Fresh from celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of its 1966 1-2-3 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a 1-3-4 finish in GTE Pro category at the 2016 running of the French classic, Ford Motor Company has announced that the Ford GT program will run for a minimum of three more years.
Ford Motor Company, in conjunction with Chip Ganassi Racing, is currently running two cars each in the FIA World Endurance Championship and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
“We wanted to make sure everyone knows that we are committed to sports car racing globally with WEC and IMSA,” said Raj Nair, Ford executive vice president and chief technical officer. “The stated goal of our Ford GT program was to win Le Mans, and we’re very proud that we were able to do that in our first year. To commit to a full, four-year assault on both IMSA and WEC championships shows how serious we are about taking Ford GT racing around the world.”
“We’ re excited and feel the extension of the Ford GT race program sends an important message to the industry and to enthusiasts that we are committed to global racing at Ford,” said Dave Pericak, global director, Ford Performance.
“But we remain committed to doing racing the right way,” continued Pericak. “And the Ford GT program is a perfect example of how we are using our racing efforts to help improve the products that Ford consumers can drive every day. Developing the GT production car and the race car at the same time has been a challenging task for everyone, but it has also showed how the production vehicle side and racing side of Ford Performance can work together to benefit everyone.”
The sixth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the Sahlen’s 6 Hours of The Glen takes place on July 3. FIA World Endurance Championship action resumes on on July 24 with the 6 Hours of Nürburgring is on July 24
