DAYTONA BEACH, Florida – A comeback GT Daytona (GTD) fourth-place finish for Winward Racing and a debut fifth-place GTD Pro showing for Bartone Bros. Racing with Team GetSpeed were the highlight results for Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing teams in this weekend’s 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona at Daytona International Speedway. The hard-earned results capped a dramatic and emotional stretch of racing and testing at the “World Center of Racing” that began with the Roar Before the Rolex 24 test two Thursdays ago. Perhaps the biggest achievement of the nearly two-week long IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Racing season-opening event was the competitive showings in the Rolex 24 At Daytona race weekend by all five competing Mercedes-AMG customer teams in the debut of the newly mandated torque sensors to equalize the competition balance in IMSA’s pair of GTD racing classes.
Mercedes-AMG was the only manufacturer in the large GTD and GTD Pro field that never had the opportunity to previously compete with the sensors, but progress was made at the Roar in what was Mercedes-AMG’s first experience in official international competition with the driveshaft-mounted torque-detecting componentry.
Mercedes-AMG and its partner worked non-stop back home in Germany and in Daytona with the five competing teams throughout the Roar and straight through the Rolex 24 race. Successfully overcoming a software data transfer issue on the first day of the Roar that had essentially made the team’s competing Mercedes-AMG GT3 cars undriveable, the teams were able to maximize their performance for the remainder of the Roar and straight through opening practice and qualifying a few days later on Rolex 24 weekend.
All involved stayed focused and positive as daily “fine-tuning” of the system delivered a raceable solution that remarkably saw all five Mercedes-AMG teams complete the entire Rolex 24 At Daytona without a single torque-sensor related issue.
With the torque sensor hurdle cleared and ultimately not an issue, all five competing Mercedes-AMG GT3 teams took the green flag to start the Rolex 24 Saturday at 1:40 p.m. EST with their focus firmly on race strategy and anticipating the myriad of typical endurance race issues that inevitably emerge in top-tier sports car racing competition.
Reigning Rolex 24 race winners and 2024 IMSA WeatherTech GTD Champions Winward Racing made the first competitive move when full-season Winward driver Russell Ward took the GTD lead for the first time in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the race’s second hour.
A few minutes later, Maro Engel stepped up to take the GTD Pro class lead in the No. 75 Team 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3, but he and the No. 75 team soon joined Winward in realizing leading early at this year’s Rolex 24 may not have been the positive move it appeared.
Engel handed the No. 75 off to team owner and driver Kenny Habul only to see the car have an engine belt failure early in the team owner’s driving stint. The 75 Express team crew quickly returned the car to the race after a trip to the garage only to have it retire shortly thereafter due to engine component technical issues apparently resulting from the thrown belt.
Meanwhile, Ward pitted from the lead later on Saturday afternoon but was back in the pits just a lap later after the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 slowed with a throttle assembly issue. The Winward crew was quick to make repairs and the team and drivers spent the majority of the Rolex 24’s remaining opening 12 hours earning some of the seven laps lost in the garage. In the early morning Sunday hours in the race’s second half, Ward, full-season co-driver Philip Ellis and their teammates Lucas “Luggi” Auer and Indy Dontje successfully worked their way back to the lead lap after nearly 12 hours of hard-charging driving.
With 75 Express sidelined and Winward spending the remainder of the race’s first half climbing through the field, debuting GTD Pro competitors Bartone Bros. with Team GetSpeed joined the renamed Korthoff Competition Motors team in stepping up to lead the Mercedes-AMG contingent overnight Saturday.
The Bartone Bros. GetSpeed team ran its first North American race with debuting Rolex 24 driver Anthony Bartone co-driving in GTD Pro alongside his AMG Performance Driver teammates Maxime Martin, Fabian Schiller and Luca Stolz. All ran competitively in a climb through the field from the drop of the green flag to secure the eventual fifth place GTD Pro finish.
The No. 32 team has run under several different names the last few seasons, but the debuting Korthoff Competition Motors era began at the Rolex 24. Rookie debuting team driver Seth Lucas led his first IMSA race laps on Saturday while his teammates Kenton Koch, Daniel Morad and Maximilian Götz were also on pace throughtout the race.
Götz was at the wheel of the No.32 for the final run to the finish early Sunday afternoon and battled for the GTD lead and top three for the majority of the race’s second half. Unfortunately, in the frantic fight to the finish, Götz was charged with an incident responsibility penalty with another competitor, and the ensuing delay dropped the No. 32 to an eventual ninth-place finish.
The fifth competing Mercedes-AMG team, Lone Star Racing, joined Winward in mounting its own comeback through the field after shaking off some early race penalties to get back on the lead lap overnight Saturday. The No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 was co-driven by Dan Knox, Scott Andrews, Eric Filgueiras and AMG Performance Driver Ralf Aron.
Andrews was at the wheel Sunday in the 8 a.m. hour when the team’s collective hard charge through the field was interrupted by a incident in the DIS infield. The damaged No. 80 was repaired back in the DIS garages, returned to the race after falling more than two dozen laps down and was later retired with only a few hours left and no chance to gain any significatnt points or positions.
