Three straight victories have thrust Russell Ward and Philip Ellis right back to where they usually live: at the top of the points. The duo piloting the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 arrive at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks riding a serious hot streak, having swept the Grand Touring Daytona class in the last three WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races. It has been three years since anyone strung together four straight wins in IMSA competition, a feat last managed by the Riley team in the Le Mans Prototype 3 category.
That recent momentum is impressive, but it is just the latest chapter in a wild multi-year run that has seen the team claim the last two GTD championships. Ironically, this enduring success story sparked into life at Indianapolis during a bruising 2023 campaign where Ward finished a distant tenth in the standings, yet managed to secure his only race win of the year at the Brickyard. That weekend set the tone for a dominant 2024 where Ellis, Ward, and Michelin Endurance Cup partner Indy Dontje steamrolled the opposition by taking four of the first five races, including the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
I think it’s just a combination of some clean racing and a swing in luck,
Yet the 2026 season has tested their mettle. After the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International in June, the No. 57 crew found themselves sitting sixth in the standings and staring down a daunting 300-point deficit behind leader Eduardo “Dudu” Barrichello in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo. But if history teaches us anything, it is that counting out this Mercedes-AMG squad is a fool's errand.
Wins at the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, the Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix at Road America, and the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR have erased that gap entirely. They now sit atop the standings by 36 points over Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher in the No. 96 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3 EVO with just two races remaining. Barrichello sits third, 56 points back.
Indianapolis shifts back to a two-hour, 40-minute sprint format this year after running as a six-hour Michelin Endurance Cup round for the previous two seasons. Ellis and Ward previously won the Indianapolis sprint in 2023, followed by fifth-place finishes in the longer endurance contests. Meanwhile, Gallagher and Foley have relied on relentless consistency, finishing all eight races this year with three podiums and only once dropping lower than seventh in class. Foley noted the Turner team's approach heading to the track: "On those days where you’re not quite quick enough to win, then P2 feels damn good. Going into Indy, we just have to have the same mentality, and maximize everything because, as we all know, anything could happen at Petit Le Mans."
Reflecting on the turnaround after their latest win at VIR, Russell Ward pointed to the tightness of the championship battle. "I think it’s just a combination of some clean racing and a swing in luck," Ward said after the race. "There’s still two races to go and everyone is really tight in the points. Everybody is within two or three (race finishing) positions, to be honest. There’s still a lot of fight left, and I don’t want to comment too much on it because you never know what can happen in the next two races."
All four IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar classes return for the action at the Brickyard, with the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks broadcasting live on NBC from 3-6 p.m. ET on Sunday, September 20. Fans can also catch the action streaming on IMSA.TV and the official IMSA YouTube channel.
