Paul Miller Racing, Winward Wrap GT Class Titles at Motul Petit Le Mans
By David Phillips and Dylan Spaulding
Provisional Race Results
Provisional Points Standings
BRASELTON, Ga. – In a race and championship with more plot twists than an Agatha Christie “whodunit” thriller, Mattia Drudi and the No. 68 Car Blanche Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo charged to the lead in the final hour of the Motul Petit Le Mans and claimed their first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory. Drudi shared the car with Valentin Hasse Clot and Marco Sorensen as one of IMSA’s newest teams stepped up to Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) midseason and made its first IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup race start in GTD PRO at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
The race plot twist came alongside the battle for the GTD PRO championship, which went the way of Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO. They finished third, co-driving with Dan Harper, to secure the full-season driver and team championships and IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup GTD PRO titles.
Plot twists? Consider 13 of 14 starters led at least one lap and at various times no fewer than six cars remained mathematically in the mix for the GTD PRO championship. From those 13 race leaders, the final half hour boiled down to a four-way contest between Ben Barnicoat in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, Harry King’s No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, Thomas Preining’s No. 911 Manthey Porsche and Drudi’s Aston Martin.
Preining went off road at Turn 10, then Barnicoat slowed in an effort to coax his low-on-energy Lexus to the finish even as Drudi worked his way around King. A late full course caution set-up a dash to the 10:10 p.m. finish although it aided those trying to ensure they made it home on energy. Drudi never put a wheel wrong while conserving as much energy as possible and led King across the finish line.
“To be fair, I don’t really know what happened in that last hour,” Drudi said. “So many things happened, it’s difficult to realize. I was just driving the saving energy game and waiting for something to happen at the front. I was behind the two Porsches and the Lexus. First Preining went off, and then the Lexus had contact in Turn Five and I just went through and found myself leading. And then I was the target, and I was just saving as much as we could, trying to keep the lead. We were really, really, really tight because the last lap of the race would have been our last, but luckily the GTPs went through and saved us a lap.”
The championships were equally in doubt until the final hour of the race. Having led the points races for much of the season, De Phillippi and Verhagen, PMR and BMW came to Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in second spot behind Nicky Catsburg, Tommy Milner and the No. 4 Corvette Racing with Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R after they were knocked out of the lead of the previous race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Although pre-race speculation focused on those two protagonists, the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Temerario GT3, both the No. 64 and 65 Ford Racing Mustang GT3s, the AO Racing Porsche and the Vasser Sullivan Lexus were mathematically in the mix as well.
But although the No. 65 Mustang, the Pfaff Lamborghini and the Vasser Sullivan Lexus kept their slim title hopes alive most of the race, in an eventful day and night of changing fortunes brought on by a downpour, a red flag for nearby lightning strikes, more than a dozen full course yellows and differing fuel and tire strategies, the title boiled down to the Corvette and the BMW.
Verhagen and the PMR BMW took over a tenuous championship lead when they slotted into third ahead of Catsburg’s sixth-placed Corvette after a round of pit stops during a caution period with less than 90 minutes remaining. But even then, the title was by no means secure. At least not until the No. 64 Mustang of Dennis Olsen shouldered the Corvette into the Turn 10 sand trap, which cost Catsburg a lap before rejoining the race.
“The last couple of rounds being the championship leader, we were always the ones having to be a little more cautious and people were taking advantage of that and laying the bumpers on us,” Verhagen said. “And finally being the hunters today, we knew we had nothing to lose. Yeah, finally a bit of luck fell our way.
“For sure that’s not the way we want to end the championship. We want to be able to race it on the track and, you know, I’m very good friends with Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner off the track. But I feel, if you look at our last four or five races and how everyone raced us, we were finally on the lucky side today. And from then on it was pretty clear we just had to stay ahead of the Pfaff Lambo and win the championship.”
The championship marked a fitting conclusion to a season that began with a win in the Rolex 24 At Daytona and which saw them score five more top five finishes.
“Starting off with a strong Daytona is huge,” De Phillippi said. “And from there we just went race-to-race. We maximized what we had each race on each given weekend. I think driver-wise, Neil and I made the least amount of mistakes between everyone in the field and, team-wise, we made the least mistakes. More often than not we didn’t have the fastest car on the given weekend, but we always had a car we knew we could be competitive with. And if we played our cards right, we could fight for the podium. That was always our mindset and when there was more to grab, we took it.”
So while the podium may not have been in the cards at Motul Petit Le Mans, there was indeed more for Verhagen, De Phillippi, Harper, PMR and BMW to grab. And they took it.
