IMSA: Ford Re-Entering WeatherTech Championship with New Mustang GT3

Ford Performance announced Friday at Daytona International Speedway that, in partnership with Multimatic, it will develop a Mustang to the international sports car GT3 formula for the 2024 season.

Ford will create a two-car, factory-supported effort in the GTD PRO class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and will also make the car available for customer teams competing in IMSA’s GT Daytona (GTD) class and other major sports car championships around the world.

Joey Hand, who played a key role in the Ford GT program that ran from 2016-20, will serve as the official development driver for the Mustang GT3 project.

GT3 regulations mandate a stock “body in white” and general engine configuration but otherwise offer a great deal of technical freedom. So, make no mistake, the Mustang GT3 will be much more than a stock 5.0 GT with more horsepower and a fatter anti-roll bar.

Major technical changes include the adoption of a rear-mounted transaxle to improve weight distribution and racing-specific suspension geometry. The car will feature carbon fiber bodywork and unique aerodynamics, including a substantial rear wing.

The Mustang GT3 will be powered by a race-prepped version of Ford’s 5.0-liter “Coyote” V-8 developed by M-Sport, longtime builder of the blue oval’s successful World Rally Championship cars.

“If you read the rulebooks now, you’re allowed to do considerably more than stiffer springs and fatter tires to make a car faster,” said Larry Holt, executive vice president of Multimatic Special Vehicle Operations. “Pretty much in front of the firewall and in the back is all open. There are freedoms that the rules give us, and it would be wrong for us to not take them all to the limit.

“Every manufacturer competing in GT3 takes advantage of those limits, but we’re not going to stray too far away from the Mustang DNA,” he added. “We’ve always wanted to race a Mustang at the very top level of the class, and now we have that opportunity.”

For Ford, the GT3 program will function as a flagship platform as it continues to position the Mustang as a purebred sports car for sale around the world. By entering the GT3 arena in the WeatherTech Championship, the Mustang will be pitted against established contenders from the likes of Porsche, Ferrari, BMW, Aston Martin, Lexus, Lamborghini and Mercedes-AMG.

Perhaps most importantly, the Mustang will now race in the same class as the Chevrolet Corvette, which also has a GT3 factory and customer car program in development.

“The Ford Mustang belongs on the racetrack,” said Mark Rushbrook, Ford Performance Motorsports global director. “We’ve had a lot of success with Mustang in the past in different programs. But as we go forward, we want to elevate that and have even more global presence of Mustang on the racetrack.

“A great thing with the GT3 class is that we can create that car and sell it to customers around the world,” Rushbrook continued. “We’re very excited about that opportunity. Together with M-Sport and Multimatic, we have the combination to create a great Mustang GT3 car and the IMSA GTD PRO class gives us the freedom to run a factory team.”

In addition to collaborating with Ford on the GT program, which netted a GTE Pro class victory in the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours and back-to-back wins in the Rolex 24 At Daytona (2017 and ’18) all for Chip Ganassi Racing, Multimatic has created several iterations of the Mustang GT4 platform that competes in the Grand Sport (GS) class of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge.

Ford’s Friday announcement at Daytona revealed that the next generation of the Mustang GT4 – again developed in conjunction with Multimatic – will debut in 2023.

Hand Named Mustang GT3 Test Driver

Joey Hand, who was part of Ford’s winning lineup in the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours in GTE-Pro, has been named as one of the manufacturer’s test drivers for the program.

Race drivers have not yet been announced for the factory program.

Hand, who has earned 18 IMSA race wins, has been assisting Ford with development of the “Next Gen” NASCAR Cup Series car about to make its on-track debut. In addition to a slate of Michelin Pilot Challenge events, Hand’s 2022 program also includes six NASCAR Cup Series road-course races in a Rick Ware Racing Ford.

“My favorite thing is racing, but car development is the second-best,” Hand explained. “To be involved with something like this is a big deal to me – to be involved in a big way and kind of put your fingerprints on a program.

“We’re kind of getting the band back together, between Multimatic and Ford Performance and me,” Hand concluded. “We had such a great time with the Ford GT. I was really impressed with the way everybody worked together, and that’s why it was such a successful program. Ford Performance got all the right elements together, and that’s why I think this is going to be awesome.”