Ellis Expects “Super Tight” Four-Way GTD Championship Battle

Photo: MBUSA

Philip Ellis said he’s expecting a “super tight” championship battle involving four teams as Winward Racing seeks its third consecutive IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD title.

The Mercedes-AMG factory star and co-driver Russell Ward have closed to within 24 points of leader Eduardo Barrichello after Heart of Racing Team co-driver Tom Gamble was assessed a drive-through penalty for to an unsafe re-entry in Turn 5 in the closing moments of the recent six-hour enduro at Road America.

That penalty dropped the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo to a 15th place class result, with Winward’s Ellis and Russell Ward making a 180-plus points haul after claiming their second consecutive class win.

“We had two really good and clean races in Canada and Road America, and basically zeroed in the distance to the Aston,” Ellis told Sportscar365.

“But there’s four cars of us now. It’s super tight, which is fun, and is better than the last couple of years. I think we’re all looking forward to having a good fight.”

The top four GTD runners, including third-placed Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher of Turner Motorsport and the Vasser Sullivan duo of Aaron Telitz and Benjamin Pedersen, are separated by just 45 points entering Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway.

Ellis, who has never finished off the podium at VIR in WeatherTech Championship competition, believes that staying clean in the final three races will be pivotal in which team comes out on top.

“It’s starting to get to that point, especially now, where it’s the last three races of the season and everybody has a chance of winning the championship now and everybody’s taking a bit more risk than they should,” he said.

“That can be to our benefit. We profited off those people taking a lot of risks at Road America.

“I just hope that it stays clean. I myself love hard and fair racing but it should always stay on the fair side of things.”

When asked if the championship battle changes their approach, Ellis said they have to continue to run their own race.

“Every weekend is the same for us,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s Daytona, Sebring, any of the sprint races, it doesn’t matter.

“You only know what you have once you step into the race, be it pace, be it strategy, whatever, if we hit the setup right or not, and then we just have to maximize the points that we can get that weekend.

“So far, I think the season has been good on the team side, just more unlucky than previous years.

“I think that’s the big difference.”

Should Winward claim a third straight GTD crown, it would come in a season that saw two challenging races, with accidents, not of their own doing, at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, that initially dashed their title defense hopes.

“Obviously after [winning] Daytona, that was a perfect start to the season and everybody was on a high coming from the double championship previously,” said Ellis.

“To then have two wrecks that was none of our faults, both times, it was tough of course.

“But nobody in the team ever gave up or had their heads down. We know what we have. At that point we know that we still put a lot pressure on other teams.

“And exactly that’s what happened in both races.

“There’s three more races, two endurance rounds. I think we’ll be right there in the end.”

Gamble: Heart of Racing Can Now Take More Risks With Points Lead Erased

With their considerable points lead now nearly erased, Gamble, who missed two races due to his FIA World Endurance Championship commitments, believes they’re in a better position now to be able to take some strategy risks in order to come out on top.

“In some ways it’s better because we can had that much of a points lead before that we really wouldn’t take any sort of risks on strategy because you don’t want to risk any of the race,” he told Sportscar365.

“Some people would short fill and jump ahead of you and that would pay off for them.

“I think now we can afford to maybe be a little more riskier on some of the strategy because there’s not really any points in it at all.

“So it could be a bit beneficial. But this championship can slip away pretty fast if something bad happens.

“We had a 100-point lead and now we’ve gone to not much at all. You have to be on your ‘A’ game every time but you still have not make any silly mistakes and get penalties.

“The championship has really clamped down on it now on any sort of contact, running cars off the track and stuff like that.

“We had a bit of a tough Road America and a bit of an unfair penalty put us right at the end of the race, when the safety car was out, right to the back of the pack, which was a bit frustrating.

“It’s closed up the championship a lot now. It’s definitely going to be a lot closer now.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John