By Justin Melillo
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The IMSA Esports Global Championship continues on Sunday, Oct. 25, with the third round of the 2026 season at Watkins Glen International. Now with two races complete in the fifth season, 52 teams will continue their quest for the crown across two class championships, including 20 teams competing in the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class and 32 teams taking on the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class.
Two weeks ago, Bleu Mercure Esport returned to victory lane for the second time in two races, but this time, as the GTD winners in the No. 132 Porsche with Thibault Cazaubon and Corentin Lassine behind the wheel. In the GTP class, the No. 31 Bleu Mercure Esport Acura followed up their season-opening win with another podium to keep the points lead, but it was the No. 91 Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team of Alejandro Sánchez and Charlie Collins taking the checkers.
Two hours and 40 minutes will be on the clock. Points will be on the line not only in the race, but also in qualifying. Will anyone continue building their IMSA Esports empire in the Empire State?
LAST RACE: PORSCHE COANDA ESPORTS, BLEU MERCURE SECURE CLASS WINS AT SEBRING
Two weeks ago, bumps were to be respected at Sebring International Raceway, and for the No. 91 GTP, their tests and tribulations went beyond just the rough terrain at the Floridian venue. While the No. 132 Bleu Mercure Esport Porsche won from the pole and managed the traffic from in front and behind without fail during the two hour, 40 minute event, the No. 91 Porsche had to do all of that towards the end with malfunctioning equipment.
“I was managing a broken throttle pedal,” Alejandro Sánchez said after willing the No. 91 to victory, partly thanks to his co-driver Charlie Collins managing an early lead for the duo. ” I wasn’t getting 100 percent, it was dancing around 70 percent. I had to push it with my whole body basically on the straights to make it go anywhere close. On the next corner, it would just go back to normal. It was like built-in TC. I don’t know how we managed, but we managed in the end.”
With two races in the books, the Bleu Mercure group has two teams on top, on in each class, as the No. 31 claimed a second straight podium to back up their Road Atlanta win, and the No. 132 took control from the GTD winners at Road Atlanta, the No. 107 Risi Competizione by GnG Ferrari, by 23 points.
LAST TIME AT WATKINS GLEN: TEAM REDLINE TAKES TWO AS BUS STOP CLAIMS MANY
The team currently known as Verstappen Sim Racing, back then donned the moniker Team Redline, and they were ever as powerful as they are today. In the 2023 IMSA Esports Global Championship event, the last time that the series took on Watkins Glen, it was all Redline that day. The No. 71 BMW GTP of Diogo Pinto and Chris Lulham was victorious overall while the No. 170 Ferrari GTD of Gianni Vecchio and Ole Steinbraten took the other class victory.
The “Bus Stop” inner loop on the backstretch claimed many victims, including the No. 11 Williams Esports BMW, the No. 92 VRS Coanda Porsche, and the No. 95 XSET Cadillac, all hopefuls for the win. The No. 89 BMW BS+COMPETITION entry didn’t lose the race in the Bus Stop, but did get an early 10-second penalty at the start of the day.
WATKINS GLEN TRACK FACTS
Just south of Seneca Lake, amidst the rolling vineyards and woodlands in Upstate New York’s Finger Lakes region, sits a shrine of American motorsport. Watkins Glen International is more than just a racetrack. It is the birthplace of post-war road racing in North America, a worthy test of some of the best drivers to ever sit in a racecar.
Today, The Glen hosts the NASCAR Cup and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, as well as a six-hour crown jewel of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Sports Car Club of America professional and amateur racing, ARCA Menards Series, and a major vintage race meet. It has also been home to major concerts and other festivals.
Over the years The Glen has been lengthened once and continually upgraded. Four different configurations of the track are available to iRacing members, and a lap around today’s Grand Prix circuit still incorporates much of the original layout. The first turn is known as “The 90,” a right-hander and a good place to pass. Then it’s up toward “The Esses,” a series of three fast, sweeping apexes leading onto the back straight. The cars reach their top speed here, before hard braking for the bus stop at the end of the straight. Here, the track deviates from its original circuit for “The Boot,” a hammerhead-shaped up-and-downhill section of track added in 1971. Turn 9, where The Boot rejoins the original circuit, is another fairly quick lefthander, tricky because it’s off camber, followed by the even quicker Turn 10, an almost flat-out left-hander. The last corner (Turn 11) is another fast right-hander that leads out onto the front straight.
Racing first came to The Glen in 1948 in the form of the Watkins Glen Grand Prix, an SCCA-sanctioned event that ran on a more than six mile course over the back roads of the town. The success of that event eventually led to the construction of a permanent track, the resulting product a little more than a third in length of the original street course. In 1957, the track hosted its first race, a NASCAR Grand National Series event won by Buck Baker over Fireball Roberts. The following year, Formula Libre showed up, and, not long after that, Watkins Glen hit the big time.
In 1961, Formula 1 came to the little town by the lake, bringing with it some of the most legendary names in motor sports. For the next two decades, the home of the United States Grand Prix was Watkins Glen. The early eighties saw some tough times for The Glen: F1 held its last race there in 1980, and it was closed to all but spectator-free SCCA meets for two years, but the track would recover soon enough under new ownership. In 1986, NASCAR’s top series returned to The Glen, and with it, a whole new renaissance for the track began.
2026 IMSA Esports Global Championship | Watkins Glen International | Round 3
NEXT RACE: CROSS COUNTRY TRIP TO LAGUNA SECA
After Watkins Glen, the series heads across the country to continue on for the fourth race of the season. Scheduled out in two weeks, the IMSA Esports Global Championship takes on WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on November 8th.
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.