Winward’s Points Lead “Takes a Lot of Pressure Off” GTD Title

Philip Ellis said that his and Russell Ward’s now-extended GTD class points lead heading into the final IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship round at Motul Petit Le Mans “takes a lot of pressure off” the Winward Racing duo, despite a less-than-ideal finish to Sunday’s Battle on the Bricks.

While a potential win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway fell by the wayside after a late drive-through penalty, Ellis and Ward still outscored Heart of Racing Team’s Casper Stevenson, who now trails the defending class champions by 224 points ahead of next month’s ten-hour season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Ellis felt his and Ward’s points margin alleviates some of the pressure of trying to wrap up the drivers’ title.

The team’s three class wins and four total podiums, combined with this Sunday’s points extension, means the Winward drivers head into the race with one hand on the GTD trophy.

“It takes a lot of pressure off of us and puts a lot of pressure on the other guys, so we should be good,” Ellis told Sportscar365. “I think theoretically we can win it after qualifying. Last year, we were in a similar situation where only one car had to retire, and we won that championship.”

When asked if the team’s points advantage would change their approach to racing at Petit Le Mans, Ellis said: “Not for us, personally.”

He added: “I think mostly for our competition, they run risky strategies if it’s on the drivers, on qualifying on tires, or whatnot, because then they have to close a huge gap.

“So that’s usually what catches them out, and that’s exactly what happened today. Everybody is trying to run off-strategy compared to us to jump us, and it didn’t work out for them.

“I think since Daytona or Sebring, we’ve been doing the same thing. Just clean execution every race.”

Ellis said while Winward left Indianapolis in a favorable championship position, the team was disappointed to have not clinched the GTD drivers’ title.

The No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo held the class lead in the hands of Ellis before a drive-through penalty for speeding in pit lane dropped the team down the order and began a comeback drive for the Mercedes-AMG factory driver as the race entered its final hour.

Ellis took the checkered flag in fifth to outscore Stevenson, who would settle for 11th after the pole-sitting No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo lost ground after being hit and spun by the No. 18 Era Motorsport Oreca 07 Gibson while the Aston Martin was running second in class, ahead of the No. 57 with three and a half hours remaining.

“I think everybody is still a little bit down that we could have bagged it now with a win,” said Ellis. “We could have had just a fun race [at Petit Le Mans] and enjoyed the last race with no pressure at all. But in the end, we’ll just do what we did the last couple of races to just have clean races and fight hard for positions and clinch our championship.

“To be honest, we don’t really know what happened [with the penalty]. We did five pit stops prior and everything was fine, and this one pit stop, we were apparently in the middle of pit lane and went over, so we don’t know how that happened.

“We will have to look into how it’s possible to have five clean and one unclean on pit speed. You literally push a button and you’re full throttle down pit lane, so there’s not much you can do.

“That was a little sad, of course, and super unfortunate because I think up to that point, we did control the race and it looked like another win for us, but nothing we can do about it now. Luckily, all the competitors also had a bad race and we still ended up extending the lead.

“We just had really good pit stops. The strategy was on point, and it kept us up front pretty much the entire race, fighting with the 34 and probably the 27 as well until that incident. And then [we] just tried to stay out of trouble as much as we can, and it worked out almost until the end.”