Leading All Possible GT Daytona (GTD) Class Championships
BOWMANVILLE, Ontario, Canada – Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams and Mercedes-AMG begin the second half of the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Daytona (GTD) season with season-high points leads across all three GTD championships heading into this weekend’s event at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP). Round 6 of this year’s 10-race GTD championship, Sunday’s featured two-hour and 40-minute race on the fast circuit just East of Toronto is scheduled to start at 11:05 a.m. EDT. Live race coverage begins five minutes earlier on the USA Network and NBC’s online offering Peacock starting at 11 a.m. EDT. In addition to the IMSA WeatherTech Championship, Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Racing Teams also compete at CTMP in Saturday’s IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge two-hour race and in a weekend doubleheader schedule of IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge sprints Saturday and Sunday.
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport’s stellar season to date this year has been anchored by Winward Racing’s remarkable run of four GTD-class victories in the year’s first five races. The near perfect win record is the best of the season to date in the overall WeatherTech Championship this year with no teams in the series’ three other classes winning more than two races.
The No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 has been the top team in the WeatherTech series this year with victories in the season’s first three endurance races at Daytona, Sebring and Watkins Glen and a sprint race win at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Full-season team drivers Russell Ward and Philip Ellis have been part of all four victories and were joined by Indy Dontje for the trio of endurance victories and Canadian driver Daniel Morad as the team’s fourth and ultimately race-closing driver at the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona.
The success has seen the Winward No. 57 and its drivers lead the WeatherTech Championship GTD team and driver point standings all season. The fourth win at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen three weeks ago boosted Winward’s championship leads to season-high totals coming into this weekend’s only race of the season in Canada.
Ward, Ellis and the Winward No. 57 added more than 100 points to their championship leads with The Glen victory and return to CTMP this weekend a season-high 305 points ahead of the second-place competitors, 1,745 – 1,440, in both the WeatherTech GTD driver and team championships.
Mercedes-AMG has an even larger lead in the GTD manufacturer championship battle with 1,837 points, a full season-high 344 tallies ahead of the second-place competitor’s 1,493 points.
Winward’s success has consistently contributed to the stout Mercedes-AMG manufacturer points lead, but the second Mercedes-AMG Motorsport customer team competing this weekend at CTMP has also played a major role keeping the Silver Star on top of the standings.
The No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Mike Skeen and Canadian Mikael Grenier stepped up to earn championship points for Mercedes-AMG at the Grand Prix of Long Beach with a third-place finish. The No. 32 Korthoff team’s first victory lane visit of the season matched its first IMSA sprint-race podium finish last year at CTMP and an additional third-place finish two races later at Road America.
A pair of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport customer racing contenders are also entered in Saturday’s Michelin Pilot Challenge race in the top-tier Grand Sport (GS) class.
Morad and co-driver Bryce Ward – Russell Ward’s father – co-drive the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 while Morad’s Canadian countryman Jesse Webb and teammate Michai Stephens co-drive the No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4. The JMF team is a Canadian operation based in Elmira, Ontario, Canada, less than three hours from CTMP and West of Toronto.
Bryce Ward, Morad and the No. 57 entry moved to second in the GS driver and team championship standings after Watkins Glen, trailing the first-place team and drivers by 240 points, 1,500 – 1,260. Winward’s title-contending season has been fueled by three podium finishes in the year’s opening five races, led by a second-place finish in the season-opening four-hour race at Daytona and back-to-back third-place finishes at Laguna Seca and Mid-Ohio SportsCar Course.
A winning Mercedes-AMG GT4 team in its first year in IMSA GS competition, JMF, Webb and Stephens have been on pace with Winward in the first half of the season but have endured more than their fair share of bad luck on-track. Season-best finishes of seventh at Sebring and Mid-Ohio are not indicative of the on-track performance of JMF and its drivers, but all look for a turn around this weekend on a more than familiar CTMP circuit.
In the VP Racing SportsCar Challenge, Thaze Competition, which also has some Canadian connections, carries the Mercedes-AMG Motorsport flag at CTMP with a two-car Mercedes-AMG GT4 entry for the second straight race weekend.
