No. 5 Williams BMW Wins Overall while “Rexy” No. 118 AO Porsche Captures GTD
The IMSA Esports Global Championship returned on Sunday with the third race of the season at Sebring International Raceway. Now on the 2025 side of the series schedule, Sebring played its part as the penultimate race of the championship, setting up for two undecided title fights in both the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) classes next week at Daytona.
After two hours and 40 minutes of respecting the bumps, the No. 5 Williams Esports Chillblast BMW team of Jaden Munoz and Matt Farrow were able to claim their second victory of the season in the GTP class from the second starting spot. After inheriting the lead from the penalized No. 4 CrowdStrike Racing Acura that took the pole, Munoz and Farrow never looked back, leading the majority of the laps to extend their points lead to 102 points heading to Daytona in just a week.
“It was probably one of my best stints in sim racing,” Munoz commented post-race. “The pace was insane, the car was so fast. I worked really hard for this event, so yeah, it paid off a ton.” When asked about his feelings when he got into the car as the leader, Farrow responded with one word: “Terrified.”
“Being handed such a big lead, you don’t want to mess it up,” Farrow added.
As for the GTD class, fan-favorite “Rexy”, the No. 118 AO Racing by Coanda Porsche driven by Tristan Iglesias and Michael Janney, went wire-to-wire, winning from the pole position ahead of the points leading No. 171 Team Redline Ferrari driven by Florian Lebigre and Enzo Bonito. “Rexy” and Co. picked up 33 points on their quest for the championship, now only 110 back of the dominant Redline machine, winners of the opening two rounds at Road Atlanta and Indianapolis.
“Getting a second pole (in-a-row) felt really good, and it made things easier in the race,” Iglesias mentioned post-race. “It took a while to get in the groove, and I was definitely feeling the pressure… Then in the second half, the car felt perfect. I don’t think I’ve had a more perfect car than this, to be honest. Everything worked out today, and it was incredible.”
Janney then added that he learned a lot from Road Atlanta and Indianapolis to put him in a more comfortable position to dominate at Sebring. “I think staying calm has been the biggest takeaway (from Road Atlanta). It was the first race I had done in a while that was team-oriented, and I always feel more pressure when it’s not just up to me… Indy proved to me that I didn’t have to worry about that, and this race was even more of a validation of that.”
THE RACE
The action started immediately with the No. 4 CrowdStrike Racing Acura, driven by Pablo Lazar at the start, leading the field to the green flag. The officials didn’t like the way he did start the race, and immediately docked him with a 10-second pit road penalty. This handed the lead to the No. 5 Williams Esports Chillblast BMW as the rest of the field tried to figure it out behind.
There was an opening lap incident involving a quarter of the GTP field, including the No. 8 Coanda Esports Porsche, the No. 14 Simufy Esports Acura, the No. 3 CrowdStrike Racing Acura, and perhaps the most notably, the No. 89 BMW M Team BS+COMPETITION entry, the same team that entered the race second in the GTP standings. Both the No. 8 and No. 89 were able to continue, the other two would retire early on.
Through the chaos, the No. 20 BMW M Team Redline entry of Chris Lulham and Diogo Pinto managed to sneak through to second place from seventh on the grid. Behind them, the No. 95 Channel 199 Sim Racing Cadillac of Casey Kirwan and Owen Caryl made their way into a podium spot from eighth.
As for the GTD start, the No. 118 AO Racing by Coanda Porsche was solid as the field fanned out behind. There were a few casualties on the opening lap, including the No. 170 Team Redline Ferrari driven by Gianni Vecchio, who slammed the tire wall exiting Sunset Bend hard, collecting a couple of other GTDs in the process. The No. 198 Mercedes-AMG Esports Team ART entry, with Yohann Harth behind the wheel, also got turned in a similar spot in Sunset Bend a few laps later, ending their day early as well.
Behind Rexy, DRAGO Racing had both of their Lamborghinis in the top-five, with the No. 105 Mercedes-AMG Esports Team Williams Esports crew also vying for a podium early on. The championship leaders in the No. 171 Team Redline Ferrari didn’t get the best of starts, which allowed for the No. 118 to pull away to an early gap before the classes started mingling.
Despite the interclass competition heating up from there, it mellowed out, with strategies straightforward for the rest of the show.
Traffic management was as important as ever, with some warnings handed down to some of the front runners throughout the show. On the 29th GTD lap, the leading GTP of the No. 5 Williams Esports Chillblast BMW was warned for a hasty move on the No. 177 Valkyrie Competition Ford Mustang.
With action as close as it was throughout, there were sometimes passes off of the racing surface. The No. 20 Team Redline BMW got away with one early as they split a GTD with the No. 95 Cadillac. Later in the race, the No. 95 went for a similar move while battling both Coanda Esports Porsche entries. The No. 95 was redressed behind the No. 8 while the No. 18 was given a penalty for contact a few laps prior with another GTD.
At the end, the dominant cars in both classes prevailed without too much more in the extra curricular department. Now it all comes down to one final race at Daytona to decide both of the class titles.
IMSA Esports Global Championship GTP points standings following Race No. 3 at Sebring
- No. 5 Williams Esports Chillblast, 1096
- No. 20 BMW M Team Redline, 994
- No. 60 SOELPEC Precision Racing, 931
- No. 89 BMW M Team BS+COMPETITION, 886
- No. 8 Coanda Esports, 828
- No. 23 Race Clutch Black, 799
- No. 95 Channel 199 Sim Racing, 760
- No. 99 Apex Racing Team, 742
- No. 33 Williams Esports Racing Prodigy, 734
- No. 11 Fiercely Forward, 732
IMSA Esports Global Championship GTP points standings following Race No. 3 at Sebring
- No. 171 Team Redline, 1114
- No. 118 AO Racing by Coanda, 1004
- No. 105 Mercedes-AMG Esports Team Williams Esports, 879
- No. 169 DRAGO RACING, 829
- No. 114 Team PGZ, 803
- No. 102 Grid-and-Go.com eSports, 749
- No. 168 DRAGO RACING, 710
- No. 156 56 Racing Team, 664
- No. 131 Sontek Racing – OverPower, 660
- No. 120 Dörr Esports, 567
IMSA Esports Global Championship Grid Finder 240 | Sebring International Raceway
The final round of the championship season will take place in just a week’s time, on January 12 at the Daytona International Speedway. With there no Wild Card entry at Sebring, Daytona will have two, one in each class. Verstappen.com will have an Acura GTP entry with four-time Formula 1 World Champion Max Verstappen sharing a seat with Gustavo Ariel. Scuderia Ferrari HP Esports will also have an entry in GTP, driving the Ferrari 296, with their drivers still to be announced.
Coverage for the finale 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.