. 10 Williams Gaming Club Porsche, co-driven by Jere Lehtinen and Moreno Sirica, placed their car on top of the standings. However, IMSA officials deemed their fast lap illegal and sent them to the rear of the GTP grid. This elevated the entire field up one position, awarding the pole to the No. 11 Fiercely Forward Acura, driven by Aleix Nogué and Elliot Norén.

The No. 11 led the GTP field to the green and immediately pulled away, leaving the initial battle for second place hotly contested. The No. 91 Porsche Coanda entry of Mitchell deJong and Josh Rogers started in second, but fell to third on the initial launch, as the No. 34 Team Redline BMW of Edoardo Leo and Luke McKeown managed to follow the No. 11 through the opening corner. Behind them, the No. 33, with Lulham in the car, was making moves to get into the fight.

With Nogué out to a nearly five second lead over the rest of the pack, the battle for second was on. What would ultimately become the Michelin Move of the Race, and the move for the championship, took place on Lap 12. The No. 91 of deJong was hounding the No. 34 of Leo as Lulham pulled up in the No. 33. Into Turn 1, deJong got there and held it, but Leo fought back and cleared through the esses. Going into the International Horseshoe, deJong looked low, but was covered off by Leo. This allowed Lulham to dive it to the outside of them both, and by the kink, the No. 33 was clear and to the lead of the championship battle.

The No. 33 began to pull away as the No. 34 held off the No. 91 for a few more laps before conceding on Lap 16. By that time, the No. 11 had a 4.7-second lead over the No. 33, but the No. 33 had gapped the No. 91 by another three seconds as the GTP class weaved through the GTD traffic.

Meanwhile, the GTD battle wasn’t as exciting early on, with the No. 181 Coanda Esports team holding serve over the No. 118 Coanda Esports team of Michael Janney and Tristan Iglesias early on, all while they navigated being slower traffic in front of the GTP field. Around the 20th GTD lap, however, the No. 118, driven by Iglesias early on, found an opportunity to strike, and took it. For the next 10 laps, the No. 118 was in control of both the race and championship. However, it all came to a screeching halt after the first pit cycle concluded.

Iglesias, on cold tires, rejoined the race from pit road, still as the leader, but as the field exited the infield, the No. 118 lost control, and right in front of multiple GTD cars. Somehow, nobody hit the spinning Corvette, that group including the No. 181 of Sánchez. As the field redressed and reshuffled, the No. 118 was back down in seventh while the No. 181 regrouped in third. In the lead was the No. 167 Williams Sim Racing Playseat Lamborghini of Alessandro Bico and Beckham Jacir. Now up in second was the No. 199 Apex Racing Team Ford driven by Yohann Harth and Luca Kita.

Trouble struck the No. 110 MAHLE Racing Team BMW of Rainer Talvar and Ryan Barneveld early on. While Barneveld was in the car, he was caught up in a multi-car accident on the frontstretch, ultimately ending their chances. The No. 118, on the other hand, was still clean, never quitting the fight, continuing to move back up the order. However, their lack of draft in many cases kept them from ever having a shot through the rest of the race. Up in the main pack, the lead GTDs opted to stay in line and work together instead of race—that was until the No. 199 of Harth decided that he wanted to lead the way on GTD Lap 50.

With Harth in the lead and Sánchez in third, the points gap was uncomfortably close. The No. 199 was up to second, just five points back. As the No. 168 DRAGO Racing Aston Martin of Nicolás Rubilar and Ricardo Rico caught up to the pack, a move on Sánchez could spell a title for the Apex Racing Team instead of Coanda.

On the next round of GTD stops, driver swaps were on the menu. The No. 199 swapped in Kita, while the No. 181 had Reed behind the wheel. The No. 167 had already taken out Jacir and entered Bico during the first pit cycle, so Bico remained in the car until the end. Janney also took over from Iglesias in the No. 118 as they continued to try and claw their way back into it.

GTP driver swaps were also on the menu around the same time. Lulham handed the keys of the No. 33 over to Pinto as they continued to lead the way. The No. 7 Grid-and-go.com eSports Cadillac of Jake Denehan had worked their way up to second, but on Lap 52, it became Sean Campbell’s ride. The No. 91 swapped from one Porsche Coanda all-star, deJong over to another decorated driver, Rogers. The No. 34 Team Redline BMW had fallen out of the conversation by the time McKeown took control. By the end of the night, the No. 34 wound up fifth, which was good enough for second overall, but not what they had hoped for when entering the night tied at the top.

As for the No. 91 team, the winners of two-straight and a dominant force in the race they didn’t win to this point at Road Atlanta, Rogers was continuing to grind back up the order. Some strategy had the No. 10 Porsche team, the original polesitters before the penalty, back up in the top-five. However, a spin out of the Le Mans Chicane on the backstretch nearly wiped out the two leading Porsche entries. Rogers managed to squeak by and save his race. Ultimately, the No. 91 managed to catch and pass the No. 7 on the final lap to secure second in the race and third in the championship, just missing out on second in the standings by 13 points.

Back in GTD, the No. 199 began to fall off as the field began the final stretch. The No. 167 took a lot less time in the box than the rest of the field, earning a big lead to start the final stint, but they had to save hard to make it. This allowed the No. 181 to catch and pass for the lead with just over 20 laps to go. The No. 167 of Bico stayed in the shot, lining up for one last attempt on the white flag lap, but Reed was able to get just enough out of the Le Mans Chicane to hold off the charge for the win and title. As for GTP, Pinto was able to bring it home cleanly to the end of regulation to claim the win and title as well.

ROUND 4: MICHELIN 240 AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY | GTP RESULTS

FINAL IMSA ESPORTS GLOBAL CHAMPIONSHIP GTP STANDINGS

1. No. 33 BMW M Team Redline | 1373 points | 2 wins
2. No. 34 Team Redline BMW | -83 points
3. No. 91 Porsche Coanda | -96 points | 2 wins
4. No. 7 Grid-and-Go.com eSports Cadillac | -273 points
5. No. 89 BMW M Team BS+COMPETITION | -290 points

DAYTONA PROTEST REPORT

ROUND 4: MICHELIN 240 AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY | GTD RESULTS

FINAL IMSA ESPORTS GLOBAL CHAMPIONSHIP GTD STANDINGS

1. No. 181 Coanda Esports Chevrolet | 1330 points | 3 wins
2. No. 118 Coanda Esports Chevrolet | -47 points
3. No. 199 Apex Racing Team Ford | -125 points
4. No. 168 DRAGO Racing Aston Martin | -238 points
5. No. 110 MAHLE Racing Team BMW | -306 points
   —————————————————————
   VIR winner: No. 102 Veloce Thrustmaster Ferrari 

DAYTONA PROTEST REPORT

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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