It’s no secret that Ford CEO Jim Farley loves racing. Later this month he will climb back into the saddle again when he drives a Mustang GT4 in the inaugural IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge, a first for Ford’s boss. He will compete in the Roar Before the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway.
Farley fields a car for Multimatic Motorsports in the GSX class, which is packed with competitors. He will compete against cars such as the BMW M4 GT4, Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS, Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R, Mercedes-AMG GT4 and Aston Martin Vantage GT4. Farley won’t be the only one ford in class, with KohR Motorsports driving another Mustang GT4. Farley and friends will compete in two 45-minute individual driver races, with the GSX class racing alongside nine LMP3 cars.
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Farley, who runs one of the biggest car manufacturers, really enjoys his time behind the wheel. Last month, the CEO took late-night talk show host Jimmy Fallon for a spin at the M1 Concourse, located about 30 miles north of Detroit. He piloted the #98 Ford Mustang Gen2 Australian-spec (not dissimilar to NASCAR) supercar racers that bring a big smile to Fallon’s face. He will compete in Daytona under the same starting number. And last summer, Farley competed in the Le Mans Classic, piloting the #64 Ford GT40. He finished second in his class.
As the new year progresses, racing will be at the core of Ford’s brand identity. When the automaker launched the seventh generation Mustang in September, it also announced that it had no less than six racing Mustangs planned for the new S650 generation, including GT3 and GT4 models. The Blue Oval is also working on versions for NASCAR and NHRA Factory X and hopes the race will serve as a promotion for the new Mustang and the Ford brand.
The IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge begins with practice on Friday 20th January followed by races on Saturday and Sunday 21st and 22nd January. You can watch the Farley race live on Peacock where IMSA will be covering both races.
