FORD RUNNING FOR MORE HARDWARE

Image by http2007 via FlickrThe 2008 auto racing season saw Ford Racing with its Mustang FR500C take on some of the world’s top auto manufacturers in road racing competition and walk away with two team championships and a manufacturers’ championship.
Eric de Doncker repeated as the GT4 European Cup champion after his No. 1 Mustang FR500GT4 dominated cars from Porsche, Aston Martin, BMW and Nissan. De Doncker has dominated the series’ first two seasons, capturing eight wins and making 24 podium appearances through 27 races. Last season alone, de Doncker made his way into victory lane four times and finished in the top three 14 times.
In the Grand-Am Koni Challenge, Joe Foster and Scott Maxwell collected the championship in their No. 55 Mustang FR500C. The duo earned two victories, five top-fives and eight top-10s through the 10 races last season.
Including Foster and Maxwell’s team, a total of five Mustangs finished in the top eight spots to lead Ford the manufacturers’ championship against makes from Porsche, BMW and Nissan. It was the second time that the Mustang FR500C has contributed to a team, drivers’ and manufacturers’ championship run, with the first coming in the car’s debut season of 2005.
“It’s quite an accomplishment for the Ford Mustang to win against the level of competition that we face in GT4 European Cup and in the Koni Challenge Series,” said Brian Wolfe, director, Ford North America Motorsports. “Porsche, BMW and Nissan are certainly formidable competition, and I think our success against them says a lot about Mustang and about the kind of cars we are producing at Ford Motor Company.”
Ford teams will begin defense of their championship on Jan. 23 when the Koni Challenge Series kicks off the 2009 season with the Fresh From Florida 200 at Daytona International Speedway, where Mustang FR500C cars make up 40 percent of the GS field.
Rehagen Racing looks capitalize on its fast practice times from earlier this month and be the first team to victory lane in the 2009 season. Rehagen Mustangs had the two quickest times during January’s test days.
“Test days went really well,” said Larry Rehagen. “We couldn’t have asked for much better. It pretty much went according to plan. We planned on going down there and being the quickest and that’s what we were able to do.”
The Grand-Am Rolex Series will open the season on the following day with the famed Rolex 24 at Daytona. For the second consecutive season, teams are switching to Ford as their manufacturer of choice. SunTrust Racing and Krohn Racing join Michael Shank Racing, AIM Autosport and Doran Racing as teams running with Ford power this season. These five Ford teams make up one-third of the entire Daytona Prototype field.
After both of his cars started on the front row at last season’s race, Shank’s No. 6 had the second fastest time during test days, while his No. 60 posted the sixth quickest time.
“When we got to Daytona last year for the race, we were ready to win it,” said Shank. “The No. 6 car was in a position to win it when a suspension part failed—nothing to do with the motor. The Ford Racing engineering guys have helped us a lot since then. That’s the biggest difference. The Ford Racing engineers have now had the opportunity to work with us for a year, so the engineering side of it is much more prepared than it was last year. So different systems and different strategies and all that has now been fully affected by the engineers up in Detroit.”
Part of the success of the Ford program can be attributed to the team at Roush Yates Engines, who prepares the powerplants for all the Ford entries.
“We’re extremely excited that we have seven cars running in the Rolex 24,” said John Maddox, manager of Ford Cammer engine programs at Roush Yates Engines. “All seven teams are quality teams that are capable of winning. In fact, we don’t have a team running that hasn’t won a race in the Rolex Series. All of our teams are winners. They’ve done their homework. They’re doing things right and the outlook is good for us.
“I think we shouldn’t have trouble winning races,” Maddox continued. “You can’t say for sure that you’re going to win races—you know, anything can happen. It should be a very successful year for us. Our goal is to win the championship and bring home the manufacturers' championship for Ford in Daytona Prototypes and in Koni.”