GTD: Winward Racing Powers to Historic Third Straight Championship
All eyes in Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) fixated on the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 and its slim championship lead entering the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship finale. By day’s end, Philip Ellis, Russell Ward and Indy Dontje had delivered Winward’s first Motul Petit Le Mans victory and a third consecutive GTD championship.
Winward secured the class title early, owing in large part to misfortune hitting their rivals. But the race win remained uncertain until the closing minutes. Riccardo Pera pressured Ellis in the No. 912 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche 911 GT3 R for second place, but Ellis resisted. On Lap 320, he muscled past Lilou Wadoux to take the GTD lead.
Wadoux had returned the No. 21 Af Corse USA Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO to contention after a stop-plus-60-second penalty involving co-driver Antonio Fuoco dropped it to 10th in class. A late full-course caution then eased the GTD leaders’ fuel-saving demands, allowing Ellis to manage the final laps and secure Winward’s maiden Petit Le Mans win.
“It was super tight,” Ellis said. “Obviously the yellow saved a lot of the cars that were on the same strategy. Until the yellow came out, we knew we had no chance of making it. With the yellow, there was a very slim chance of making it. We had to have the prototypes lap us for one.
“I had saved fuel on the last five or six laps after the restart, and that despite having the 9, 12 up behind us, having a bit more energy than us, so they could push a bit more, gamble on that extra lap, whereas we couldn’t.
“I was on the radio telling my engineer I’m just going to stay out and hope that either we have a yellow or it’s going to be enough till the end.
“Yeah, I was a little bit lucky at some points with the prototypes coming through where I could save a bit more fuel, remake it to the end. Glad it worked out that way.”
Ellis and team owner-driver Ward form the core of Winward’s Mercedes-AMG program, with Dontje joining for endurance races. Over the final five rounds, Ellis and Ward earned four victories and a runner-up finish at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, erasing their deficit and completing the second largest championship comeback since IMSA introduced its restructured points system in 2021.
Winward’s third straight title is the longest active championship streak by a program in any IMSA class, and the result also helped Mercedes-AMG claim the manufacturer crown. The victory further established Winward as one of GTD’s defining teams, but Ward credited the crew’s resolve after a difficult race at Watkins Glen for setting the tone.
“Hats off to the dedicated group of people,” Ward said. “When we got taken out at Watkins Glen, involved in the incident between the 70 car and the 13, I mean, us three drivers were pretty sorry in the paddock, looking at the car, watching the mechanics just jump all over it.
“From our standpoint we thought the race was done, let’s pack this thing up, move on to the next. Those guys were like: Hell, no. We need to get out there and capitalize on points. They really set the tone for the second half of the season. We can’t quit, keep pushing as hard as we can.
“We went on a five-race streak with podiums, four wins and a second in Indianapolis, which very well could have been a win as well. Could have been five wins in a row. That really just set us up.”
Winward’s championship bid received an early boost before the green flag. The No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo entered the weekend 116 points behind the leading Mercedes, but an overnight engine change forced Zacharie Robichon to start from pit lane. The car eventually joined the race more than 60 laps behind and later retired.
The other title challenger faltered 30 minutes after the start. Robby Foley brought the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO to pit road for unscheduled service, and a loss of water pressure ended the race for the team that had entered the finale second in the GTD standings.
As night fell over the 10-hour race, the fights for the podium, Michelin Endurance Cup and GTD Bronze-only Bob Akin Award intensified. Contact between Fuoco and race-win contender Lorenzo Patrese sent Patrese’s No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari into the concrete wall at Turn 1, triggering another full-course caution. The incident ended Conquest Racing’s bid for GTD honors and initially knocked Af Corse USA out of contention for a second consecutive Michelin Endurance Cup title.
Further cautions reshaped fuel strategies before the finish. Pera matched Ellis’ conservation effort and held second in the No. 912 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche. The result provided a fitting send-off for co-driver Ryan Hardwick, who announced his retirement from full-time driving Friday morning; Morris Schuring completed the lineup.
Charlie Eastwood completed the podium in the No. 36 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R alongside Salih Yoluc and 2026 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge TCR champion Mason Filippi, with that car rallying from two significant early race penalties.
Behind them, Orey Fidani and the No. 13 13 Autosport Corvette rallied past Brendon Iribe and the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo to win the Bronze-only Bob Akin Award by a slim 10-point – or one position – margin. The award secured Fidani an automatic invitation to the 2027 24 Hours of Le Mans.