By the time Lone Star’s race was over, the three remaining Mercedes-AMG entries were already locked in lead pack fights in their respective classes.
Winward Racing appeared to have the best chance to win at Daytona for a third time but a late caution that closed the pits gave the team no choice but to take emergency service for an overdue scheduled fuel stop. The ensuing penalty for entering a closed pit knocked the No. 57 out of winning contention late in the race, but closing driver Auer kept a charge on to the finish to score the Mercedes-AMG race-high fourth-place finish.
Winward Racing also led the Mercedes-AMG GT3 contingent in laps led in the race, pacing the GTD field for 102 circuits, but all five entries across the GTD Pro and GTD field led the race at some point for a combined 120 laps led.
Christoph Sagemüller, Head of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport: “We had some pretty tough days here at Daytona, facing lots of technical challenges, but all of the teams worked together very well. Long nights and lots of hard hours, and still we created a competitive package here for the 24 hours. This shows the team spirit we have. We share when we work together. Ending up on the podium or even winning the race, I wouldn’t have expected this, so we are very happy for the results as we had the pace and have been very close to this. Very thankful to all the teams that are involved and that worked so hard the last couple of days.”
Philip Ellis, Driver – No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: “I’m super proud of everyone. I just have to thank not only our team here at Winward Racing, but also to the guys at AMG for putting us out there and being relatively competitive. A week ago it was a big unknown of where we would be. Then we had our own mishaps anyway with the throttle early in the race, and then being seven laps down and then coming back. The emergency fuel at the end basically took us out of the race, and then we were spun out. It’s like everything that could have went wrong did go wrong at the end. So, in the end I think fourth is a good result if you look at all the circumstances, but it’s a bitter taste after leading so much again. We were looking like it was going to be our third Rolex this year, but it’s all about good points too, with qualifying especially, so nothing’s lost. This race itself, it stings a little, but we have a good start to the season. We’ll just continue from here.”
Indy Dontje, Driver – No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: “It was a short preparation with the new torque sensors, but I think Winward played a great part in this. They prepared it really well, especially with this new system, and together with Mercedes-AMG we found a solution to be really competitive in this race. I don’t think ever in my career that I’ve had this many setbacks, but also have never had those great comebacks, from seven laps down to going to the lead and then having a drive-through penalty. Then coming back again. From all the drivers to all the pit stops, a mega job by all. I just want to say thank you to Winward, to my teammates, to the partners of Winward and also to AMG for their hard work during these weeks. It was not an easy one, but in the end we made it work.”
Kenton Koch, Driver – No. 32 Korthoff Competition Motors Mercedes-AMG GT3: “Three years in a row, we’ve been in the top-five fighting for a win, but in the end just unfortunately we came up short on this one. It’s not for a lack of trying and effort from everyone. Unfortunately, there was an incident that occurred in which we have no idea what happened. They gave us a penalty, I didn’t see it on TV, but that took us out of the race. We kind of had some hope there at the end with our track position and that last yellow. It kind of brought us into the fight, but then with the penalty we got taken out of it again. It was mayhem out there. You saw the GTD Pro and GTD guys just getting after it. No one had any penalties regarding the new torque sensors. It’s a testimony to Mercedes-AMG to be able to get this entire program going so quickly.”
Luca Stolz, Driver – No. 69 Bartone Bros. Racing with Team GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3: “Definitely, I am really, really proud of the team. It’s a joint venture between the Bartone Bros. and GetSpeed, and we raced IMSA for the first time. We were always in the game, always around the top five and even in the lead sometimes. The guys made a really nice strategy call with one hour to go. They basically rolled the dice and it was the right decision. We were still in it at the end, it wasn’t quite enough, but I’m still proud to finish the fight. Fabi managed it all really well.”
Fabian Schiller, Driver – No. 69 Bartone Bros. Racing with Team GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3: “When we came here, we knew it would be a hard couple of weeks as it is our debut with the new torque sensors. Since the Roar and the practice days, we made some good steps forward with GetSpeed and Mercedes-AMG engineers. Going into the race, we knew we were on the backfoot. At night we had great pace and the usual great handling from the Mercedes-AMG GT3. We thought we might have a shot at it, but when the sun came out and warmed things up it was a little tougher for us. We didn’t have enough to fight for the podium, but fifth place is what we had today.”
Ralf Aron, Driver – No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: “I think it’s very, very bittersweet! I know everybody’s happy that we got to prove what we could do, but to be honest, the first time I sat in the car in December I came out smiling because I knew what we could do. Lone Star has done a great job, the car is mega. Also, a big thanks to AMG as well because, at the beginning of the week, there was all this talk about torque sensors. Definitely, we were the manufacturer that needed to catch up, and the guys basically pulled a miracle because we were super competitive in the race and had cars fighting for wins at the end. I’m just really happy to be here, I’m super happy I got the opportunity. I mean, we were flying on track. We were in the lead pack in the fight for the win, which is all I wanted. Sometimes things go like this and unfortunate events happen. I guess we just have to move on and hopefully I get invited back here.”
