Winward Racing's No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 won the Motul Petit Le Mans by 0.733 seconds, completing a third straight set of GTD class championships.
The IMSA GTD driver, team and manufacturer titles went to Winward Racing and Mercedes-AMG for a third year running. The No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 won the Motul Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta by 0.733 seconds, the team's series-leading fifth win of the season.
Winward Racing and Mercedes-AMG have won the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Daytona (GTD) driver, team and manufacturer titles for a third straight year. The No. 57 car, run by Winward and driven by Russell Ward, Philip Ellis and Indy Dontje, won the 10-hour season finale at Road Atlanta by 0.733 seconds. The team had already secured the GTD championship early in the race, but it kept pushing for the win.
How the finale played out
Winward began the race six points ahead in the GTD standings. Its closest challengers both ran into mechanical problems that ended their races. The one remaining rival lost more than 10 laps to the leaders after lengthy pit visits that followed contact in the third hour.
Ellis started the car from the pole he took on Friday. With seven hours to go, the three drivers settled into a competitive but careful run to the flag. Ellis came back into the car for the final stint, and after a late caution in the last hour he went from fourth to third at the restart. He then passed the two cars ahead of him with 35 minutes remaining.
A season of two halves
The season opened with a Rolex 24 At Daytona win in January, the team's third in that event. Four races of bad luck followed, and Winward and Mercedes-AMG fell well out of first place in the championships. At mid-season the team was 300 points down. Winward then won three straight races, at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, then at Road America, then at VIR, and a second place at Indianapolis kept the momentum going. The VIR win moved the team back to the top of the standings.
Records and the manufacturer battle
Winward's five victories made up half of the season's races, while every other GTD team and manufacturer won at most once. The team is the first in the category's 13-year history to take three consecutive championships while keeping the same core line-up. Mercedes-AMG's third consecutive manufacturer title is a series high, with no manufacturer having collected more consecutive manufacturer titles in IMSA GTD. Winward's results counted toward Mercedes-AMG's total in eight of the 10 rounds.
| Championship | Winner | Winning margin |
|---|---|---|
| GTD drivers and teams | Winward Racing, No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 235 points clear of the runner-up finishers |
| GTD manufacturers | Mercedes-AMG | 173 points |
| IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup GTD | Winward Racing | One point |
Lone Star and the year ahead
Lone Star Racing's No. 80 Mercedes-AMG GT3, shared by Lin Hodenius, Luca Stolz and James Roe Jr., stayed in the lead pack for most of the race and finished fourth. Lone Star also stepped in for Mercedes-AMG when Winward was knocked out of the 12-hour Sebring race and the six-hour Watkins Glen round through no fault of its own. Its fourth place at Sebring was the best result of its season, and it matched that finish at Petit Le Mans.
Simon Wilbers, head of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport, said no manufacturer had won three consecutive IMSA GTD titles before, and that the result underlines the brand's commitment to what he called an extremely important market. Stefan Wendl, head of Customer Racing at Mercedes-AMG Motorsport, praised the team's strategy and congratulated Lone Star on its fourth place. Ward credited the Mercedes-AMG GT3 with a season free of technical problems.
The next event on the calendar is the Roar Before the Rolex 24 test at Daytona International Speedway, from 22 to 24 January 2027.
