Lots of people who are fans of the Ford brand and fans of the Ford GT were sad to hear Ford announce that it was ending its factory-backed racing programs for next season. That announcement left some teams in a lurch, and fans might have wondered if Ford’s stepping out of the ring had to do with lack of customer interest in the Ford GT platform.
Ford Performance global motorsports director Mark Rushbrook has made it clear that there has been “no lack of interest” from customer teams wanting to run the Ford GT next year. Rushbrook has made it clear that Ford will support cars in either the FIA World Endurance Championship or IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2020.
That announcement comes despite Ford canceling its factory team and despite no confirmed program using the car from any organization. Multimatic hasn’t submitted entries for the 2019-2020 WEC season, and Chip Ganassi Racing managing director Mike Hull admits it’s unlikely that the team will continue to campaign Ford GTs in the WeahterTech Championship without factory backing.
There is a possibility of additional races from Keating Motorsports, the first Ford customer team, beyond the 24 Hours of Le Mans, at this point, it’s unclear if any of that will happen. Rushbrook says that the customer program can accommodate multiple teams indicating that the level of support seen with the Keating team at Le Mans could be extended to other teams in the future.
Keating has announced that it will not run a full season WEC entry for the 2019-2020 season. Keating has stated that the entire season is too expensive and the team lacked the time to acquire the needed sponsors ahead of the deadline for a full season bid.
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Source: Sportscar365
Comments
I thought this was a strange move with the C8 coming right around the corner. Not saying that the C8 is comparable (yet) to the GT in any way other than being MR. It will be interesting to see them battle.