Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing Team Winward Racing Brings Biggest Championship Lead of the Season to Next Month’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Finale After a Top-Five Finish at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing team Winward Racing will bring a season-high GT Daytona (GTD) class championship points lead to next month's IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship finale following a fifth-place class finish in Sunday's six- hour Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS). Racing through a steady but at times typically stressful IMSA endurance contest, the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, and co-drivers Russell Ward, Philip Ellis and Indy Dontje, finished several positions ahead of their nearest championship rivals at IMS to move closer to the team's second-straight GTD team and driver titles, just one of many season-long IMSA championship battles that will be decided in the Motul Petit Le Mans 10-hour finale, Saturday, October 11, at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Starting fourth on the grid after Ward turned in another competitive performance in Saturday's qualifying session, the No. 57 battled in the top five throughout the race. Ward, Ellis and Dontje combined to lead the GTD race three different times for 13 total laps at the front of the field with closing driver Ellis taking the checkered flag in the lead train of cars just 7.364 seconds behind the winner in fifth.

Full-season co-drivers Ward and Ellis, and the No. 57 Winward team, arrived in Indianapolis 171 points ahead of the nearest challengers but leave with the season-high lead of 224 points, 2,817 – 2,593 over the closest competitors.

Meanwhile, Mercedes-AMG continues to lead the GTD manufacturer championship with 3,053 points, 114 markers clear of the closest competitor. Like the Winward team and drivers, Mercedes-AMG seeks a repeat title this year as the reigning IMSA GTD Manufacturer Champions.

Winward took top honors at Indy as the highest finisher of the three Mercedes-AMG GT3 entries in the race, but the No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 team took the spotlight in the race's 90 minutes.

Despite missing Friday's opening day of practice while the Lone Star team persevered through a costly sensor issue, the No. 80 team and drivers Scott Andrews, Wyatt Brichacek and the debuting Lin Hodenius recovered nicely with a full day on track on Saturday.

Hodenius, who was making across-the-board debuts at Indianapolis, in IMSA competition and with the Lone Star team, was selected to qualify the No. 80 Saturday afternoon. Hodenius had never even turned a lap on the 2.439-mile IMS road course before Saturday morning practice, but he put his recent experience as an FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) driver for the Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3LM team to good use.

Qualifying third in the GTD field, Hodenius shared row two on the grid with Ward in the No. 57 and opened up even more eyes in the IMSA paddock when he stormed to the GTD lead in the run into Turn 1 at the race start.

Hodenius went on to lead all 44 laps of his 90-minute race-opening stint before pitting from the top of the GTD field to hand the No. 80 off to Brichacek. Making his second race start with Lone Star, Brichacek mirrored his teammate's race opening pace only to have the No. 80 lose its left rear wheel at full speed on one of the oval track portions of the IMS road course.

Brichacek skillfully kept the stricken car off the walls but was forced to stop on course with only three wheels on the No. 80. The team lost valuable time, complicated by an accidental discharge of the car's fire extinguisher by a safety worker, as the No. 80 was transported back to the pits and paddock.

The team returned to the race after the lengthy delay but, having fallen well down in the GTD field, retired after a final 30 minutes of track time to reach the race's halfway mark. Veteran Lone Star Racing driver Andrews regretfully never had the opportunity to drive Sunday.
The 75 Express team returned to the series in the GTD Pro category at Indy for its first IMSA race since the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona in January.  Team owner and driver Kenny Habul reunited with long-time professional co-driver Mikael Grenier after the duo last raced together in the Daytona opener. They were joined by Habul's 22-year-old Australian countryman Broc Feeney, the current points leader in the popular Repco Supercars championship back home.

The team showed solid pace to open the weekend, but an early hit by a prototype competitor in Friday practice resulted in some lengthy repairs on the team's No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3. Grenier started the race, later handing off to Feeney, but the No. 75 was also retired at half distance with gearbox technical issues.

Next up for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, October 9 – 11.

Philip Ellis, Driver – No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: "We were a little lucky with the first yellow flag. That put us in a really good position for the next couple of pit stops, and it caught out some of our competition and put some cars a lap down, and they never had an opportunity to get it back. So that really set us up to be a little bit easier and take less risks for the next pit stops. And then honestly, it just continued that way. We were always okay with traffic. Luckily, we didn't get hit like some of our competitors. On the other hand, we just had really good pit stops. The strategy was on point, and it kept us up front pretty much the entire race. We'll just do what we did the last couple of races in Atlanta, to just have clean races and fight hard for positions and clinch our championship. We built our points lead again, and that takes some pressure off of us and puts a lot of pressure on the other guys, so we should be good."

Indy Dontje, Driver – No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: "It was a good race, and luck was a bit on our side with the competition having some troubles in this race. The cards are a little bit more in our hands now for Road Atlanta, which is good for us. I still have a bucket list thing for me of winning at Indy! So that will stay on my list for the future, but the next one is winning it all at Petit Le Mans. So, all eyes on that, and I am ready for it."

Lin Hodenius, Driver – No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: "I hope our performance rang some bells. It went awesome considering we lost the first practice, but then we recovered fully for second practice, and we did well in qualifying and at the start of the race. I love doing race starts, and it was awesome to drive and battle with the guys in IMSA. You are all kind of tied together in one big, nice mess sort of! It's just awesome to drive in and next time we will get a result as good as our performance."

Wyatt Brichacek, Driver – No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: "With Lin joining us, it was a great fit. We all get along super well, at the track and off the track. Everybody stepped up this weekend. We missed the first practice, but even with everyone getting 15 or 20 minutes of practice total this weekend, we all were right away on good pace. The team unloaded with a good car, a good flow for the whole team, and the race was looking good. Lin had an awesome start, and we had the pace to win, but it was just one of those things. We will bounce back and look forward to Petit, and hopefully we can continue this momentum there."

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