“No denying the first couple laps, when we’re all together—just seeing all of our cars warming up on the Mulsanne—it was an emotional moment for me personally.”
Fresh out of the drivers’ ‘seat of his Ford Mustang Dark Horse R racer, Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley addressed the media, pointing to that moment on Le Mans’ long backstretch that it all set in.
The Ford Mustang Challenge series made its European debut last weekend, ahead of this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, with an invitational event that welcomed an epic roster of pro and celebrity drivers. “I was just kind of proud that the company would do something like this, in the day in age where we’re all accountable to finance and accounting people,” said Farley.
The single-model series already has more than a year under its belt. Sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) and organized by Ford Performance Racing School (FPRS) Motorsports, Mustang Challenge allows drivers up to FIA silver ratings to compete on a level playing field against other Mustang Dark Horse R cars. Our own Larry Webster raced the car last season, sharing the seat with Global Director of Ford Performance, Mark Rushbrook, and Farley. It’s a much-updated version of the similar Mustang Challenge series that ran its last race 15 years ago, which IMSA also sanctioned.
Nearly 40 Mustangs took the green flag last Friday for the first of two 45-minute races on Circuit de la Sarthe. Typically, the field is split into two classes: Dark Horse and Dark Horse Legends. Legends is an optional classification eligible to bronze-level drivers 45 years old and over. For the Le Mans Invitational, a third celebrity class, called Dark Horse Stars, joined the fray. Regardless of class, the close-quarter competition throughout the entire field was intense. The “bronze” category is based on ratings by the FIA, which categorizes 6908 racers worldwide based on their experience and age. Bronze means an entry-level driver, a hobby racer and not a professional. The ratings escalate through silver and gold up to platinum, which signifies the cream-of-the-crop pro driver.
The series is part of Farley and Ford’s overarching goal to establish a customer racing program with Mustang. “We need to make our racing a business, and the only way to do that is go into customer racing, like Mazda with MX-5 Cup and Porsche with Porsche Cup,” Farley told Hagerty in a media sit-down, “and to do that we need to start this Mustang Challenge but nurture it very carefully, globally.
“And be the kind of anti-Porsche,” he added.
Hagerty asked him to expound on the term “anti-Porsche” and his response was this:
“We’re an American company. We were pulling up with our 40 cars and some of the Porsche Cup drivers were over there taking pictures and video. I saw a lot of [their] mechanics like, ‘Do a burnout! Do a burnout!’
“It’s hard to do a burnout in a 911, and if you do, will you even notice? Porsche is the king, so why shouldn’t an American company challenge the established player? That’s what we do when we’re at our best. That’s why we came here to Le Mans in 1963 and won in 1966, because no one expected us to.
“And we don’t make fancy cars. We make a manual-transmission V-8 that all of us could buy, even if you work at one of our plants. And that’s the same car we’re racing here. That’s why we’re the anti-Porsche.”
Noted.
The on-track product is unlike anything seen before. The closest comparison is NASCAR, or maybe a full field of Trans Am racers. Competition is tough among the thundering herd of Dark Horses. It’s also incredibly fun, according to racer Steve Denton. The insurance CEO from Atlanta hadn’t made a lap in a Dark Horse R, let alone at Le Mans, before arriving in France. Still, with a bit of simulator work and the multiple test sessions during the week, Denton felt comfortable by race time.
“Both came to me pretty quick. The car is amazing and it hooks up really well,” said Denton. “We got the setup right and it felt great.”
Denton, a Dark Horse Legend competitor, went wheel-to-wheel with some popular racers in the Dark Horse Stars class. Malcolm in the Middle star Frankie Muniz, an established circle track racer, joined professional cyclist Sir Chris Hoy, Top Gear journalist Chris Harris, drifter Chelsea DeNofa; stuntman, TV personality and racer Tanner Foust, and Farley in the Stars class.
“It’s a bucket list race for me,” Muniz said after the first race. “I have yet to really process it, because you’re so focused on going as fast as you can. But it’s very cool to say that I’ve raced here because of Ford. I’m now going to try to get that trophy tomorrow.” Muniz came close, securing a two-race best of second behind DeNofa.
Before any driver took the green flag, one of the more interesting storylines for the new series was the shipping logistics to get 40 Dark Horse Rs from the United States to Le Mans. Enter Scan Global Logistics.
“It was a very cool project,” says the Head of Business Development & Sales for Scan Global Logistics, Andreas Parschau. “We chartered a whole 747. We’ve done certain motorsport events in the past, but we specialize in shipping prototype and testing vehicles for the manufacturers.” The firm completes 30 or 40 of these flights per year.
Twenty-two Dark Horse racers were loaded into the 747, providing for an epic photo that took the internet by storm the week before Le Mans. “It’s not the weight, but the size,” says Parschau. “The airplane could have taken much more weight.” The 18 other cars were shipped in advance on a freighter.
In the overall competition, Cameron McLeod swept the weekend. The Aussie driver competes in the Dunlop Super2 Series (the second-tier series for Supercar competitors) driving a Mustang for Kelly Racing, and he is the grandson of Bathurst 1000 winner Peter McLeod.
As cars pulled into the paddock after the final race, teams joined their drivers for high fives and down lows. The only thing to do now was to ship this stable back home. Next up for the Mustang Challenge: The IMSA weekend at Wisconsin’s Road America, August 1-3.
It’s a cool series. I do think the Mustang Dark Horse is overpriced for what it is over a Mustang GT with performance pack is pretty large for a non Shelby named car.
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