Porsche Coanda survives the rain to win Long Beach; Veloce Thrustmaster claims maiden win in VIRginia as IMSA Esports Global Championship classes split up for Round 3

For the first time in IMSA Esports Global Championship history, Round 3 of the 2025 championship featured both classes on separate stages. The GTP class took to the Streets of Long Beach, where the No. 91 Porsche Coanda took a second-straight victory on the season. Over on the other side of the virtual country, at VIRginia International Raceway, the No. 102 Veloce Thrustmaster Ferrari held off the pressure from behind for their first victory in series history.

Both races competed for 75 minutes apiece, with the GTP fight kicking things off at the normal point of the afternoon. Rain affected both races, although the rain in the east was much less impactful, with the precipitation not enough to force the top competitors onto the rain-ready tires. In California, however, the timing of the rain meant that multiple strategies emerged, leaving viewers guessing as to which would prevail.

For the second straight week, from the pole position, the No. 91 Porsche Coanda team of Charlie Collins & Elvis Rankin wind up in victory lane, this week on the Streets of Long Beach… and in the rain!

Tune in for the GTD fight at VIR… up NEXT!https://t.co/3zRHcs9p4N@IMSA pic.twitter.com/RrHoAjNh87

— iRacing (@iRacing) November 23, 2025

The weather and separated classes meant that there were different players at the front of both fields, as well. At Long Beach, while Porsche Coanda was the fastest in qualifying and out of the gate, the call from the No. 99 Apex Racing Team Cadillac to start a dry race on wet tires looked really good when the rain started spilling onto the surface. When it dried out, however, and their tires had fallen off, it fell into the hands of the usual suspects. Over in VIRginia, both of the Coanda Esports cars were mired in the pack, somewhere they hadn’t found themselves all season.

They didn’t break under pressure! The No. 102 Veloce Thrustmaster Ferrari duo of Daniel Antúnez and Kody Deith hold off nearly 75 minutes of pressure from the No. 199 Apex Racing Team to win their first IMSA Esports Global Championship race at VIR in GTD!@IMSA | @vcoesports pic.twitter.com/YRMDE7OLJ1

— iRacing (@iRacing) November 23, 2025

As a result of both races, neither championship is over just yet. It will all come down to the Daytona finale in two weeks. Team Redline holds control of the top spot in the GTP class, while Coanda Esports has first and second in the GTD class. Will that stay the same in two weeks time?

GTP AT LONG BEACH: PORSCHE COANDA SURVIVES WET AND WILD DAY ON THE STREETS

For the third straight event, the No. 91 Porsche Coanda crew was the fastest car on the grid. Unfortunately for them, the rain came down to crash their parade and halt their climb to the top of the standings. Fortunately for them, the rain added in a ton of variables that allowed them to still wind up in victory lane at the end of the day.

Had their mishap at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta not happened, the No. 91 Porsche Coanda team, this week consisting again of Charlie Collins and Elvis Rankin, might be three-for-three, far and away the favorites to win the 2025 GTP title. Instead, a second-straight win on the Streets of Long Beach means that the dominant Porsche Coanda team is 75 points back of the two tied Team Redline teams at the top of the standings.

The No. 33 BMW M Team Redline crew of Diogo Pinto and Gustavo Ariel (filling in for Chris Lulham) entered the day at the top alone, but now share it with the No. 34 Team Redline pairing of Edoardo Leo and Luke McKeown. The No. 33 owns the current tie-breaker in the standings, due to the win at Road Atlanta, but both cars are capable of claiming the title at Daytona in two weeks. Who knows what could have been for both teams had they waited out the rain a single lap more.

The day started dry, with the No. 91 leading the field through the streets with rain threatening almost right away. In the back of the field, down in 15th on the grid, one team opted to start on wet weather tires, a risky move but one that could prove to be beneficial depending on when the rain came. That team, the No. 99 Apex Racing Team duo of Maxime Brient and Maxence Godiinho, fell all the way back to last almost immediately, but the rain came just in time for it to make a difference at the start.

