ELKHART LAKE, Wisconsin – Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 teams Winward Racing and Korthoff Preston Motorsports bring across-the-board GT Daytona (GTD) class championship points leads and a podium-perfect 2024 race record to Round 7 of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD season this weekend on the four-mile Road America circuit. Sunday’s featured two-hour and 40-minute IMSA WeatherTech Championship race follows Saturday’s two-hour IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race in which Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams Winward and JMF Motorsports compete in Mercedes-AMG GT4s in the top-level Grand Sport (GS) class.
The Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing WeatherTech Championship success this season has been anchored by Winward and team co-drivers Russell Ward and Philip Ellis in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3. Winward won four of the year’s first six races and backed it up with a second-place finish one race ago at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The four victories are the most for any WeatherTech Championship team in any class this year, with no teams in the series’ three other divisions winning more than two races.
The No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 team has built the best overall performance record in the WeatherTech series 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 Ward and Ellis were part of all four victories with Indy Donje partnering for the trio of endurance victories. Daniel Morad also joined the Winward squad as the team’s fourth and ultimately race-closing driver at the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona.
The on-track success has kept the No. 57, Ward and Ellis atop the WeatherTech Championship GTD team and driver point standings all season. Even the second-place finish in Canada three weeks ago bolstered Winward’s championship leads to season-high levels heading to Road America.
Ward, Ellis and the Winward No. 57 came into the Canadian round 305 points ahead of the nearest driver and team championship challengers, but have now increased that season-high lead to an even bigger 340 points, 2090 – 1,750, going into Road America
Mercedes-AMG maintains an even larger lead in the GTD manufacturer championship battle with 2,185 points, a full season-high 397 ahead of the second-place competitor’s 1,788 points.
The maximum points available to a driver, team or manufacturer in all GTD championships for a race win is 350, which means Winward, Ward and Ellis are just 10 points shy of having full race leads in the driver and team title battles.
Mercedes-AMG’s margin in the manufacturer championship, which more than exceeds a full-race points lead, has also been supported this season by the No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 team. The Korthoff team and drivers arrive at Road America third in the GTD championship standings.
The No. 32 team and drivers Mike Skeen and Mikael Grenier stepped up to earn the championship points for Mercedes-AMG in April at the Grand Prix of Long Beach with a third-place finish. The victory lane visit was the first podium result for the Korthoff team since finishing third in GTD last year at Road America.
Skeen and Grenier co-drove to last year’s Road America podium as well, but this weekend their teammate Kenton Koch, a Korthoff endurance race regular, steps into the No. 32 to co-drive with Grenier. Skeen, who has been with the Korthoff team since its debut season in 2021, will be back in the car with Grenier and Koch for the year’s final two races in Indianapolis and Atlanta as Korthoff looks to repeat its 2023 IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup GTD Championship.
Combined with Winward’s four wins and lone runner-up finish this season, Korthoff’s visit to victory lane at Long Beach makes Mercedes-AMG the only competing brand in the WeatherTech Championship’s two GTD classes – GTD and GTD Pro – to place a car on the podium in each of the year’s first six races.
A pair of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams are also entered in Saturday’s two-hour Michelin Pilot Challenge race at Road America in the top-tier Grand Sport (GS) class.
Morad and co-driver Bryce Ward – Russell Ward’s father – share the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 while Jesse Webb and teammate Michai Stephens co-drive the No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4.
Bryce Ward, Morad and the No. 57 team are determined to have a rebound performance at Road America after being knocked out of the most recent race in Canada at the start. Bryce Ward was uninjured in the incident, but the last-place finish that was a result of the hit was a devastating blow to the team’s championship bid.
Winward opened the season with three podium finishes in the year’s first five races, and similar, if not better, results at Road America and the year’s final three races that follow will be needed to fight back into a top-three championship position.
A winning Mercedes-AMG GT4 team in its first year in IMSA GS competition, JMF, Webb and Stephens have shown race-leading pace all year. Season-best finishes of seventh at Sebring and Mid-Ohio, however, are not indicative of the on-track potential of the No. 34 team and drivers.
A three-day race weekend, the Road America schedule gets underway with opening practice for the WeatherTech and Pilot Challenge series on Friday.
Saturday begins with GS qualifying at 8:20 a.m. CDT to set the grid for that afternoon’s two-hour Pilot Challenge race that is scheduled to start at 1:45 p.m. CDT. A final WeatherTech 90-minute practice takes place Saturday at 9:55 a.m. CDT, with GTD qualifying wrapping up the day that afternoon at 4:20 p.m. CDT.
Sunday’s sole on-track action for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport customer teams is the featured two-hour and 40-minute IMSA WeatherTech Championship race that is slated to go green at 2:10 p.m. CDT for the two-hour and 40-minute race.
Live race coverage begins at 3 p.m. EDT on NBC’s streaming network Peacock with same-day broadcast coverage airing on CNBC later on Sunday at 6 p.m. EDT. International viewers can watch the race live on IMSA.TV starting at 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday.
Philip Ellis, Driver – No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: “It’s nice to go into the next couple of races with a good lead, but it only takes one bad weekend where you don’t make the race to have that lead disappear. So, it’s still the same mentality as we have had at the races going into Road America with no mistakes and having a clean race. We will capitalize on other people’s mistakes, just do our jobs, keep it clean and see where we end up. For us as a team, it is just focusing on the execution of the race. I expect Road America to be a bit better than last year with the new asphalt being run in a little, so the racing itself should be a little more interesting, and better on our side as well. It should be a good weekend, just like we had one race ago in Canada, and we will be banking on a good qualifying and then having a good race as a team. The team has been doing a great job on strategies the entire year, and we have been one of the strongest teams on strategies the last few seasons. With the current performance rules, we will have to use that strategy to our advantage, maybe play the fuel game, which won us the race in 2022. We will try to do the same again, but there is always risk management, where you don’t want to sacrifice too many points going for one single result. We will keep the outlook on the overall championship.”
Mikael Grenier, Driver – No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3: “Last year at Road America we were good on strategy and able to get a podium. We will focus on strategy again and on having a good qualifying because getting and trying to keep track position will be very important for us. It is good to have Kenton with us this weekend.”
Michai Stephens, Driver – No. 34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4: “From one high-speed coliseum to the next! The Canadian Tire Motorsport Park weekend opened our eyes to a few things we hope to take advantage of at Road America. Maximizing the chassis performance across a wide range of corner types, long straights, heavy brake zones and aggressive curbing demands a lot from not only the car but the team and drivers as well. Like Canada and Daytona, drafting strategies and techniques will likely play a significant role in how we maintain pace and manage fuel saving. The team has been growing stronger with every round of the championship, and the passion to secure a top-five finish and ultimately a podium by season’s end is still strong! Given Road America’s proximity to my home in Illinois, I do consider it to be one of my home tracks, with Indy being a close rival. The reality of my childhood dream of being a racing driver comes into focus with the presence of family and friends because they have all played active roles in the timeline that has brought us to this moment. Funny enough, I enjoy knowing exactly which turn my family is watching from because it’s guaranteed to provide a burst of overwhelming energy lap after lap!”
