Bleu Mercure and Risi Competizione Win IMSA Esports Opener

Bleu Mercure Esport won the GTP class and Risi Competizione by GnG took GTD honours in the opening round of the 2026 IMSA Esports Global Championship at Road Atlanta. iRacing’s official race report records a close finish in both classes after a wet-to-dry race lasting two hours and 40 minutes.

Atte Kauppinen and Alxander Spetz drove the No. 31 Acura to the overall victory. Their margin over the No. 8 Grid-and-Go.com eSports Aston Martin, shared by Jake Denehan and Sean Campbell, was 1.124 seconds. Luke McKeown and Sam Kuitert completed the GTP podium in the No. 33 Verstappen Sim Racing BMW.

The GTD winners were Nicolas Mateo and Daniel Pásztor in the No. 107 Ferrari. They finished 2.012 seconds ahead of Beckham Jacir and Manuel Troncoso’s No. 161 VØRAX Mercedes-AMG. Dáire McCormack and Jerome Fischer placed third for EMM Esports in the No. 114 Corvette.

Tyre timing shaped the race. Rain had stopped before the start, but the surface remained wet. Most teams began on wet tyres, while the eventual GTD winners accepted a difficult opening stint on slicks. As the track dried, that alternate strategy became effective.

In GTP, early changes to dry tyres brought risks on the remaining wet patches. Several front-running entries lost time or crashed during the transition. Bleu Mercure completed three stops and still had to manage a late challenge as traffic reduced its lead.

The GTD fight turned on the final pit sequence, with Risi Competizione extending its stint to move ahead of VØRAX. Both leaders also had to negotiate the closing GTP battle while preserving their own class positions.

The official results list Bleu Mercure with 382 points and Risi Competizione with 374 after the opener. These are championship standings from the published result, rather than a prediction for subsequent rounds. The full classifications and race account are linked in the source below.