United States Leads with Most WeatherTech Championship Driver Victories Thus Far in 2024; Winward Racing’s Ellis and Ward Tops in Individual ‘Gold Medals’
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – With the Paris Olympics winding to a glorious close this weekend, much of the focus is on the medal count and which countries and individuals are leading the way.
In that spirit of international competition – and since the “I” in IMSA stands for “International” and the Games are being broadcast on IMSA partner NBC – we’ve compiled our own medal count as it relates to the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. We’ve opted to focus on the “gold medalists,” awarding an IMSA medal for each winning co-driver in each class at every race.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the United States leads the way with 20 gold medals earned by 14 winning drivers through the first eight events of the season. Great Britain is the only other nation to reach double digits, with 11 (from eight drivers). France and Switzerland are tied for third with five golds apiece. In total, 13 different countries have had at least one driver reach the top step of the podium this year. The graphic at right lists all the IMSA “gold medals” earned to date and breaks them down by the class in which they were earned.
As for the list of IMSA individual gold medalists, it’s most impressive. A total of 47 drivers have already been a class winner/earned a gold this season. And while no driver has approached the record eight gold medals that swimming legend Michael Phelps copped at the 2008 Beijing Games, the IMSA tally is still striking.
Winward Racing teammates Philip Ellis (Switzerland) and Russell Ward (U.S.) top the list of IMSA gold medalists with four apiece, the result of their four victories this season in the GT Daytona (GTD) class. While that’s half of Phelps’ amazing total from 16 years ago, it’s still one more gold than gymnast Simone Biles or swimmer Torri Huske have earned in Paris and equals the four golds that French swimming sensation Leon Marchand has garnered in front of an enthusiastic home crowd.
Following Ellis and Ward on the IMSA gold medal count is their Michelin Endurance Cup co-driver Indy Dontje (Netherlands) with three. Ten drivers have two wins/gold medals this season, including Americans Dane Cameron, Dwight Merriman and Connor Zilisch. Cameron and co-driver Felipe Nasr (Brazil) joined the double gold club with their overall and Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class win Sunday in the IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America.
Follow the remaining three races of the WeatherTech Championship season to see who ends up the overall gold medal leaders for nation and individual. The next race is the Michelin GT Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway on Aug. 25. The race airs live on USA Network and Peacock at noon ET.