It started getting wet on the surface before five minutes of the 75 scheduled were complete. That put teams in a tough situation with minimum drive times. Being a shorter race, both drivers had to run a minimum of 10 minutes in their cars. The No. 7 Grid-and-Go.com eSports Cadillac and the No. 69 DRAGO Racing BMW pitted first, but because of how early it was, they kept the same drivers in the car and merely changed the tires from slicks to wets.

The next time by, four more teams opted to pit in, including both Team Redline BMWs. Diogo Pinto swapped out of the No. 33 with Gustavo Ariel, while Luke McKeown gave the keys over to Edoardo Leo. However, they were just under a minute too early for this swap to count for the minimums for Pinto and McKeown, an issue that would crop up later in the day. For now, however, both teams were able to get the jump on the grip in the wet weather.

Porsche Coanda brought Rankin in a lap later, and put Collins in the seat, successfully meeting the minimum drive times, but sacrificing a lap without grip from having rain tires. This allowed for the No. 33 to get the temperature in the tires up quicker, allowing them to overtake the No. 91, but not for the lead. While both were able to jump over the No. 7 team, they still were stuck behind the No. 69, driven by Alxander Spetz at the time. Way ahead of both of them was the No. 99, that team already on the wet weather tires with Godiinho behind the wheel.

As different strategies overlapped, patience began to run out. The No. 33 of Ariel had caught the No. 69 of Spetz, diving it low and into the dry track line into Turn 1. A slide and shove into the tires by the No. 33 both initially allowed for the No. 69 to maintain the spot, and ultimately led to a penalty a few laps later, a drive-through for the championship leaders, taking them out of the potential win.

Meanwhile, as the first band of rain had subsided, the track began to dry out and heat up. The No. 99, on tires that had been abused initially on a dry track to start, was fading fast, and was forced to pit after losing the lead, instead of with that large gap they built earlier on. Everyone else that played the early swap were assumed to be staying out, including the No. 91 and No. 34, the two cars at the front of the field.

As the rains began once again, the No. 34 came to life. Ariel caught and passed Collins when the track was its wettest, and began to pull away. The rain again started to clear, and the track again began to dry. With 25 minutes to go, everyone’s beds were seemingly set.

The No. 33 was still trying to fight back from their penalty, falling as far back as seventh, but working on getting third back from the No. 95 Channel 199 Sim Racing Team effort of Casey Kirwan and Owen Caryl. Kirwan, still in the car but on some of the oldest wet weather tires, took a conservative angle into the fountain corner, which the No. 33 of Ariel couldn’t stop in time for. The No. 33 lost the nose, but was not mechanically black flagged and continued on hoodless.

This allowed the No. 92 Calce Team Acura with Carlos Fenollosa and Ivan Machado Perez to catch up to the fight for third. As the No. 95 pitted for their swap and repairs, the No. 92 got around the No. 33 for what looked to be the final step on the podium at the time.

Up front, if it wasn’t already realized immediately when it happened, the broadcast began to shine a light on the fact that both the No. 33 and No. 34 were light on drive time with their original drivers on the day. Two cars destined for the podium, and looking to keep their rivals at Porsche Coanda out of the fight, were forced to pit again with less than five minutes to go. McKeown returned to the seat to bring the No. 34 home in third, while Pinto’s team added the hood back during the driver swap for him to finish down in seventh.

This handed the lead back to Collins, the No. 91 successfully pulling off a one-stop with a minimum driver time achieved by both drivers. Between the No. 99’s potential big-brained strategy, and both the No. 33 and No. 34’s outright pace, it was still the No. 91 claiming the top step of the podium, setting up for an interesting championship finale in two weeks’ time.

ROUND 3 AT LONG BEACH STREET CIRCUIT | GTP RESULTS

GTP STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 3 AT LONG BEACH STREET CIRCUIT

1. #33 BMW M Team Redline, 1000 points
2. #34 Team Redline, 1000 points
3. #91 Porsche Coanda, -75
4. #89 BMW M Team BS+COMPETITION, -172
5. #69 DRAGO RACING, -199

LONG BEACH PROTEST REPORT

GTD AT VIRGINIA: VELOCE THRUSTMASTER KEEPS APEX RACING TEAM AT BAY FOR 75 MINUTES STRAIGHT

After taking the lead early in the going at VIRginia International Raceway, the question seemed to be when the No. 102 Veloce Thrustmaster Ferrari of Daniel Antúnez and Kody Deith would lose it to the No. 199 Apex Racing Team Ford of Yohann Harth and Luca Kita. Proven winners and champions, the Apex Racing Team have been mostly absent this season, but now in contention, and with a faster qualifying time, it seemed as though Veloce Thrustmaster was a sitting duck.

