Winward Racing’s roots reach deep into German DTM history: the former IPS Motorsport gave rise to the team of Jochen Mass and Günter Schons, which was later taken over by Swede Ingmar Persson. Persson Motorsport ran Mercedes cars in the DTM from 1993 to 2012, before the Heico Group handed the team to the newly founded HTP Motorsport GmbH in 2013.
Meanwhile, a very different chapter was unfolding in Houston, Texas: South African-born businessman Bryce Ward, whose core business is the catalytic converter recycling company Techemet, began racing purely for fun together with his son Russell, starting with track days and Porsche Cup outings. Four years later, father and son founded their own racing team, Winward Racing, which entered into a partnership with Germany’s HTP in 2019.
In 2020, the two teams merged to form HTP Winward Motorsport GmbH, and since 2021 the outfit has competed under the unified name Winward Racing, holding a US licence while based in Altendiez near Limburg, Germany. Right in its debut DTM season, the team made history: Philip Ellis claimed the first-ever DTM race win for an American team at the Lausitzring, alongside team-mate Lucas Auer, who already had 93 DTM starts and five wins to his name.
Beyond the DTM, Winward Racing has become an established name in international GT3 racing. In North America’s IMSA series, the team’s GTD programme won both the drivers’ and teams’ championships in 2024 and 2025, including overall class wins at the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the Twelve Hours of Sebring. The team is also successful under the MANN-FILTER banner in the GT World Challenge Europe.
For the 2026 DTM season, Winward Racing once again fields an experienced driver pairing: Maro Engel, third in last year’s drivers’ standings, and Jules Gounon, one of the most renowned drivers in international GT racing. A DTM title still eludes the team, but with its combination of a Texan team owner, German motorsport tradition and a globally successful GT3 programme, Winward Racing remains one of the most consistent forces on the grid.