Ford Chip Ganassi Racing to field 3 GTs at Sebring

Thursday, 02 March 2017

By RACER Staff / Image by LAT

Ford Chip Ganassi Racing and Ford Performance are ramping up efforts to sweep three of the most prestigious sports car races in the world in theGT Le Mans category within nine months.
Ganassi Racing will add the No.68 Ford GT to the 12 Hours of Sebring, piloted by World Endurance Championship regulars Stefan Mucke, Olivier Pla and Billy Johnson. Sebastien Bourdais again will join the lineup in the No. 66 with Joey Hand and Dirk Muller, and Scott Dixon will complete the No.67 lineup with Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook.

"We wish we could send all four cars like we did at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, but the WEC cars will already be prepped for The Prologue test at Monza and the first race at Silverstone," said Dave Pericak, global director of Ford Performance. "Even though it's impossible to bring all of our Ford GTs, we didn't want to see this important opportunity to continue our cross-development pass us by."
Pla, Mucke and Johnson, who will join the full-timers at the first FIA World Endurance Championship race of the year, begin the FIA WEC season at The Prologue, the official pre-season test for the series, at Monza the week after the 12 Hours of Sebring, with the first race to follow at Silverstone in April.
The WEC crew who run the car for Mucke and Pla during the regular season will campaign the No. 68 Ford GT at Sebring.
"This is another great opportunity for our WEC and IMSA teams to work together as the opportunity to data share is invaluable," Chip Ganassi said. "There are not a lot of opportunities for us to get together, so when we have the chance we will always try to take advantage of it. Plus, to be able to bring another car to a legendary endurance event like Sebring is something special to all of us."
Ford ran two cars at Sebring last year; Dixon, Briscoe and Westbrook finished fifth in class, while Hand, Muller and Bourdais came home eighth in class.