Williams Esports Chillblast, Team Redline top respective classes in IMSA Esports opener at Road Atlanta

A grid of 49 hopeful teams arrived at the opening round of the 2024 IMSA Esports Global Championship at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta with aspirations of victory on Sunday. As it happens in multiclass sportscar racing at any level, those aspirations were met with challenges throughout the two hour, 40 minute event as GTPs and GTDs went to battle, racing for glory while also racing to avoid the other class throughout the day.

Early and late incidents involving class leaders set the tone for the overall results. For GTP, the pole-sitting BMW M Team Redline #20 entry was taken out of the lead from the pole position on the fourth lap of the race, the first time the classes came together on track. In GTD, the dominant #170 Team Redline Ferrari, less than 20 laps away from seeing the checkers, found themselves wrecked and on the side of the road instead.

These two instances gave way to the races for the win in both classes. For Team Redline, they still had another bullet in the chamber with the #171 Ferrari, which assumed the lead and led the final 19 laps to an opening round victory. With even more team restrictions this season, there wasn’t another Redline GTP entry to fall back on this time, so the race fell into the hands of the #5 Williams Esports Chillblast BMW.

The Lap 4 GTP incident (left) and the Lap 103 GTD incident (right) that involved class leaders

Of course, it wasn’t that simple for the #5 team of Jaden Munoz and Matt Farrow. A fueling issue in the middle of the race set the leading Williams Esports entry behind the #89 BS+COMPETITION BMW driven by Daniel Alves Lourenco and Niklas Beu. Munoz pulled it in while leading, but Farrow left nearly five seconds to the deficit of the #89. Working back through traffic, Farrow managed to catch and pass the #89 of Beu back before the final pit cycle.

“We didn’t know how the strategy was going to play out with BS,” Munoz explained post-race. “We thought we were equal with them on the fuel after our little glitch after my last stint, but I guess we were actually better than them on fuel, and Matt did a great first stint, then he pulled away from BS after doing the overtake as well, so props to Matt.”

“I was quite surprised, because I hinted I was going to do it a couple of times, but he never defended it,” Farrow said post-race regarding what would end up being the move for the win. “(BS) got held up coming out of Turn 7, and yeah, I just put it into attack mode and just sent it.”

The move for the win in GTP class with 35 minutes remaining

While the entirety of the GTP class finished the race, some of the GTD contingent were not as lucky. The early incident that involved the #20 BMW M Team Redline entry also got the #18 Coanda Esports Porsche as well as the second Williams Esports GTP, the Racing Prodigy #33 BMW. The damages set all three back, but they were all able to ultimately continue. The #20 of Chris Lulham and Diogo Pinto even came back to finish seventh overall.

Those unlucky GTDs included both MAG – Performance SRT entries— the #151 Corvette and the #150 McLaren—as well as two of the BS+COMPETITION affiliates, the #10 MAHLE Racing Team BMW and the #196 BS+Turner Motorsports BMW. Some GTDs took heavy damage but continued on as well. Both Apex Racing Team Mercedes-AMGs were neutralized in early incidents, and perhaps the biggest retirement of the race came in the closing stint when the class leader crashed out.

It’s unclear whether it was malice or a technical issue, but with less than 30 minutes to go, the #4 CrowdStrike Racing Acura caught the #170 Team Redline Ferrari with a huge rate of speed on the frontstretch. The #170, driven by Luke Bennett at the moment, held the proper line, allowing for the faster #4 GTP to pass on the right, but the #4 instead kept running the same line, bowling over the GTD leader and taking them out of contention.

The pass for the lead and win in GTD—The #171 passes a beached #170 in Turn 1

Both Team Redline entries were far and away the fastest in the GTD class, gapping the field by nearly a full pit stop towards the end. The #170 was able to get the better start from the pole, but the #171 was also just as fast. With the lesser attrition rate, the #170 dropped from first down to finish 28th out of 33 cars in class in those final 19 laps. The #171, driven by Enzo Bonito and Florian Lebigre, managed to still win over the field by a large margin.

“I should have not let Sven (Haase) pass at the start, that was a mistake,” Bonito explained post-race. “I realized he was pushing really hard, so I was just chilling behind. Then we got them (#102) in the pits and it was back to 1-2 (for Team Redline). Overall, a pretty fun race, I’d say.”

“The other car (#170) got really unlucky, and we got really lucky,” Lebigre added.

***

There were a number of compelling battles outside the lead as well in both classes. The #8 Coanda Esports Porsche fought against the #95 Channel 199 Sim Racing Cadillac for the final step of the podium throughout the event. In the last stint, they got too close, and the #8 managed to knock the rear wing off of the #95 as a result. Owen Caryl kept the #95 on the track for the final stint, but the loss of the rear wing cost them multiple spots, ultimately knocking them down to 10th.

The top-four GTP entries had all distanced themselves from the rest of the field, so when the #8 was issued a penalty for the contact, even after having served it, they returned to the track still in a podium position.

The GTD podium battle was also fiercely fought. The #114 Team PGZ Porsche got around the #102 Grid-and-Go eSports Ferrari late in the going. The latter then fell into the clutches of Rexy, AO Racing by Coanda’s Porsche GTD entry. On a late lunge, Michael Janney took a look inside with Rexy on Miguel Costa’s #102. The two made contact and sent Rexy around. The #102 held on for the podium while AO Racing by Coanda settled for eighth, just ahead of the Michelin Wild Card entry, the #116 SCHERER eSPORT McLaren, which finished ninth.

Victory burnouts from the #5 Williams Esports Chillblast BMW GTP

IMSA Esports Global Championship Race #1 at Road Atlanta – GTP results

The #170 Team Redline Ferrari GTD crosses the line for the victory

IMSA Esports Global Championship Race #1 at Road Atlanta – GTD results

IMSA Esports Global Championship GTP points standings following Race #1 at Road Atlanta

1. #5 Williams Esports Chillblast, 382
2. #89 BMW M Team BS+COMPETITION, 348
3. #8 Coanda Esports, 325
4. #60 SOELPEC Precision Racing, 306
5. #23 Race Clutch Black, 282
6. #20 BMW M Team Redline, 275
7. #11 Fiercely Forward, 267
8. #99 Apex Racing Team, 238
9. #95 Channel 199 Sim Racing, 234
10. #14 Simufy eSports, 230

IMSA Esports Global Championship GTP points standings following Race #1 at Road Atlanta

1. #171 Team Redline, 382
2. #114 Team PGZ, 337
3. #102 Grid-and-Go.com eSports, 330
4. #105 Mercedes-AMG Esports Team Williams Esports, 293
5. #169 DRAGO RACING, 270
6. #120 Dörr Esports, 259
7. #177 Valkyrie Competition, 256
8. #118 AO Racing by Coanda, 254
9. #131 Sontek Racing – OverPower, 225
10. #168 DRAGO RACING, 218

Points for each class championship will be determined separately. As expected, each of the winners lead the way in points in their respective classes. There are also qualifying points to accumulate, so some teams that qualified better than they finished might be higher in the points as opposed to other teams that finished ahead of them, but qualified lower.

Next up, on December 8th, is the second round of the championship season from Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Thrustmaster 240 will be another two hour, 40 minute multi-class endurance event around the famed road course of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana. Coverage will start at 1:30 pm ET with Countdown to Green presented by Traxion. The race starts at 2:00 pm ET, and will be broadcasted live on IMSA’s and iRacing’s YouTube, Facebook and Twitch social media channels.

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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