Ellis Relishing “Fun Little Challenge” of Double Duty at Indy

Philip Ellis is embracing “a fun little challenge” doubling up on his commitments at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, adding a race in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge alongside his regular duties in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

In addition to defending his GTD championship lead with Winward Racing in the six-hour Battle on the Bricks, the Swiss racer will also step into Winward’s No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT4 for Saturday’s Indianapolis Motor Speedway 120.

Ellis is replacing Daniel Morad in order to partner up with Bryce Ward, with Morad focusing on the clashing Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup round at Monza on the same weekend.

The Mercedes-AMG factory driver returns to the cockpit of a GT4 car for the first time since 2020, when he drove alongside the elder Ward for four rounds of that year’s Pilot Challenge campaign.

“It’s been quite a while, but to be honest, it’s not too different to drive, especially mechanically,” Ellis said.

“So I’m actually looking forward to it. It should be a fun little challenge and it gives you more drive time, of course, in the weekend.

“I don’t think it’s a risk to take to be in that class as well in the same weekend. If anything, it’s an opportunity to gain some more track experience.

“Maybe the track conditions are a bit difficult, so then you actually have some kind of an advantage to see what the track is like before you go out in the GT3 car.

“And it’s not a sprint race, so you have a little bit more time to get used to what the car would be like if you took back and forth.

“So I’m just looking forward to the challenge. I’m looking forward to be back in the car with Bryce since last time and just do our job in both races.”

When presented with the fact that Winward took a double victory in both the WeatherTech Championship and Pilot Challenge at Indianapolis last year, Ellis jokingly replied: “We’ll just do the same again.”

Notably, title rival and Turner Motorsport driver Robby Foley will similarly be pulling double duty this weekend as he has for the entire season, competing in the WeatherTech Championship and Pilot Challenge simultaneously.

With a 284-point lead over Turner in hand heading into the weekend, the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo will have the opportunity to clinch the title with a race to spare.

The Texan squad has held the championship lead ever since its class win in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, which kicked off a run of four victory from the opening five races of the year

“I would say we’ve taken a safer approach since Sebring, to be honest,” Ellis said.

“We’ve won both races [at Daytona and Sebring] early on, so we started off with a big lead compared to everybody else.

“Especially because in the two rounds [in Florida] the cars that only take part in the Endurance Cup were in between the cars for the full season, so that margin was actually even bigger than it would have been.

“So from there on we actually took quite a safe approach but it doesn’t mean we didn’t take any risk at all in the races, passing on the restarts or passing for the lead at Sebring for example where we can make it.

“In the end, it’s risk management. You don’t want to risk having to save too much fuel and lose track position just to maybe squeeze that extra win in”

“The focus is on the championship and do a good clean job. Usually that’ll bring us a good top five position.

“In the end it’s Turner’s point that they have to make a move on us. It’s not our turn to to take any risk.

“So we’re pretty relaxed. We know we have a good team, good car behind us for the next two races and it’ll be very tough to beat us.”