MOTORSPORT: New Ford Mustang racers break cover

Today’s global unveiling of the new 2023 Ford Mustang included confirmation of extensive plans for the Blue Oval brand’s iconic muscle car to race in multiple motorsport categories around the world, including Australian Supercars, plus NASCAR, GT sports cars and even Le Mans.

Locally, the seventh-generation Ford Mustang will be the basis for Ford’s Gen3 Supercars assault, in which the new S650-series coupe will take over from the previous S550, which has been utilised for testing duties since the new ruleset was unveiled at Bathurst last December.

Still to include official aerodynamic testing, the process is expected to kick off shortly, with the 2023 season set to launch on March 10-12 on the streets of Newcastle.

While the new Ford Mustang Supercars racer was teased alongside its fellow circuit contenders in an official livestream video, options for the official public unveiling of its fresh look exist at the Repco Bathurst 1000 over October 6-9, at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 over October 28-30 and the season finale at the revamped VALO Adelaide 500 over December 1-4.

For the Australian market, a new Dark Horse model will add a competition flair to the Blue Oval’s local showrooms, although its exact specifications is still to be announced.

In North America, the Dark Horse designation will be joined by Dark Horse R and S versions, which will be custom prepared for competition use and fitted with a stripped-out interior, roll cage and safety kit for use in grassroots racing.

Meanwhile, in the flourishing Australian production car racing scene, the Mustang has recently been growing in popularity as an outright contender, and depending on exact specifications and class eligibility criteria, the Dark Horse model may prove to be a popular addition to the local ranks.

As previously announced, the Mustang will take Ford headfirst into the world of sports car racing, with its GT3-spec machine, which is set to be race-ready for the Daytona 24 Hours at the start of 2024.

At today’s Mustang launch Ford boss, Bill Ford Jr, also confirmed the company would take the Mustang back to the 24 Hours of Le Mans – although no timeline was specified.

“Mustang is raced at all the great tracks around the world, but there is no race or track that means more to our history than Le Mans,” said Bill Ford.

“It's where we took on Ferrari and won in the 1960s and where we returned 50 years later and shocked the world again.

“Mustang will go back to Le Mans. Once again, we will Go Like Hell.”

Ford first entered the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1964 with the GT 40, which triumphed in 1966 with a 1-2-3 podium sweep. Then, 50 years later to the day, Ford won Le Mans with Ford Chip Ganassi Racing and the new Ford GT. The Mustang previously raced at Le Mans in 1967 and 1997.

Developed in partnership with Multimatic, which combined to bring the Ford GT much success between 2016 and 2019, the Mustang GT3 will be eligible for a wide range of race series, from the World Endurance Championship to IMSA, plus the various GT3-based competitions globally.

This extends to the Bathurst 12 Hour, plus the domestic GT Challenge Australia.

“The Mustang GT3 will be eligible in 2024,” said Mark Rushbrook, global director of Ford Performance Motorsports. “We look forward to seeing Mustang race there.”

Below GT3, the Mustang will also be prepared for GT4 regulations, a somewhat more affordable ruleset based on production roots, which is immensely popular across multiple series in the Northern Hemisphere.

For NASCAR duties, the Mustang’s styling will be applied to the brand’s Cup Series racer, which debuted a new generation of cars earlier this year.

Despite the spec nature of the machines, the latest rules allow for important styling cues that provide each manufacturer with an identifiable racecar.

In the early days of Mustang, deliberately competition-bred versions were spun off for drag racing, and Ford has indicated it will use the new model in the NHRA-sanctioned Factory X category.

Locally, the Mustang nameplate has been synonymous with circuit racing success dating back to the early days of touring car competition.

Norm Beechey got the ball rolling for the pony car by winning the 1965 Australian Touring Car Championship, with Ian ‘Pete’ Geoghegan subsequently claiming four straight ATCC crowns with Mustangs through to 1969.

Added into the mix, Allan Moffat registered a remarkable 101 wins from 151 race starts aboard his 1969 Trans-Am example.

Dick Johnson returned Mustang to top-flight racing under Group A rules in the mid-1980s, ultimately with limited success aboard a third-generation Fox model.

In contemporary times, the Mustang scored two Supercars titles from its first two attempts with Scott McLaughlin in 2018 and 2019. The now-Indycar driver also won the 2019 Bathurst 1000 alongside Alex Premat.

Join the conversation at 

our Facebook page

Or email us at 

editor@carsales.com.au