MOTORSPORT: Aussie may be Le Man for Ford's GT Le Mans campaign

American-based Australian racing driver Ryan Briscoe is tipped to become a key player in Ford's new international GT racing program that will take the Blue Oval back to Le Mans next year.

It will mean a switch from racing Chevrolet's Corvette C7.R as Ford launches into dual campaigns in the United States and the European-based World Endurance Championship (WEC) with its new GT supercar.

Veteran US motorsport reporter Marshall Pruett has noted on Racer.com that Corvette Racing's recent announcement of its full-time drivers for next year omitted "its primary endurance driver" – Briscoe.

"Corvette's press release could be a quiet confirmation of where he's headed," Pruett said.

He pointed out the 34-year-old Sydney-born Briscoe's "longstanding ties with the Chip Ganassi Racing team" that will field the Ford GTs in both America's United Sports Car Championship and the WEC next year.

It will enter two cars in each, with all four seemingly set to run at Le Mans – France's 24-Hour classic in June.

Californian Joey Hand, who starred as James Moffat's partner in a Dick Johnson Ford Falcon at the 2011 Gold Coast 600 when international co-drivers were part of that event, is the only driver named so far for the Ford campaign.

Another US veteran racer Scott Pruett has also tested the new GT.

Next year marks the 50th anniversary of Ford's 1966 outright victory at Le Mans, toppling the previously-dominant Ferrari with a 1-2-3 sweep by its fabulous GT40s.

The American manufacturer won there again the next three years.

The new Ford will compete in the Le Mans GT Endurance (GTE) class, while another Australian, Mark Webber, will continue racing a Porsche 919 Hybrid in the top-tier prototype class in the WEC – in which he is line to win the title this year after three straight victories in recent six-hour events.

Pruett (Marshall) said drivers for four full-time and two endurance seats are expected to be named by Ford and Ganassi for the new GT effort by the end of this year.

Ganassi has won America's arguably three biggest races – the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 in NASCAR and the Indianapolis 500 open-wheeler classic – and is hungry to take on what he has called "the world's biggest sports car stage".

Briscoe was a champion karter, then a junior open-wheeler ace in Europe, ascending to the role of test driver for Toyota's Formula 1 effort early last decade.

A change of management dislocated him from that team, which ultimately folded without a grand prix win in its eight years, and he moved to America to join Ganassi.

He has raced mostly in IndyCars there, winning seven races, but in recent years has concentrated primarily on sports car racing with part-time IndyCar outings.

Briscoe also has made occasional V8 Supercar starts in Australia in Holdens, but he has been unavailable for the endurance races here in recent times.

Ford's new GT race car, now being tested in the US, is powered by twin-turbocharged 3.5-litre EcoBoost V6 engines prepared by the Blue Oval's long-time top NASCAR team, Roush Yates.

The GT's race debut will be at the Daytona 24-Hour in Florida in January.