The last of this season’s three preliminary Gran Turismo World Series 2025 live events is now upon us, giving players and brands one last chance to grab points for a head start at the World Final.
Los Angeles picks up the baton from Berlin and London, with all three venues hosting their first ever in-person event in the World Series, and with two rounds under our belts now we should all be familiar with how things work.
Like 2024, these events have all the racing condensed into a single day, with the Manufacturers Cup at 1600 local time on Saturday (0000 UTC on Sunday morning) and, after a brief gap, the Nations Cup three hours later.
Our dozen racers in the Nations Cup will race in all four rounds, while the Manufacturers Cup features the same 12 qualified brands but with different line-ups each time. London brought the Asia-Oceania qualifiers, Berlin the Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) racers, and it’s now the turn of the Americas drivers in LA. Each squad will be represented by drivers from all three regions in the world final next month.
There’s World Series points on offer for every event, with up to six in each of the three preliminary rounds before the bulk of the points come in the Final itself, so once again every race has something at stake this year.
LA is also hosting a Fan Fest event, which will see the return of the GT Awards and one selected modified car granted the privilege of digital immortalization in Gran Turismo. There’s also the chance to glimpse new, upcoming game content, with some already sneaking out ahead of time.
Gran Turismo World Series 2025 R3 – Los Angeles – Manufacturers Cup
Custom Balance of Performance (BOP) and a whole new set of drivers each time makes the Gr.3-based Manufacturers Cup a really tricky one to call.
The field is ludicrously strong too, as all seven champion brands are taking part this year and there’s two drivers who can claim a Manufacturers Cup title too — with three titles between them, as Subaru’s Daniel Solis is a two-time winner with the same brand.
For most of the field, this is their only chance at silverware this season with only two drivers — Adriano Carrazza (Toyota) and Angel Inostroza (Porsche) — pulling a double-duty and racing in Nations Cup this weekend too. The change in focus and intensive effort across two finals can be a trial: the top four finishers in Nations in Berlin also did the double-shift, though none placed on the Manufacturers Podium.
Currently it’s Subaru leading the way courtesy of two wins from two at the hands (and feet) of Takuma Miyazono and Kylian Drumont; no pressure for Daniel Solis then! BMW is snapping at its heels with two consecutive second-place finishes, so veteran BMW man Randall Haywood will be eager to go one better.
The two brands are streets ahead of the rest, with Mazda through Ryota Kokubun and Nissan courtesy of Mikolaj Sedziak taking the other podium finishes. Paired with reasonable results in the other two rounds, both sit four points adrift of BMW and six down from Subaru, so Samuel Cardinal and Celso Filho have a chance to make up the gap.
We’ll be keeping our eyes on the always strong Porsche, with previous World Tour race winner Angel Inostroza in command, and defending champion Lexus who have Harald Walsen back from its 2024 lineup too.
The racing comprises a qualifying session at Road Atlanta in the brands’ Gr.3 cars — yes, like this week’s Daily Race — before a 30-lap final in the same combination. There’s a required tire type change with Medium and Soft both mandatory, so look out for unusual strategies and penalties. The horrifying pit lane entry might also generate some penalties to hamstring progress.
You’ll be able to tune into the stream from 0000 UTC on Sunday, November 9 (convert to your time here) and along with the usual additional language streams with commentary in French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish, there’s a return for Chinese commentary that made a debut in London, and live-timing stream returns too.
Alternative Language Streams
- Chinese
- French
- German
- Italian
- Japanese
- Portuguese
- Spanish
- Live Timing (no commentary)
Predict the Winner/Viewer’s Gift
The two tie-in campaigns are in effect in LA too, so if you watch any amount of the stream through your Gran Turismo 7 game’s special tile over the next two weeks you’ll earn a nice, clean, zero-mile Toyota Supra RZ ’97, to be delivered on Tuesday November 25. You can also pick who you think will win the race, and if you’re correct you’ll score 1,000,000cr. This is available right up until the final race starts, so watch qualifying first to get an idea of who might be in charge.
Competitors
Gran Turismo World Series 2025 R3 – Los Angeles – Nations Cup
With the same 12 drivers contesting all four rounds, previous events give a much better look at form — and one driver is already stamping their authority on it.
That’s Jose Serrano, who’s gone unbeaten in this year’s championship in taking both race wins. One was by a fine margin from countryman Pol Urra, and it looked for a while like the same would happen again in Berlin before a strategy mixup gave Serrano clear air and gifted 2021 champion Valerio Gallo second place.
We’re expecting this to continue in Los Angeles, as the two Spanish drivers have been right at the front throughout, but we have seen some other drivers in the mix too. As well as Gallo, who now sits second overall and three points back, Takuma Sasaki has been quietly accumulating points consistently, and Kaj de Bruin grabbed his opportunity for the podium in Berlin.
We’ll never count out Takuma Miyazono either, especially in X2019s, and he’s currently on four points, while Kylian Drumont is awaiting a first podium finish of the season in seventh on two points. That said, we’re keeping an eye on the Americas drivers who, at last, are racing in a time zone that’s relatively comfortable for them.
There’ll be qualifying in the X2019s at Daytona Road Course before a wild-looking sprint race over 13 laps of Watkins Glen in the Chaparral 2J ’70 ground effect racers — all in natty Nations Cup liveries, so looking a little less fridge-like. The final race is back to Daytona, where there’s 30 laps in the X2019s and all three types of tire are required.
You can tune into the Nations Cup stream from 0300 UTC on Sunday, November 9 (convert to your time here). Live timing is also available, as well as streams in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Alternative Language Streams
- Chinese
- French
- German
- Italian
- Japanese
- Portuguese
- Spanish
- Live Timings (no commentary)
Predict the Winner/Viewer’s Gift
Just as with the Manufacturers Cup, you can also select your choice of winner in the Nations Cup, scoring 1,000,000cr if you get it right. Don’t forget that you have until the final race starts to make your pick, so you can get an idea of form by watching qualifying and the qualifying race first. Tuning into the stream for even a nanosecond via the special tile in Gran Turismo 7 any time in the next two weeks will award you a zero-mile Mazda RX-7 GT-X ’90, which will be delivered on Tuesday November 25.
Competitors
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