Before the green flag waved at this year’s Rolex 24, DSC posed the question: Will Daytona mark the start of another Winward championship run?
And following Philip Ellis’ triumph in a late-race duel with Magnus Racing’s Nicki Thiim, the Texas-based out has already seized an early march over its GTD rivals, but more importantly won its third Rolex 24 in six years.
By Winward Racing’s high standards, its #57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO was anonymous for the majority of the race. After ceding the lead at the start of the third hour following a strong start, it was over 20 hours before the car would hit the front again.
In typical fashion, however, Winward came good when it counted. A shorter final pit stop saw Ellis emerge between the battling Aston Martins of Thiim and Mattia Drudi, with the Mercedes-AMG factory driver proceeding to engage in a thrilling duel with the Dane.
Ellis claimed the lead with a move on the exit of Turn 6 with just over 20 minutes to go, but the flashpoint came a few laps later, when contact in the Tri-Oval as the Anglo-Swiss driver tried to block a run from Thiim saw the Mercedes-AMG get sideways at the fastest point on the circuit.
“It’s not ideal when you look at your teammates and team crew on the oval,” Ellis said. “It was a fun fight with Nicki. I think I just misjudged it a little bit when he had the run, I wanted to stop his run, get the side draft off of him, and to be fair, I didn’t even know that he was so close up to the wall.”
Both cars somehow survived the incident, and Ellis was subjected to another 10 minutes of Thiim’s attack before finally breaking the elastic on the penultimate lap, with the final winning margin being a relatively comfortable 1.367 seconds.
“I’m happy that we both continued and nothing bigger happened, and then that we continued on a good fight and a good show. And obviously, I’m super stoked that we came out on top.
“To be honest, I was a bit surprised once I got by. I thought I could just drive away, and I was very surprised that he stuck with me so much, and suddenly he found me. I don’t know if he found pace or if there was something that helped him when he was behind me, but I didn’t expect him to fight back so hard in the last 15 minutes. At that point, I think I would have preferred to stay outside the car and watch the end of the race and not be inside of it, but it was a good race. It was a hard-fought battle, very on edge.”
As has often been the case at Daytona in recent years, the battle ebbed and flowed as conditions changed, with over half the GTD field enjoying at least one spell out front.
“It was super tough,” Ellis said. “It changed as well as the race went on. Sometimes other cars got the upper hand when it was a bit colder, and then it looked like we got the other hand when it got a bit warm, towards the end. The team put us out in a great spot as well, with good strategy, so that was the basis of all of it.”
Ellis, as well as co-drivers Russell Ward and Indy Dontje, are now three-time Rolex 24 winners with Winward, having also formed part of the driving crew during its 2021 and 2024 triumphs.
2026 is the fourth consecutive season that all three drivers occupy the same role in Winward’s IMSA Sportscar Championship plans, with Ellis and Ward set to contest the full season, and Dontje acting as third driver for the Michelin Endurance Cup events.
“Having a core group of drivers like this is really important because none of us are here to try to outdo one another,” Ward explained.
“We’re here to just come here and race as hard as we can and win, so there’s really no animosity between us. When one of us does a good lap, we look at it and see if we can recreate it. Really, we’ve just hit it off from the beginning and seem to have a great group, and [I’m] looking forward to the rest of the season and racing more with these guys.”
The fourth driver in the #57 AMG GT3 Evo this weekend was Lucas Auer, who clinched his maiden Rolex 24 victory at the third time of asking.
It’s a full-circle moment for the Austrian, who sustained significant fractured lumbar injuries following a practice accident at the 2023 Rolex 24, whilst behind the wheel of Winward’s AMG.
“[It’s a] happy end to the story in ’23,” said the Mercedes-AMG factory driver.
“It was a tough crash with a long recovery, and to win it now, it’s really an amazing story. I have to thank these guys for giving me the opportunity. Our car was absolutely great. The crew did a mega job.”
The last time Winward Racing won at Daytona, it followed it up with three victories in the next four races.
Given the team already has a 47-point advantage over its nearest full-season competitor, those hoping to prevent it from claiming a third consecutive GTD title will need to find a way to slow its momentum quickly, especially with the 12 hours of Sebring – a race the #57 Mercedes-AMG has won the past two years – coming up next.
