For the last three years, IMSA’s GTD class has been defined by dominant series champions.
In 2023, it was Paul Miller Racing which so thoroughly dominated the class with its new BMW M4 GT3, that Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers became the first team since the unification of American Le Mans and Grand-Am into today’s IMSA to mathematically clinch a season championship before the final race.
And over the past two seasons, Winward Racing has been the dominant force in GTD, growing from Mercedes-AMG’s top IMSA customer to a worldwide force in global GT3 competition. When they prevailed in the extraordinary finish at this year’s Rolex 24 At Daytona, it felt like 2026 would be more of the same.
But two races later and on the eve of Sunday’s race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, GTD feels like it could be anyone’s class to win, even considering that it’s still early days.
“I know last year maybe there’s one car that kind of ran away with it. It’s not looking that way this year,” said Vasser Sullivan Racing’s Aaron Telitz, after he and Benjamin Pedersen won GTD at the Grand Prix of Long Beach. “This year, it looks absolutely wide open.
“There’s five, six cars in the running, legitimately, that can win this thing. And we’ve just come off of our first solid result of the year.”
The two-time and defending GTD champions at Winward aren’t out of contention by any means. But an accident at Sebring and a costly in-race penalty at Long Beach have kicked Russell Ward, Philip Ellis, and the #57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO down to fourth in the GTD points race, down by 138 points.
Instead, Heart of Racing Team and IMSA rookie Eduardo ‘Dudu’ Barrichello find themselves leading the standings after podiums at Daytona and Sebring. A costly drive-through penalty in Long Beach has cut the #27 Aston Martin’s lead down to 54 points, though.
Turner Motorsport’s Patrick Gallagher and Robby Foley bounced back from the penalty they incurred late in Daytona to climb up to second in the standings, the #96 BMW has had top-five finishes in the last two events.
And then Telitz and Pedersen, following a frustrating ’36 Hours of Florida’, have suddenly shot back up into the title hunt. Their #12 Lexus RC F GT3 is down only 103 points in third place.
When it comes to staying in the title picture, “the easy answer is you’ve just got to have consistent results,” states VSR/Lexus mainstay Telitz.
“And that’s how IMSA always works out: A lot of times, the ‘peaks and valleys’ approach, it doesn’t end up playing out for you very well. And the reason why it’s so wide-open this year is because it seems like all the championship-contending teams have done that in the first three races.
“They’ve had one good race and two bad races, and that’s how we’re still in it. We’ve had two not-great races and one win, and we’re in it, we’re in third.
“So going forward, if you want to stay in it, and you want to get out in front – and stay out in front – it’s going to be all about just maximizing every weekend that you have.
“Maybe you don’t have a car to win. And that’s alright, you’re going to take whatever position you can get.”
Heading into qualifying this afternoon, six GTD teams are within 166 points of the leading #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin of Barrichello and co-driver Tom Gamble (who’s back this weekend after missing Long Beach due to commitments in WEC). And under IMSA’s points system, any team can gain up to 220 points on the leaders this weekend.
That means Conquest Racing’s #34 Ferrari 296 GT3 and driver Albert Costa – who challenged for the GTD Pro title last year in a Ferrari – is in the fight, down by 161 points.
And then completing that group of six is 13 Autosport, who’ve admitted that after a strong start to the season with top-six finishes in Daytona and Sebring, they’ve set their sights higher than just a Bob Akin Award for Bronze driver Orey Fidani.
“Every single time we go out on track, our ambitions grow loftier,” admitted Matt Bell, Fidani’s co-driver in the #13 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R. “We continue to be one of the standout teams in GTD – I don’t think that’s too over-the-top to say. We have consistently proven ourselves to be a force to be reckoned with.
“It’s not just the Akin every year that we want to win: We want to win the Endurance Championship. And then as we say there after Sebring as the fourth-place team, but the second full-season team, we were thinking, ‘Okay, let’s go see if we can take it to the overall at some point!’”
Though IMSA GTD is purported to be a Pro-Am category, the majority of teams are anchored by Silver-graded drivers – including a recent IndyCar Series alumni in Pedersen and an aspiring top-tier professional in Barrichello.
For the handful of GTD teams with true amateur drivers like 13 Autosport, it makes the task of climbing through the order a bit tougher, but it’s not deterring them from striving for the Michelin Endurance Cup, or even a full-season GTD championship.
“We have a crew and a driver line-up that can win stuff in this championship. And it’s all got to come together, but I think we can,” Bell said. “We can keep aiming further and further up that championship.”
After Laguna Seca on Sunday, there are only six more races left for the GTD class, and its next race is the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen in June. In one weekend, the title picture could still change dramatically – new teams could re-insert themselves into the frame, others may see their ambitions start to fade away.
But in what is widely considered to be one of the most competitive GT3 categories anywhere in the world, it’s looking like that this GTD championship fight could go down to the final minutes of the season at Road Atlanta.
Images © IMSA