Despite all of that pressure, all of those laps, Veloce Thrustmaster held on for their first win in the IMSA Esports ranks.

The No. 199 tied for the pole position with the No. 150 Scuderia Ferrari HP Esports Team entry, driven by Daniel Lafuente and Ole Steinbraten. The nod went to the No. 150, but an illegal start would prove to be costly for both cars on the front row. After a few laps, the No. 150 was called to pit road for a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for taking off at a speed above the posted limit. This start also allowed the No. 102 to get the jump on the No. 199, and by the end of the first corner, the No. 102 was in control.

Harth put the pressure on Antúnez the entire way, the duo working together at first to pull away from the rest of the field, led by the No. 110 MAHLE Racing Team BMW of Ryan Barneveld and Rainer Talvar. Rain was present at the start, but the track never got to a point where the wet weather tires would be the preferred tire, which proved costly for the few teams that started on them.

In the middle of the front of the pack, the No. 118 and No. 181 Coanda Esports machines were in a place they had yet to be all season long. The No. 118 of Michael Janney and Tristan Iglesias had the better position, starting in ninth, but contact with the No. 196 BS+TURNER BMW sent them outside the top-10 and toward a recovery drive for the remainder of the day. As for the No. 181 of Xander Reed and Alejandro Sánchez, they would scratch and claw their way up the field, getting as high as fifth before their race was uprooted by a penalty.

During the pit cycle, the No. 181, driven by Sánchez, nudged the No. 151 MAG-Performance Ferrari of Andrea Bristot and Gabriel Moretto out of the way. While there was no wreck, a protest was made and a decision was handed out by Race Control in the form of a drive-through penalty for the No. 181, forcing them from a potential top-five recovery back down to 15th by the end of the night.

Meanwhile, following their spin early, the No. 118 clawed their way back inside the top-10, getting as high as seventh, but finishing eighth after losing the spot back to the No. 120 Dörr Esports Ford of Lewis Woods and Jonas Rütten by the final lap. With the No. 110 finishing up in third, the championship is now far from clinched for the Coanda Esports couple. The No. 118 takes the lead by eight points over the No. 181, but the No. 110 is just 30 points back with one race to go.

Also in the conversation for the title now is the No. 199. After the pit cycle, Kita was placed into the battle against Deith. The two cars made contact on occasion, but the No. 102 held strong.

A win for the No. 199 could have had them right in the fight, but they would have to settle for second on this day. A late slow-down penalty in the closing minutes took them out of the fight, allowing Deith to pull away and claim the win.

ROUND 3 AT VIRGINIA INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY | GTD RESULTS

GTD STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 3 AT VIRGINIA INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY

1. #118 Coanda Esports, 953 points
2. #181 Coanda Esports, -8
3. #110 MAHLE RACING TEAM, -30
4. #199 Apex Racing Team, -52
5. #168 DRAGO RACING, -130

VIRGINIA PROTEST REPORT

NEXT RACE

One race remains in the 2025 IMSA Esports Global Championship season, and it will take place at the famed Daytona International Speedway as usual

Each race of the IMSA Esports Global Championship will be broadcasted live on IMSA’s and iRacing’s YouTube, Facebook and Twitch social media channels. The IMSA Esports P3 Challenge will kick things off around 1:15 p.m. ET (18:15 GMT) before sliding into the Countdown to Green pre-race show which starts around 1:45 p.m. ET (18:45 GMT). Race coverage begins at 2:00 p.m. ET (19:00 GMT).

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...

Recommended

iRacing Weekly Tune-in | eSports & Community Events | December 18th to December 24th

Recommended

eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series returns with new Qualifying Series format for 2026 season

Recommended

World of Outlaws iRacing Pro Series Sprint Car Tournament at Knoxville belongs to Aiden Forster

Recommended

This Week in iRacing | December 16 to December 22, 2025