Winward Racing needed wins. It got another one Sunday, and now the two-time defending IMSA WeatherTech GTD champions are within striking distance of a third title.
Philip Ellis made the decisive pass for the lead on a restart with just under 30 minutes remaining in the inaugural Six-Hour SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix at Road America, giving the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 its third GTD victory of the 2026 season. No other competitor in the class has won more than once all year.
Ellis, sharing the car with Russell Ward and Indy Dontje, led the final 10 laps after the move. The race finished under dual waving yellow and checkered flags following a pair of late caution periods, but by then the result was secured. Winward only led 12 laps total on the day, and two rivals spent more time at the front. Strategy and timing were the story, not raw pace. Ward and the crew targeted the final pit stop as the pivot point, stretching the fuel window as far as the numbers allowed and jumping competitors in the process. Ellis called it close to a perfect day.
The timing could not have been better for the championship fight. Winward came into Road America fourth in the GTD standings, 207 points behind the class leaders. One race later, the No. 57 team and drivers have vaulted to second, accumulating 1,993 points and sitting just 24 points behind championship leader Eduardo ‘Dudu’ Barrichello. The gain of 183 points in a single event is the kind of swing that turns a distant deficit into a legitimate title fight with races still to run.
The Road America victory follows a win at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park last month and the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona in January with Dontje aboard. That Daytona result now looks like the foundation of something. The rough stretch between January and the recent back-to-back wins, which Ward attributed to contact from other competitors in the early stages of endurance races rather than any mechanical failing, cost the team significant ground. The last two rounds have recovered most of it.
Road America itself is appropriate territory for this kind of result. The 4-mile Wisconsin circuit hosted a six-hour race as far back as 1956, and the 2026 event restored that format after years of shorter sprint races, adding the event to the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup alongside Daytona, Sebring, and Watkins Glen. Lone Star Racing, the other Mercedes-AMG customer team entered in the GTD class, finished seventh with Scott Andrews, Lin Hodenius and James Roe Jr. in the No. 80 car. Lone Star has now completed every lap of the four IMEC rounds run so far this season, a consistency record shared only by the overall WeatherTech GTD championship leaders.
Dontje, who joins the No. 57 for endurance rounds only, delivered a clean stint and kept contact off the car, which Ward flagged as a meaningful contribution in a six-hour event where attrition ran high. Hodenius in the No. 80 reached third place during his stint before traffic on the Road America layout pushed them back through the field.
Next for both teams is the IMSA Michelin GT Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway, August 21–23. Winward goes there as the class’s form team and, for the first time since Daytona weekend, as a genuine championship favorite. Twenty-four points is not a gap. It’s a target.
Source: Mercedes-Benz. Images courtesy of Mercedes-Benz.
