MOTORSPORT: Briscoe is Le Man for Ford GT

As foreshadowed here a month ago, US-based Australian Ryan Briscoe will be one of the drivers racing Ford’s new GT supercar, starting at the Daytona 24-Hour in January.

Ford and top American team owner Chip Ganassi today (Sunday) named four drivers for two of the GTs – powered by the Blue Oval’s twin-turbocharged 3.5-litre EcoBoost V6 engines prepared by NASCAR team Roush Yates – for next year’s International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) series in the US.

Those two GTs and two others are expected to represent Ford in its return next June to the Le Mans 24-Hour, where they will run in the GTE class.

Next year marks the 50th anniversary of Ford’s historic 1966 outright victory in that French classic, toppling the previously-dominant Ferrari with a 1-2-3 sweep by its fabulous GT40s.

Ford won there again the next three years.

While American Joey Hand and German Dirk Muller will race the new No.66 Ford GT, Briscoe and Brit Richard Westbrook will share the No.67 GT.

The 34-year-old Sydney-born Briscoe has spent a decade racing primarily in America after an open-wheeler career in Europe that took him as far as F1 test driving and official practice sessions at grands prix with the now-defunct Toyota team.

He has had 12 sports car victories in America – in Porsches and more recently Chevrolet’s Corvette C7.R – as well as eight IndyCar wins and a pole position at the Indianapolis 500.

He won both this year’s sports car classics in Florida – the Daytona 24-Hour and the Sebring 12-Hour – and this new deal reunites him with Ganassi, for whom he first raced when he moved to the US from Europe.

Briscoe survived a massive crash in one of Ganassi’s IndyCars at Chicagoland Speedway in his first year on that side of the Atlantic.

Rivalling Roger Penske among legendary US race team owners, Ganassi has won America’s arguably three biggest races – the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 in NASCAR and the Indianapolis 500 for open-wheelers – and is hungry to take on what he has called “the world's biggest sports car stage” – Le Mans.

“What I look for in a driver first of all is heart,” Ganassi said.

“At this level all drivers are fast. We want drivers that can work well with others. Drivers that have endurance car experience. Drivers that have been to Le Mans.

“All these things add up. It’s a team of drivers that act like they’ve been together for quite a while already.”

Senior Ford executive Raj Nair said that “selecting the right drivers for the Ford GT racing program was just as important as building the car”.

“We believe we have the best car – and now we have the best drivers to match,” Nair said.

Californian Joey Hand 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.

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.