Late to the Daytona Grid – Ford to Run in GT3 in 2024

Ford Performance said today in Daytona that an  all-new Mustang GT3 race car will compete in the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) 2024 race season, including the 24 Hours of Daytona. The new Mustang effort, announced in advance of this weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, will be a joint program between Ford Performance and racing collaborator Multimatic Motorsports.  This will mean Ford will race against Porsche 911s and Mercedes AMG GTs, among others. Ford has been endurance racing for 58 years of global endurance, including NASCAR and Australian Supercars today. Lately on this side of the pond, it’s more involved with personal and commercial-use trucks.

The latest Ford racing program will have both a two-car factory-backed IMSA GTD Pro works team managed by Multimatic, as well as customer Mustang race cars for the GTD class starting at Daytona in 2024. The new Mustang GT3 racer will be powered by a Ford 5.0-liter Coyote-based V8 engine developed by Ford Performance and built by M-Sport of Cumbria, England.

M-Sport has a history competing in the FIA World Rally Championship. It recently worked on the development and preparation of the Ford Puma Hybrid Rally1, which finished 1-3-5 in its debut race at the Monte Carlo Rally this past weekend while qualify was underway in Daytona.

Joey Hand, one of the winning drivers in the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours GTE Pro class in the Ford GT, will be one of the test drivers for the new program, as well as continuing on in his role as a development driver and coach for Ford Performance. He will also drive six NASCAR Cup road course races in 2022 in a Rick Ware Racing Ford Mustang. NASCAR, of course, now owns IMSA.

“We did a lot of testing with the Ford GT program, so it will be great to be working again with a lot of the same people at Ford and Multimatic as we get this car ready for competition,” said Hand.

 Although the Mustang GT3 for IMSA is new, Ford and Multimatic also said that the Mustang GT4 customer race program will continue, with a new Mustang GT4 expected to debut in the 2023 season.