Rising Mercedes-AMG Team is First to Achieve Feat in Modern Era
By John Oreovicz
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – You can almost count on one hand the number of drivers who have earned three consecutive class championships in the 58-year history of IMSA-sanctioned sports car racing in America. The short list includes but isn’t limited to IMSA Hall of Famers Peter Gregg, Scott Pruett, and Geoff Brabham, the only driver to notch four straight season titles (1988-91).
Philip Ellis and Russell Ward added themselves to that prestigious list in 2026 by wheeling the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 to their third consecutive triumph in the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. They are the first drivers to achieve a championship three-peat in IMSA’s modern era that started in 2014.
The latest crown for the Winward duo (joined as usual for IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup events by Indy Dontje as well as Lucas Auer at the Rolex 24 At Daytona) did not come easy, though it certainly didn’t look that way when their campaign opened with a sensational victory in the Rolex 24 – the team’s third in the 24-hour endurance classic. Ellis won out in a tense door-banging battle with Nicki Thiim’s No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo in one of the most thrilling Daytona finishes in memory. Eduardo “Dudu” Barrichello co-drove to third place in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin, signaling the start of a strong championship campaign as he raced alongside several different co-drivers.
Winward’s fortunes changed quickly when Ward was swept into an incident involving two GTD PRO competitors about a quarter of the way into the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup competitors Antonio Fuoco, Simon Mann, and Lilou Wadoux took the class win in the No. 21 Af Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO, while second place – and being the fastest qualifier – lifted Barrichello into the points lead, although Barrichello’s teammate Tom Gamble lost the win on the last lap.
At the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, the Winward Mercedes-AMG and Heart of Racing Aston Martin both incurred penalties, dropping them to ninth and 10th place. Aaron Telitz and Benjamin Pedersen took the class win in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 over Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher (No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO), who also moved up to second in the standings.
Another second-place finish at the StubHub Monterey SportsCar Championship at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, this time behind Danny Formal and Trent Hindman (No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO 2), kept Barrichello in the championship lead, while Ellis and Ward finished fifth.
A multi-car accident took the Winward Mercedes-AMG out of the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International. While Ellis and Ward now found themselves 300 points adrift of Barrichello’s class lead, it could have been worse because the victory again went to a Michelin Endurance Cup entry – the No. 912 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) with drivers Riccardo Pera, Ryan Hardwick and Richard Lietz. But rallying from sixth in the standings at the halfway point of the season was going to be a tall task.
“The bad luck we had in the middle of the year was the result of other competitors’ poor driving – crashing early in these endurance races, taking us out,” said Ward. “When we had some semi-clean racing, we knew what this team was capable of.”
Ward got his wish, starting at the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Victory there took 91 points out of Barrichello’s cushion and kicked off a fast and furious championship comeback. The Winward duo took an even bigger bite with a win at the rough-and-tumble Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix at Road America, where the No. 27 Aston Martin finished 15th.
Ward and Ellis were now within 24 points, and a third win on the trot in the Michelin GT Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway thrust them back to the top of the standings. They closed out the season with second place behind Foley, Gallagher, and the No. 96 Turner BMW at the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, then claimed yet another victory (this time joined by Dontje) in the season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
The Motul Petit Le Mans win was notable as the event was one of only two (the other being Long Beach) where Winward had never tasted victory.
“We had never even had a podium at Road Atlanta, so we tested before the race and kind of threw the kitchen sink at the car, changed pretty much everything that we could to try to find differences in the setups and come up with a really, really sharp race car coming into the weekend,” Ward said. “To close that out meant a ton to the program.”
In all, the No. 57 Winward Mercedes-AMG won four of the last five GTD races (five out of 10 overall), boosting Ellis and Ward to the driver’s championship by a robust 235 points over Gallagher and Foley, who pipped Barrichello to second in the standings by a single point. Winward claimed the team championship, while Mercedes-AMG earned manufacturer’s honors over Aston Martin and Ferrari.
The Winward Racing story is even more remarkable when you consider the organization is barely 10 years old. Founded by Bryce and Russell Ward to support Russell’s racing career, Winward soon established strong links with Mercedes-AMG and has quickly become one of the German manufacturer’s stalwart teams.
Winward advanced through the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge (where Russell’s father Bryce Ward still competes in the Grand Sport [GS] class) to join the WeatherTech Championship for two races to bookend the 2021 season (taking the class win in their first Rolex 24 At Daytona) before joining full time in 2022. Since then, they have emerged as the proverbial team to beat in IMSA’s GT-based Pro-Am category.
“The No. 57 car has written their own records and been super dominant the last couple of years,” observed Foley. “We’ve always kind of been chasing them and we’ve shared the podium with them a lot. As a team, and Mercedes as a manufacturer, their group has been super strong. They also race hard but fair, and I think that’s probably why there’s so much respect between the two teams.”
Russell Ward, 34, is a key manager in the Winward effort who holds down the roles of vice-president and team principal in addition to co-driver.
“We used to watch IMSA on TV and always thought, ‘Aw, those guys are too good. We’ll never be near them, we’re hobby-focused,’” Ward recalled. “But as we got in there, we realized that we may be lacking experience, but we have the same tool set that the rest of these guys have – good reaction times, passion, and a little bit of funding behind us to get it done.”
Needless to say, Ward is proud of all he and Winward Racing have achieved since the team’s victorious WeatherTech Championship debut in the 2021 Rolex 24 At Daytona. And the winning is unlikely to stop anytime soon.
“You’ve got to make your own luck in a way,” he said. “I think a lot of people would agree that the racing is won at the workshop. If you can put in that due diligence and you have the personnel really committed to come and give you the best quality machine, then you’re already a leg ahead of the competition. We definitely have that group.
“We just keep focusing on doing the best that we can and keeping the program at the highest level that we can possibly keep it at,” he added. “I think the success that we’ve had with Mercedes-AMG has really cemented Winward Racing as kind of synonymous with Mercedes-AMG and GT racing right now. We’d like to keep it that way.”