EXCERPT: 'A Big Ask' - Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

In "A Big Ask: The Story of Ford's Triumphant Return to Le Mans," author David Phillips chronicles Ford's return to Le Mans 50 years after Henry Ford II opened the Ford Motor Company's checkbook to defeat bitter rival Ferrari.

They partnered with Chip Ganassi Racing, six-time winners of the 24 Hours of Daytona and America's most successful racing team, Multimatic Engineering, among the world's leading automotive engineering and manufacturing firms, and a host of world-class suppliers in an effort to win the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans.

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One by one the GTLM cars all headed to [Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca] pit lane, with [Richard] Westbrook alone making a bid to go the distance on two stops.

“What I realized after the race, what Mike [Hull] is very clever at, is that he puts the belief in the driver,” Westbrook says. “The fact that he trusted me to do it probably made it that bit easier than it was; the fact that he was so sure I could do it, he brought that belief in me and, yeah, we were able to do it.”

For an added benefit, as Westbrook braked early entering the tight corners and gently massaged the throttle on exit to save fuel, he was also babying his Michelins, particularly the rear tires: The more gradual the application of the throttle, the less wheelspin; and the less wheelspin, the less rubber left in his wake.

So although “Westy” was still in maximum fuel-saving mode – and on Michelins with some 50 laps on them – in the final laps, his pursuers failed to gain any appreciable ground. When the checkered flag waved at the end of two hours – 2:01:16.388 to be exact – the #67 Ford GT was 12.5 seconds clear of Alessandro Pier Guidi’s Ferrari 488 …and the Ford GT had its first win just 351 days after Maxwell’s first tentative laps at Calabogie.

“Standing in the pit with the team and with a couple of laps to go I started thinking: ‘Is this it? Is this going to be our first win?’” said Henry Ford III. “And I started to get real anxious about those finishing laps. Then Westbrook crossed the line and it was a really powerful moment. It was a prove point that we were really back, officially, and that we were going to be competitive at Le Mans.”

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