- Ford kicks off the 2024 motorsports season with a launch party on the eve of the Mustang GT3’s debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona.
- The event will feature drivers from some of the many racing series Ford is involved in, from Sergio Perez to Mike Rockenfeller to Vaughn Gittin Jr.
- Ford also released Mustang GT3 liveries for its customer teams and announced the new F-150 Lightning Switchgear.
Jim Farley—Ford’s charismatic CEO—is sick and tired of selling boring cars. He wants the company to get down to business and do what it’s best at. To him, that means building race cars for every track, from your local NHRA drag strip to the Circuit de la Sarthe. The seventh-gen Mustang is the beating heart and soul of that goal.
As Ford prepares to achieve that with the 2024 motorsports season, it kicks things off by hosting a launch party in Charlotte, North Carolina, on the eve of the Mustang GT3’s debut at the IMSA season opener—the 24 Hours of Daytona. The event will be livestreamed on the Ford Performance YouTube channel at 7:00 p.m. EST (it can be seen below).
Naturally, with the 24 Hours of Daytona only a week away, Ford invited the full-time driver lineup to revel in the celebrations. Leading up to the event, Ford also revealed the Dinamic GT and Proton customer liveries for the GT3 to compete in the 2024 IMSA and WEC seasons.
But the party doesn’t stop with sports car racing. After all, the event is about Ford racing at every track, all the time. Ford also teased a new Raptor-inspired truck that will compete in the 2025 Dakar Rally. While the brand has competed in Dakar in the past with the Ranger pickup, the new Raptor will be built from the ground up as something separate from other models.
In the final hours leading up to the event, Ford and RTR Vehicles revealed one more surprise in the form of the jump-happy F-150 Lightning Switchgear demonstration vehicle. Like the Mustang Mach-E 1400 and iconic Supervan before it, the Switchgear exists as an EV demonstrator to show fans that EVs can be exciting in spite of downsides like heavier curb weights and lack of engine noise.
Speaking of the Supervan, Ford confirmed that the 1400-horsepower Supervan 4 is heading down under to Bathurst in February. Plus, Ford confirmed it is heading back to Pikes Peak in another as-yet-unnamed EV demonstrator.
Mustang One-Make Series
Ford confirmed that the upcoming one-make Mustang Challenge series it announced with the seventh-generation Mustang will begin this June with a five-race schedule that kicks off in Ohio.
Along with announcing a new decal package for the Dark Horse-branded NASCAR Xfinity Mustang, Ford also revealed the new Dark Horse-branded NHRA Funny Car to compete in 2024.
Jack Fitzgerald’s love for cars stems from his as yet unshakable addiction to Formula 1.
After a brief stint as a detailer for a local dealership group in college, he knew he needed a more permanent way to drive all the new cars he couldn’t afford and decided to pursue a career in auto writing. By hounding his college professors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he was able to travel Wisconsin seeking out stories in the auto world before landing his dream job at Car and Driver. His new goal is to delay the inevitable demise of his 2010 Volkswagen Golf.