By alley - Nov 7, 2014, 1:48 PM ET

Does Farley move hint at Ford's return to top-level GT racing worldwide?

Six weeks ago, RACER's Marshall Pruett wrote of Ford Racing boss Jamie Allison's enthusiasm for

a return to Le Mans supplying P2 engines

, but way back in July, he'd not only

reported those rumors

but revealed a GTE Mustang project was in the pipeline. There were then

further encouraging updates in October

The original Pony Car brand heading to Le Mans? It's now looking even more likely.

Ford global marketing chief Jim Farley will move to Ford of Europe and swap jobs with current European boss Stephen Odell, according to

a report in Automotive News Europe

. Odell has led European operations for Ford since 2010 and will succeed Farley as head of sales, service and marketing worldwide. Ford declined to comment on these moves.

According to ANE, Ford of Europe, along with the rest of the region's carmakers, has struggled in Europe's economic recession losing $1.6 billion in Europe last year. The company is expecting losses to reduce in 2015 because of capacity cuts which include the 2013 closures of two UK plants and the end-of-’14 closure of another plant in Belgium.

Farley, who joined Ford from Toyota USA in 2007 and was one of the key figures in launching and promoting the Scion brand, is renowned for his innovative marketing ideas. Farley is also a noted fan of motorsport (he races a vintage Lola and owns several classic Fords) and the prime mover in turning the anticipation surrounding the 2015 Mustang (ABOVE) into sales – on a global scale.

But a Ford GT racing campaign with the Mustang will surely go beyond possibly entering/supporting GTLM and GTD cars in the IMSA United SportsCar Championship. The sixth-gen Mustang is to be sold in over 120 countries – there will even be right-hand-drive models – as a result of the Blue Oval's worldwide One Ford policy, so could a Ford return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the FIA World Endurance Championship be on the cards for 2016?

As Pruett noted before, it would tie in well with the 50th anniversary of Ford's first overall Le Mans victory, when Chris Amon and Bruce McLaren (BELOW) led a 1-2-3 for the GT40 – ending Ferrari's domination of Europe's most prestigious race, and starting a short but sweet four-year domination of the event by Ford…