Winward Racing drivers Russell Ward and Philip Ellis stand on the brink of a dynasty run as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship prepares for its season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. Holding a slim six-point lead in the GTD class standings, the duo – joined by endurance co-driver Indy Dontje in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 – is aiming to complete the season by securing a rare third consecutive championship.
A title victory at Motul Petit Le Mans would mark a third consecutive GTD crown for the team and drivers, cementing their status as the dominant force in North American GT racing. With four victories this season – including marquee wins at the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Road America, and VIR – and five podium finishes across nine starts, Ward and Ellis enter the 10-hour endurance test with momentum on their side. However, a tight six-point margin over Turner Motorsport's Patrick Gallagher and Robby Foley leaves little margin for error.
Ahead of his 55th WeatherTech Championship start and sixth appearance at Road Atlanta, Ward made it clear that establishing track position early will be crucial to executing their championship bid.
“Yeah, I think for us, qualifying is going to be important. It’s so close right now in the championship points,” Ward said. “We need to try to finish in front of the #96 car, which is going to be a tall order. They’re usually really strong here at Petit. We’ll start with qualifying and see if we can extend that that points lead to a position greater than just being one car in front. And if we can do that, I mean, that'll give a little bit of a little bit of a buffer room for us. But for us, we're just going to go in and race the racetrack and see where it comes out. Looking forward to it, and it's going to be a battle down to the end.”
While the championship three-peat remains the primary prize, securing it requires conquering a venue that has notoriously eluded Winward Racing. Despite their remarkable championship run, the team has never finished on the podium at Road Atlanta. To overcome those historical struggles, the team logged extensive pre-race testing in Georgia to dial in their Mercedes-AMG GT3.
“On paper, it seems like a racetrack that should suit the Mercedes-AMG GT3 really well, and we certainly love driving the racetrack, but every time we come into the race weekend, we seem to be missing a little bit compared to the competition,” Ward explained. “We've added that onto our testing schedule. It's one of the closer tracks to us here in Houston, so it's pretty easy to test there. And we went there last week and 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.”
With Petit Le Mans representing one of the final unfulfilled milestones on their IMSA checklist, a first Petit Le Mans victory for Winward would therefore carry significance beyond the championship fight.
“For us, there's been two races now that have kind of eluded us on the calendar,” Ward said. “One is Petit Le Mans as we haven't had a victory there, or even a podium there, and then we haven't had it at Long Beach either. To close those two out means a ton to the program, so we're just going to have to go there and see where we're at.
“You never really know until you start the race. That track is just incredibly challenging. It's really high commitment place, a lot of bumps there, which wreak havoc on the on the torque sensor system, you know, with this being kind of a newer system to the Mercedes-AMG, and not really something that was, I think, envisioned for the car when they when they designed it 10 years ago.”
“These are some of the things that we're out there testing and seeing, seeing if we can make a bit of a difference, but I know the Turner car will be super quick there. I mean, they're always good, so I mean, it's going to be an exciting battle, and for us, I mean, we're just going to focus on the race, you know, try not to look too much at what the #96 is doing. I think we learned our lesson there in the past when you look at the competition and kind of change up your methodology. You never really know what the outcome can be, so you really just need to focus on the race and going to maximize the result of Petit.”
For Ward, who balances his roles as both driver and team owner, the shot at a third straight championship represents the realization of years of organizational growth across global GT racing.
“We just have to keep pinching ourselves every year,” Ward said. “I think it comes down to the really amazing group of people that we have here in the United States and over in Europe. It’s incredibly difficult to get a program to that level to where you can go out there and compete for race victories and I think it's even harder to keep the program there because it's sometimes kind of hard to look at the success and find something to improve out of it, but I think we do a really good job of doing that here.
“I think the success that we've had with Mercedes-AMG has really cemented Winward Racing as its name is kind of synonymous with Mercedes-AMG, and GT racing right now. And we'd like to keep it that way.”
