DANVILLE, Virginia – Championship-leading Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams and Mercedes-AMG begin the year’s final three-race stretch run of IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races this weekend at VIRginia International Raceway with the annual Michelin GT Challenge at VIR, August 23 – 25. Sunday’s two-hour and 40-minute race is the final WeatherTech Championship sprint event of the season and the year’s only race spotlighting the series’ GT Daytona (GTD) and GTD Pro divisions in their own feature race. The Michelin GT Challenge at VIR is scheduled to start this Sunday at 12:10 p.m. EDT with live television coverage on the USA Network and NBC’s livestream platform Peacock beginning 10 minutes earlier at Noon EDT. International viewers can see the action live on www.IMSA.com/TVLive.
Mercedes-AMG and Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams Winward Racing and Korthoff Preston Motorsports kick-off this season’s final three races with across the board leads in all three GTD-class season-long championships contested in the WeatherTech Championship.
Winward, and team co-drivers Russell Ward and Philip Ellis in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, has set the standard in the overall WeatherTech Championship this season with a series-high four GTD class wins. The four victories are the most for any WeatherTech Championship team in any class this year, with no single team in the series’ three other divisions winning more than two races.
The series-best win record includes 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 drove in all four victories with Indy Dontje partnering as the team’s third driver for the endurance race wins. Daniel Morad also joined the Winward squad as the team’s fourth and race-closing driver at the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona.
The Winward No. 57, Ward and Ellis have led the WeatherTech Championship GTD team and driver point standings all season. They arrive in VIR atop the GTD driver and team championships by 268 points, 2,396 – 2,128.
Meanwhile, Korthoff Preston has stepped up to carry the day for the Silver Star on more than one occasion this year, finishing a Mercedes-AMG best third place in April’s Grand Prix of Long Beach and winning the pole one race ago at Road America with team driver Mikael Grenier.
The No. 32 team and drivers have quietly moved into third place in the GTD team championship standings with 1,796 points. The reigning Michelin Endurance Cup Champion team and drivers have what it takes to make a move in the year’s final races after VIR, which includes the 6-Hour Battle on The Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the 10-Hour Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Kenton Koch co-drives with Grenier once again this weekend while longtime team driver Mike Skeen assists with race strategy from the pits for the second-straight race weekend. Skeen returns to his more familiar driver role for the Indy and Road Atlanta endurance races.
The collective performance of both Winward and Korthoff Preston this season has built Mercedes-AMG’s robust lead in the GTD manufacturer championship standing to an even 2,500 points, a season-high 473 tallies ahead of the second-place competitor’s 2,027 points.
A pair of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams are also entered in Saturday’s two-hour Michelin Pilot Challenge race at VIR 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.
Following practice sessions for both the WeatherTech Championship and Pilot Challenge Friday, Saturday includes qualifying for both series and the two-hour Pilot Challenge race that afternoon at 2:15 p.m. EDT.
Pilot Challenge GS qualifying takes place earlier Saturday at 8:20 a.m. EDT while WeatherTech GTD and GTD Pro qualifying follows the Pilot Challenge race at 4:50 p.m. EDT.
Sunday’s WeatherTech Championship race schedule features only the featured two-hour and 40-minute race for GTD and GTD Pro competitors at 12:10 p.m. EDT.
Philip Ellis, Driver – No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: “Personally, I really like the track in Virginia. I think it’s one of the tracks that suits us quite well, but it will still be a tough race for us as usual, and we are hoping for some more green flag running than we had at Road America as over longer stints we are pretty strong. We also proved last year we are strong strategically as well on the fuel game. We are looking for a strong finish, and hopefully in front of our nearest championship contenders to extend that points lead again. I am looking forward to the race. This is the last of this year’s sprint races before the year-end endurance races, but I think we take them all the same. It’s a shame there are not extra points in the endurance races as that is where we are at our best with the team and longer races suit the Mercedes-AMG GT3 as well. We will just continue to have clean execution as we have done in all of the last few races and, to be honest, the entire year.”
Kenton Koch, Driver – No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3: “This will be my first time at VIR in a WeatherTech Championship race. I have winning Mercedes-AMG GT3 experience there last year in GT World Challenge with Daniel Morad. So, I have a little bit of experience there with the platform and I am excited to get back there with KPM. Road America went well, we had some speed, and were right there with Winward and nose-to-tail fighting for the podium until the very end. Wasn’t able to finish the job, but we had some good strategy from Mike on the stand, and we were quite fortunate to have him as he obviously knows it well from firsthand experience. It’s good to have him onboard throughout the rest of the year and for the season-ending long races. We are excited to get back to VIR, it’s just a fun place to be for us.”
