Ellis Was “Super Lucky” With Fight Behind in GTD Scrap

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

Philip Ellis said he was “super lucky” to have had a multi-car battle behind him for the final positions on the GTD podium that helped propel him to class victory in Sunday’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway.

Ellis and Winward Racing team owner/co-driver Russell Ward claimed their third class victory of the season, which saw the duo extend their points lead with two races to go in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.

The Mercedes-AMG factory driver emerged in the class lead after an undercut strategy that saw the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo jump the then class-leading No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Mario Farnbacher in the pit stop sequence.

Farnbacher then became embroiled in a battle with the No. 021 Triasri Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 of Kenton Koch for second, which ultimately was decided when race control gave Farnbacher a post-race penalty equivalent to a drive-through due to blocking on the final lap.

“To be honest we were just trying to get a small gap to the front, to have my own run with the field behind me,” Ellis told IMSA Radio.

“I was not trying to get collected in the fights up front in the GTD Pro field. But to be honest, I was just lucky at the guys behind me that were fighting so hard.

“It worked out on strategy but because we pitted early, we collected so much [tire] pickup during the full-course yellow with all the streamers on track.

“It actually hurt us more than we benefitted from it in the long run, especially in Sector 1, where we really struggled. Thankfully we were good off the corner, especially out of Oak Tree. That kind of saved the day.”

Ellis was running at the tail end of the GTD Pro pack, which had been reshuffled ahead of him on the race’s third and final full-course caution.

“It wasn’t backing up but was [more] managing the front,” he said. “You don’t want to be too close where it affects your driving.

“But then you have to be kind of close to know that if you get a chance with two cars in between you and the next car in class, that’s basically what I was trying for. But I could never get close enough in the end as everybody pulled away as well.

“I was lucky that everybody behind me was fighting with elbows and knives out. Just happy to take the win.”

Ellis and Ward extended their lead in the GTD standings to 171 points over The Heart of Racing Team driver Casper Stevenson, who finished third in class on Sunday.

Winward’s chief title rival, the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth and Parker Thompson, have now dropped to fourth in the standings, 239 points behind, after Hawksworth was served with an early race drive-through penalty for avoidable contact with the GTD Pro class No. 65 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 of Frederic Vervisch.

Ward and Ellis will be joined by Indy Dontje for the final two races of the season, which are also Michelin Endurance Cup rounds.

“We really needed that,” Ward said of their win. “Now we’ve given ourselves a bit of a buffer. But anything can happen in these next two races. There’s going to be a lot of competitors and if you have a DNF, you’re going to lose a lot.

“For us, we just need to keep pushing. We’re really strong on the endurance races. We’ve got a really strong lineup and we’re going to use that to our advantage to make sure we can bring home a [second] consecutive championship.”

Tony DiZinno contributed to this report

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