Team

A racing team with roots in the 1980s, a workshop in Altendiez and a sister team in Texas. A Mercedes-AMG Performance Team in the DTM since 2021.

1. 011980s – 2011
   

   The roots

   The roots of WINWARD Racing go back to the 1980s. The story of the German-Texan racing team began with the merger of IPS Racing and Mass-Schons Racing, from which the squad of former IPS engineer Ingmar Persson emerged in 1992. Persson Motorsport already raced as a semi-works Mercedes team in the “old DTM” and later in the FIA GT1 World Championship.

2. 022011 – 2013
   

   A fresh start in Altendiez

   After the Swede retired from racing in 2011, German racing manager Norbert Brückner took over the outfit, which was then based in Saarbrücken. Via the “intermediate stage” of HEICO Motorsport, he joined forces in 2013 with Dutch businessman Wim de Pundert and his team HTP Motorsport. Operating from its new base in Altendiez near Limburg, the team has collected numerous honours in close cooperation with Mercedes-AMG ever since. In its very first year, 2013, HTP Motorsport celebrated impressive successes with the overall win at the 24 Hours of Spa with Bernd Schneider, Maximilian Götz and Maximilian Buhk, and the Blancpain GT Series title for Buhk.

3. 032014 – 2018
   

   A top GT team

   In the following years the crew earned an excellent reputation as a top GT team, shown among other things by the 2017 runner-up spot in the Blancpain GT Series for Maxi Buhk and Franck Perera. In 2018 the MANN-FILTER Team HTP missed the drivers’ title in the ADAC GT Masters with Maximilian Götz and Markus Pommer because of a collision that was not their fault in the very last race of the season, but was rewarded with the teams’ championship.

4. 042019
   

   German-Texan merger

   A partnership with the American racing team WINWARD Racing, run by father and son Bryce and Russell Ward from Houston, grew into a merger at the end of 2019. Since then the German-Texan dream team has been operating on both sides of the Atlantic.

5. 052021 – today
   

   Mercedes-AMG Team in the DTM

   In Europe, former racing driver Christian Hohenadel leads WWR, which entered the DTM in 2021 as an official Mercedes-AMG “Performance Team” and caused a stir with three race wins and third place in the teams’ standings. Since 2022 WINWARD Racing has also raced in the GT World Challenge Europe and in the American IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. In 2024 the team won the overall GT World Challenge Europe title and its first IMSA GTD title. 2026 brought the overall win at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, a second GT World Challenge title for Lucas Auer and Maro Engel, a third IMSA GTD title in a row for Russell Ward and Philip Ellis, and DTM runner-up for Maro Engel.