Josh Green returns for both the Saturday and Sunday 45-minute sprints in the No. 78 Thaze Competition Mercedes-AMG GT4 after a pair of GT4-class second place finishes one race ago at Mid-Ohio. The second-place finishes are the top results to date for Thaze in its select schedule of VP SportsCar and Pilot Challenge races this year.
Green races alongside Thaze teammate Eddie Killeen who looks to continue his solid entry into motorsports competition at CTMP and build on a pair of eighth-place Bronze division finishes at Mid-Ohio in the No. 37 Thaze Competition Mercedes-AMG GT4.
A three-day weekend event, Friday’s schedule at CTMP includes practice for all three series in addition to VP Racing SportsCar Challenge qualifying at 3:35 p.m. EDT. Saturday starts with VP Challenge qualifying at 8:20 a.m. EDT, which will be immediately followed by the first 45-minute VP Challenge sprint at 8:50 a.m. EDT.
The two-hour Michelin Pilot Challenge race starts at 1:25 p.m. EDT with GTD qualifying wrapping up the day for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport customer teams at 4 p.m. EDT.
Sunday’s main on-track activity is the two-hour and 40-minute WeatherTech Championship race that goes live on USA and NBC’s online Peacock Network starting at 11 a.m. EDT, five minutes before the green flag is scheduled to fly.
Philip Ellis, Driver – No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: “I’m actually looking forward to this race quite a bit. Canadian Tire is one of my favorite tracks on the calendar. It is a very fast and flowing track, which is always nice for us drivers, but on the other hand makes it very hard to pass. So, track position is key, and we will need good qualifying and good strategy and pit stops, of course. In the last few years, we have shown good pace, finished second a couple of years ago, and last year we were running in second until a late tire issue. It will be a super tough competition once again, but so far, we have had a close to perfect first half of the season. We will just continue to do what we did in the previous races, do what we can, keep our heads down, have a look at our risk management and just take the race as it comes. We are going to grab as many points as we can and go race by race from now on. That’s what we have been doing the last couple of races, it worked out well, so we are not changing any of our approaches. We will just do the same thing again.”
Mike Skeen, Driver – No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3: “Canadian Tire Motorsport Park has always been one of my favorites. I have won a bunch of races there over the years in different series, and we were on the podium last year with our Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3. The fast sweeping turns really suit the Mercedes-AMG GT3, so I think we should have a strong program there again. We have a good place to start, based on the setup from last year, so hopefully that will all still apply, and we will have some good weather and good racing.”
Daniel Morad, Driver – No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4: “Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is one of the most iconic tracks in the world. It still has an old-school feel to it, but because it is my home track, and I am so close to it, I sometimes forget to appreciate just how awesome it is. It is one of the quickest race tracks in the world, and it is always so nice to drive there and have the support from everybody at home, but the support around the world has been growing every single weekend because of the social media influence and being so active online. It is incredible just to see how big the support network has become in Japan, Belgium, everywhere, but when you are going to your home track it is still a little bit special. You have your friends and family there, so much local support, and it really does make a huge difference. I won at CTMP in 2018 in a Mercedes-AMG GT3, but I haven’t really raced there much since 2019. Last year with Winward was actually my first time there since then, and my first year in a Mercedes-AMG GT4, but I didn’t actually get to drive in the race after an early issue. We have a challenging weekend ahead but will focus on good strategy, pit stop timing and keeping it clean, which worked for us in some races in the first half of the season. We will build on that success by getting the car in a more competitive window and making less mistakes overall. That’s how you win championships.”
Jesse Webb, Driver – No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4: “For everyone at the JMF Motorsports team, every curveball that we get, every challenge overcome is a lesson learned at the end of the day. We only come back stronger, more knowledgeable and more experienced. We are looking to push forward in the second half of the season, starting at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The pace and performance are there, but the results just aren’t there yet. We are getting quite unlucky, but we are on the doorstep of getting a great result and we are all going to push forward. Everyone is doing a fantastic job. When we get some luck on our side, they will see us at the front.”
