Ellis, Thiim Recall “Insane” Battle for GTD Victory

Phillip Ellis and Nicki Thiim have recalled their pulse-raising battle for GTD class honors in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, as Winward Racing and Mercedes-AMG scored victory in what Ellis admitted was on an “on the edge” duel with Thiim’s Magnus Racing Aston Martin.

The battle for victory in GTD boiled down to a straight fight between the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo that Ellis drove in the closing stages and the No. 44 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Thiim, which raged for much of the final half-hour.

It began in earnest when Ellis passed Thiim at the Turn 6 left-hander leading on to the oval with 20 minutes on the clock after light contact between the cars.

But the biggest flashpoint occurred around 10 minutes later as Ellis tried to defend from Thiim approaching Turn 1 and almost lost control of the No. 57 car on the tri-oval after another bout of contact with the Magnus Aston, for which he received a warning.

After securing the win for himself and co-drivers Russell Ward, Indy Dontje and Lucas Auer, Ellis admitted that he had made a mis judgement but said he felt the battle between he and Thiim was otherwise clean and fair.

“Obviously I’m super stoked that we came out on top,” said Ellis. “It changed as well as the race went on. Other cars had the upper hand when it was a bit colder, and then it looked like we got the upper hand when it got a bit warmer towards the end.

“It was a super-hard fight with Nicki and to be fair, I think I just misjudged it a little bit. When he had a run, I wanted to stop his run, get the side draft off of him. And to be fair, I didn’t even know that he was so close up the wall.

“So [the blame] was a bit on my part, but I’m happy that we both continued and nothing bigger happened and then that we continued on a good fight and a good show.”

Explaining the moment with Thiim in more detail, Ellis added: “Initially I thought that we both moved towards each other but I just saw it just here from the outside for the first time and I think I just misjudged it just slightly and we were in contact.

“At that speed it has a lot of consequences, so we both got a little sideways. I’m just glad that we both continued the race and it didn’t actually have any impact the battle that we had for the last half an hour.

“It was really good, fair, hard racing, and I think that’s what people come here to watch.”

For his part, Thiim said he felt the contact on the tri-oval with Ellis was over the limit, but otherwise felt there was little else he could have done to beat the Swiss driver to victory as he, John Potter, Spencer Pumpelly and Madison Snow finished second.

“I don’t think I ever gave so much in my whole career,” Thiim told Sportscar365. “Those last two-and-a-half hours were absolutely insane, just giving everything, first fighting with [the Heart of Racing] Aston and then in the end with the Mercedes.

“It was good fun up until then, with the one move up there [on the tri-oval]. Normally I’m so calm, but that’s the first time in my career I’ve been yelling in my helmet. I was just too much, just hitting me on the rear at those speeds, that’s just too much.

“That’s how it is, I guess — the American way, rock and roll! But obviously frustrated to finish P2 again at Daytona, second time now. We were so close.

“It’s easy to say that we deserve it, but they really did. Magnus is such a small family team, we were so close and I really thought we had it, after we twice passed the sister Heart of Racing car. But they had so much pace in the closing stages.”

Winward’s victory marked its third in the GTD class of the Rolex 24 in the last five years following its wins in the 2021 and 2024 editions of the Florida endurance classic, with Ward, Ellis and Dontje having been part of the team’s winning lineup on each occasion.

Ward stated that maintaining the same core group of drivers, complemented by one factory Mercedes-AMG pilot, has been key to the team’s success.

“Having a core group of drivers like this I think is really important because none of us are here to try to outdo one another,” he said.

“We’re here to just race as hard as we can and win. There’s really no animosity between us. When one of us does a good lap we look at it and see if we can recreate it.

“I met Indy in 2017 and I met Philip in 2018, and really we’ve just hit it off from the beginning and we seem to have a great group. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season and racing more with these guys.”