Ford/CGR team takes stock ahead of final race

The end of Ford’s four-year factory GT Le Mans and GTE-Pro programs with Chip Ganassi Racing has arrived. Among the litany of farewells in store for IMSA this weekend, saying goodbye to the Blue Oval’s sleek cars, and all who are associated with its WeatherTech SportsCar Championship effort, will result in a few tears being shed under the CGR tent on Saturday night.

Fans could see Ford return in a few years when IMSA’s next-generation DPis break cover in 2022, but until its next sports car program is confirmed, memories of the outgoing Ford GT program will need to suffice.

“Yeah, there are so many highlights or special moments along the way and a lot of it is just because of the great partners and the great people and sharing that entire journey together,” Ford Performance boss Mark Rushbrook told RACER. “It’s Multimatic and Chip Ganassi and his team and Roush Yates and Michelin and everybody that's come in as companies together, but also the individuals and the long journey that we've been on -- some very high of highs and certainly some lows of lows along the way.

Ford Performance Director Mark Rushbrook. Image by Ford Performance

“The main focus of the program was to go and win the GTE-Pro class at Le Mans in 2016 and that will forever stand as the pinnacle of the program and it's fantastic that we achieved that. But so many other wins along the way and experiences and accomplishments and overcoming adversity from the first one at Laguna Seca in May of 2016, just a month before going to Le Mans to get the first win for the car and obviously the win at Le Mans and all those wins along the way. I think it's a 27-percent win rate so far and 32-percent pole rate.”

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With the size and compartmentalization of giant auto manufacturers like Ford, factory racing programs are often detached from the men and women in the company’s workforce. Rushbrook was heartened by the connection Ford’s employees felt with the GT program after returning from France in 2016.

“It's exceeded more than the original goals for the program, both on the track and off in terms of what it's meant to the company, to the employee pride and satisfaction and in what we do and what it says about our company,” he added. “I remember after the win in 2016 at Le Mans, we came back two or three weeks after that win and had a celebration in the Dearborn campus for all of our Ford employees. Seeing so many people come out and how happy they were and how proud they were to be Ford employees because of what the team was able to accomplish -- and we had the drivers there and the team and the cars -- that was a fantastic day. Not as good as the day at Le Mans just a couple of weeks before that, but so great to see the employees so much behind what we had been doing as a team.”

The Ford Ganassi operation maintained direct links with the manufacturer that made Ford employees all feel part of the team. Image by Ford Performance

Prior to Le Mans in June, the program took its maiden win in Monterey. Designed as a hypercar among supercars, Ford’s GT was not well-received by its rivals as the purebred road and race car was capable of speed and performance some believed fell outside the spirit of the GTLM category. It made the GT’s debut win at Laguna Seca, where extreme fuel mileage achieved by Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook, rather than brute force, made the difference.

“As you know, we faced a lot of adversity to start the 2016 season, with everything that happened at Daytona, and Sebring, and Long Beach to start the season in IMSA,” Rushbrook said. “We needed something to build the confidence for the team going, prior to going to Le Mans, and that race at Laguna Seca did exactly that. The team believes so strongly in what we were doing all along, but that just cemented it to bring that win home at Laguna Seca.

Laguna breakthrough paved the way for Le Mans glory. Image by Ford Performance

“[CGR’s] Brad Goldberg, he's fantastic as a race engineer and calling strategy in the race, and he did it with his strategy at that race. Obviously with the execution of Briscoe and Westbrook behind the wheel and the fuel economy that they were able to get out of the EcoBoost engine, definitely made a statement that we had not just a great car but a great team, great people, to go out and execute and get a win where nobody expected us to get that win. It meant so much. I remember being there that day and how great it felt to see the success, to be part of that success and pickup everybody's step as we were heading to Le Mans the next month.”

Ford Chip Ganassi Racing won plenty of endurance races with the GT in 2016 and 2017, but it missed out on earning major championships. It rectified the problem last season as Ford captured IMSA’s manufacturers’ title in GTLM, which could stand as the program’s most meaningful achievement.

“Well, we're racers, right? We want to win every race and every championship, that's why we're in it,” Rushbrook said. “But it did mean a lot to all of us here at Ford and to the team to win the manufacturers’ championship in GTLM last year. That was based on a lot of the wins, the individual race wins contributing to the manufacturers' championship.

“But, the way the points work for the drivers' championship -- because we had those wins basically switching back and forth between the 66 and the 67 cars throughout the year -- that was great for building up manufacturers' points by having a Ford win so many races. Because it seemed like the 66 either won or it finished fifth or worse, and then the 67 either won or it finished fifth or worse; that didn't help to add up the points for the individual drivers’ championship.

Savvy driving by the likes of Briscoe and Westbrook, along with superb team execution, has served Ford Chip Ganassi Racing well. Image by Ford Performance

With the Porsche GT Team in position to win the drivers’ title this weekend, its absence from the Ford GT project’s trophy case will likely serve as the only regret after four seasons of IMSA battles.

“That was a heartbreak for us as a team and definitely for the drivers, to not be able to get the drivers’ championship for the full IMSA season,” Rushbrook continued. “Certainly, we wish we could have done that. But I'm very happy that, due to the great car and the great execution from the team and those drivers, that we were able to get the manufacturers’ championship last year. And that did mean a lot to us as a team and to the total company here in Dearborn.”