The Winward Racing team celebrates their Rolex 24 victory at Daytona (Photo: Jared BokanoskI)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – When you look at IMSA’s GTD class over the last few seasons, Winward Racing sits as the standard bearer. The Texas based organization has won just about everything there is to win in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship, back-to-back defending class champions and thirteen wins in class since 2022, the 2026 Rolex 24 at Daytona becomes just another jewel in their crown.
Russell Ward, Indy Dontje, Philip Ellis and Lucas Auer would be the winning quartet behind the wheel of the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3, for the team, it is their third time parking in Mobil 1 victory lane after winning in class in both 2021 and 2024. For Ward, Ellis and Dontje this is the trio’s third win as a group as well… with their third different co-driver joining them in victory lane. Being joined by Maro Engel for the 2021 victory, Daniel Morad in 2024 and now Lucas Auer for 2026’s victory.
The Mercedes fleet as a whole had shown incredibly strong pace at Daytona throughout the Roar Before the Rolex 24, with all five looking prepped to take a swing at winning their class.
It wasn’t an easy victory however, as in the race’s closing stages, Philip Ellis would find himself fending off a hard charging Nicki Thiim in the No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin in what proved to be yet another classic battle in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
The pair would go through an absolute heavyweight boxing match around the iconic Daytona International Speedway which reached a boiling point as the pair would make contact down the front straight of the circuit, causing Ellis to have to make an unbelievable save in order to keep the fight on. An incident that drew a lot of opinions from the motor racing world, with some praising it as a product of “hard racing” whilst others view it as something that should have been reprimanded by race control.
The duo would be joined on the podium by the pole-sitting No. 27 Aston Martin of The Heart of Racing.
GTD would see six cars finish on the lead lap as 2025 Rolex 24 class champions 13 Autosport would bring their Corvette home in the fourth position, followed by AF Corse’s Ferrari 296 and Lone Star Racing’s Mercedes in the fifth and sixth positions.
Triarsi Competizione’s No. 023 would cross the stripe in the seventh position followed by Wayne Taylor Racing’s No. 45 Lamborghini in the eighth spot.
Vasser Sullivan Racing’s final Rolex 24 in the Lexus RC F would see them come home in the ninth position following some time at the front in the closing stages of the race, with another team that spent a share of the race up front in the No. 96 Turner Motorsports BMW closing down the top ten. The four remaining teams that would finish between one and two laps down would be No. 19 Van der steur Racing Aston Martin, the No. 912 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche and the Ferrari duo of Inception Racing’s No. 70 and the Conquest Racing No. 34.
Muehlner Motorsports America would bring their No. 123 Porsche home 15 laps down in 15th, followed by the Dragonspeed No. 81 who suffered damage following a collision with the Pratt Miller Motorsports LMP2 in the night time stint of the race.
Five teams in GTD wouldn’t see the checkered flag come Sunday afternoon.
The No. 36 DXDT Corvette would fall out of the race late in the running due to a gearbox issue, Gradient Racing’s Ford Mustang would succumb to radiator troubles with it’s Ford teammate Myers Riley falling to crash damage.
The Porsche duo of Wright Motorsports and RS1 would both see them taken out of the race before the sun had set over Daytona, with the No. 120 tangling with the No. 83 AF Corse USA LMP2 into the western horseshoe, an incident that led to Adam Adelson being taken to and released from the hospital.
As for the No. 28 RS1 Porsche, it was less than an hour into the running when a collision with the pit wall in turn one that made them the first DNF of the race.
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