No. 57 Mercedes Follows Pfaff, Paul Miller in Banking Wins in Short Time Frame
By Tony DiZinno
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Sometimes, it’s luck. Others, it’s pure pace. Even more frequently, it’s the combination of those two factors with smart strategy that delivers a win in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition.
However, given the variety and depth of competitors, it’s rare to see one particular team go on a winning hot streak and bank a lot of wins in a short amount of time. That said, it’s happened three straight years in a pair of WeatherTech Championship GT classes.
In 2022, Pfaff Motorsports won five of the first nine races en route to the inaugural Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class title. Last year, Paul Miller Racing repeated the feat, with five wins from its first nine races and then securing the GTD class title a race early, which eased stresses heading into the season finale.
With four races left in 2024, Winward Racing is in the same position: poised to capture the GTD class title, potentially early, and potentially with a greater number of victories than either Pfaff or Paul Miller. To open the season, Winward has four wins in the first six races, achieved in a variety of ways.
Reflecting On Pfaff, PMR Winning Seasons
Pfaff’s 2022 campaign with its Porsche 911 GT3 R began with a dramatic, last-lap, late-race victory where Mathieu Jaminet defeated former Pfaff driver Laurens Vanthoor at that year’s Rolex 24 At Daytona, to kick off the GTD PRO class. That was the outlier in its run of form.
Subsequent wins in dominant fashion followed from Jaminet and full-season co-driver Matt Campbell at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Lime Rock Park and VIRginia International Raceway. In the first three of those, Pfaff led over 100 laps each race from pole – a net total of 321 of 392 laps in class (82 percent of laps led in those races) – and was rarely troubled. They advanced from third on the starting grid at VIR to win and cap it off.
For Paul Miller in 2023, strategy helped deliver its first two wins of the year before the dynamic duo of Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow went on a tear in their No. 1 BMW M4 GT3. A long fuel-save run propelled them to a surprise Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring victory, while the team had a faster pit stop than its rival No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 to win its third straight Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach in class.
PMR’s next three wins mirrored Pfaff’s dominant effort. Starting second, first and first at CTMP, Road America and VIR, PMR led 219 of 264 laps (83 percent) over those three races to win its third, fourth and GTD class record-setting fifth win of the season. The CTMP win was particularly noteworthy as Snow and Sellers got ahead of the No. 27 car early and then extended its points lead from 104 to 212 in the same race, all while operating without telemetry to the pit box.
What Has Made Winward’s Wins?
Exploring Winward’s quartet of wins through the first six races in 2024 is to note a few factors.
Full-season drivers Russell Ward and Philip Ellis are operating at a consistently high level in their No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3, bolstered by their IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup drivers Indy Dontje and Daniel Morad, while the crew is excelling at pit stops and car and tire preparation.
At Daytona, despite starting 17th in the 23-car GTD field, the No. 57 car led a class-high 383 of 731 laps and all four drivers took turns up front, with Morad bringing the car to the flag for the team’s second Rolex 24 win (the first in 2021).
“The first victory wasn’t luck, of course, everybody put their work in. But to come here and do it again is a great feeling,” Ward explained. “Our work really began at the mid-December test. We experienced the new Michelin tire (the Michelin Pilot Sport Pro GT H1), which is quite different from last year’s tire, and we just kind of set the car for the long run.
“That’s what we all like. You can put a fast lap together, but at the end of the day you just want a car that is good on the long run.”
The team’s second win followed in rapid fashion at Sebring, following a somewhat similar script. The Winward car rolled off from the rear of the 22-car grid after being sent to the back following an unintentional technical regulation infringement, having used non-permitted sensors, but spurred a recovery drive.
Ellis rose into the top 10 within the first hour, while Ward made it to the lead by the third hour. The team then led a race-high 164 of 314 laps to complete the “36 Hours of Florida” sweep.
“The setbacks we had last year and the year before were important to getting us to where we are now,” Ellis said. “It requires hard work and preparation and determination, and even when we have small setbacks like we did after qualifying, nobody has their head down. We were like, ‘OK, now we definitely want to win.’ It’s a great mindset we have on the team right now.”
The team’s third win at WeatherTech Raceway owed more to fortune than form but counted just the same. When the race-leading No. 557 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 was nudged off the road by a Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) car, Ellis was there to capitalize. The No. 57 car led only six of 111 laps but had fewer positions to gain after starting third in class. As Ward recounted, just making the grid at all was Winward’s biggest battle.
“In the morning before the recon laps we found a technical issue under the hood, and it was all hands on deck, scrambling to change a part and pulling some major parts to get to it,” he said. “We made it with a minute to spare, so another really awesome job by the guys to get that done right before the race.”
At Watkins Glen, a fourth win followed with more luck and smart strategy bouncing Winward’s way. Somehow, they only ran the race on slick tires. Their 15 laps led came following a restart after a rain-induced red flag, and after Parker Thompson’s passing attempt of Ellis on the outside into the Bus Stop resulted in contact and Thompson going through the runoff in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3.
“Just a roll of the dice that we were fueled up to get to the end, which gave us the restarting position in the front with some GTD PRO cars behind me as well. After that, it was keeping the cars behind,” Ellis said.
This magical run for Winward has not only been on track, but off track as well. It just was awarded the IMSA VP Racing Front Runner Award, for the most laps led in the most races for the first half of the season. It’s also come amidst the team moving into its new 40,000-square-foot home in Houston.
With four races left starting with this week’s IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America, Ellis and Ward have a 340-point lead on closest rivals Patrick Gallagher and Robby Foley in the No. 96 Turner BMW.
That’s four races to go for history – to see if they can match or surpass Paul Miller Racing’s GTD class win record, and to continue their magical winning ways.