From a 2007 single-seater start to IMSA and GT World Challenge titles, the HTP and Winward organisation became one of the leading Mercedes-AMG customer teams.
Winward Racing is a German-American GT3 team, also called HTP Motorsport, that grew out of HTP's takeover of Heico Motorsport. It has won IMSA GTD and GT World Challenge Europe titles with Mercedes-AMG cars, most recently in 2024.
Winward Racing, which also operates as HTP Motorsport, is a team with German and American roots. It mainly races in GT3 series such as GT World Challenge Europe. The organisation was set up once HTP Investment BV had acquired Heico Motorsport, and it has since built much of its success on Mercedes-AMG machinery.
Where did the team's roots lie?
The roots go back to 2007, when Wim de Pundert and his son Reynier acquired two Formula Gloria single-seaters. Wim had set up HTP Investment BV with Klaas Meertens, a private equity firm whose holdings later included the Knaus Tabbert caravan maker.
Reynier was eighth in the first season and claimed the amateur title in the second. The squad also had Christiaan Frankenhout in the 2008 Gloria Scouting Cup, where he took third.
When that short-lived single-seater series folded, the team moved to the Dutch Renault Clio Cup, racing there from 2009 to 2011. In 2009 it also ran an Aston Martin Vantage in Dutch GT4 for Junior Strous, who won once and took four podiums.
A family single-seater project that grew into one of the strongest Mercedes-AMG customer operations in two continents.
How did the Heico Motorsport programme begin?
Heico Sportiv, a German tuning house, had been racing cars since 1995 and relaunched its programme in 2007 with in-house Volvos. In late 2010 it acquired two Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3s and fielded three of them in the 2011 ADAC GT Masters.
Dominik Baumann and Harald Proczyk, both Austrians, were the best placed of the Heico drivers, collecting four podiums for fifth in the series. Baumann also contested the FIA GT3 European Championship that year with Brice Bosi, and the SLS AMG won its first GT3 race at Circuit Paul Ricard.
The squad took the team title in the FIA GT3 European Championship in 2012, with Baumann and Maximilian Buhk among its drivers, which cemented the Mercedes connection.
What did HTP Motorsport achieve from 2013 to 2015?
HTP Investment BV acquired the operation at the start of 2013, and team principal Norbert Bruckner remained in place. That year the squad won the 24 Hours of Spa and the 1000km at the Nurburgring, and Buhk took the 2013 Blancpain Endurance Series crown.
The 2014 Blancpain Endurance campaign produced a second place at the Nurburgring, but the ADAC GT Masters went better. Buhk and Gotz won at Oschersleben and EuroSpeedway Lausitz, and Gotz later took the 2014 Blancpain Sprint Series with the team.
| Series | Years | Result |
|---|---|---|
| FIA GT3 European Championship | 2011 and 2012 | Overall teams' champion in 2011 and 2012; drivers' champion in 2012 |
| Blancpain Endurance Series | 2013 | Buhk won the series title |
| ADAC Formula 4 | 2015 | Marvin Dienst won eight races and the title |
| ADAC GT Masters | 2018 | Teams' champion |
| GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup | 2014, 2015 and 2024 | Overall drivers' champion in each year |
| IMSA SportsCar Championship | 2024, 2025 and 2026 | GTD teams' and drivers' champion |
Why did the team switch to Bentley for 2015?
Bentley chose HTP Motorsport for one of its factory-supported GT3 programmes, and five new Continental GT3 cars arrived. The Endurance Series was a letdown, since the revised driver line-up produced little. The top result came from the trio of Vincent Abril, Mike Parisy and Harold Primat, who were ninth at the 2015 Spa 24 Hours.
Abril and Buhk combined in the Sprint Series, winning two qualifiers and two main races on their way to the drivers title. Jules Szymkowiak took the Silver Cup classification, and the ADAC GT Masters produced a single race win at Oschersleben with Luca Stolz and Jeroen Bleekemolen.
The team also ran three Tatuus F4-T014 cars in ADAC Formula 4, with Bruckner and former HWA Team CEO Gerhard Ungar at the helm. Marvin Dienst won eight races and the championship. At the close of 2015 Ralf Schumacher took the operation over and renamed it US Racing.
How did the team return to Mercedes-Benz in 2016?
The Bentley deal lasted one season, and Mercedes-Benz welcomed the team back for 2016. It ran four cars across the Blancpain GT Series and the Nurburgring 24 Hours, and Buhk and Baumann, with Jazeman Jaafar, won once at Silverstone in the Mercedes-AMG GT3.
New factory drivers Indy Dontje, Thomas Jager and Christian Hohenadel arrived, while former Mercedes drivers Buhk and Baumann came back. Wim de Pundert returned to the wheel in the gentleman-driver Blancpain GT Sports Club.
In 2017 the Endurance Cup brought three podiums for Buhk, Jimmy Eriksson and Franck Perera, who finished third in the drivers standings. The squad also tested the Mercedes-AMG GT4 at Spa that year, where Dontje, Bernd Schneider and Jorg Viebahn ran near the front until technical trouble struck.
How did the Winward partnership come about?
The HTP side first teamed up with the US outfit Winward Racing in 2017, starting with Mercedes-AMG GT4 cars in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge. In 2019 the two announced a joint operation, HTP Winward Motorsport, which started racing in 2020.
The partnership followed a banner 2018 for HTP Motorsport, which took the ADAC GT Masters teams championship with a MANN-FILTER Mercedes-AMG GT3 programme. Gotz, Pommer, Buhk and Dontje all contributed to the title.
In 2020 the joint operation maintained its German-series entries and went back into GT World Challenge Europe, the series formerly called the Blancpain GT Series.
What was the 2021 season like?
Auer and Ellis drove the team's pair of Mercedes-AMG GT3s in its first DTM campaign, which came in 2021 and marked a major step for the team's international expansion. Auer took two wins and fifth in the drivers standings, and Ellis took one win and seventh place.
The squad was third in the DTM teams standings that year. Across the Atlantic it made its IMSA debut at the 2021 Daytona 24 Hours, where the No. 57 GT3 crewed by Russell Ward, Ellis, Dontje and Maro Engel took the GTD class.
Once the season ended, the team dropped its two German series programmes to focus on DTM, IMSA and GT World Challenge Europe.
How strong were the IMSA and GT World Challenge results after 2022?
The No. 57 Mercedes was a regular GTD contender in 2022, after wins at Virginia International Raceway and at Road America, and it stayed in the championship hunt until the finale. By 2024 the team had taken the GTD drivers and teams titles, and Mercedes-AMG added the GTD manufacturers' crown.
The 2024 campaign was a standout. Ward and Ellis claimed the Daytona 24 and the Sebring 12-hour race, and a GTD win at the Watkins Glen 6 Hours completed the Michelin Endurance Cup titles.
The MANN-FILTER programme also gave Engel and Auer the overall title in GT World Challenge Europe, a result built from Sprint and Endurance points. In the Endurance Cup, the silver class car crewed by Colin Caresani, Daan Arrow and Tanart Sathienthirakul took the silver drivers and teams titles before the last round.
What did the 2025 season add?
Ward and Ellis, with Dontje for the endurance races, retained the IMSA GTD drivers and teams titles. In the DTM, Engel and Jules Gounon raced for the team; Engel was third in the standings with 184 points and Gounon ninth. The squad placed third in the teams table behind Manthey EMA and Schubert Motorsport.
