Wild Mustangs descend on France
A cargo plane delivers a fleet of Ford Mustang Dark Horse R muscle cars for an all-Mustang race at the Le Mans track with hundreds of thousands of fans on site
Ford Motor Co. packed up dozens of Mustang Dark Horse R cars built at the Flat Rock Assembly Plant in Michigan and shipped them by air and sea to France — so amateur Mustang drivers with a dream and the skill to execute that dream could race the iconic track on the eve of 24 Hours of Le Mans.
European fans cheer the roar of a V-8 engine as its sound echoes through the air.
“It’s a dream opportunity that money can’t buy,” Ford CEO Jim Farley, himself an accomplished race car driver, told Shifting Gears. He’ll drive car #17.
Hundreds of thousands of fans poured into northwestern France for the famous race that will take place on Saturday and Sunday.
But before that race, Ford is hosting its own series on Friday and Saturday — yes, early Saturday, too — of Mustangs only. The Le Mans Invitational, a two-race, one-make event will compete on the Circuit de la Sarthe. Each race lasts 45 minutes.
The timing, the spotlight, the unique opportunity is sort of like Gracie Abrams opening for Taylor Swift on the legendary Eras Tour. Epic.
The race series spotlights a production-based race car with a factory chassis, factory engine, factory gear box and factory drive train.
Mustang drivers include Olympic Gold Medalist Sir Chris Hoy, British automotive journalist Chris Harris, Formula Drift champions Chelsea DeNofa and Tanner Foust, actor Frankie Muniz.
Last year, the Mustang Challenge debuted with 27 cars at Mid-Ohio Sports Car course, where the series kicked off for the first time with all U.S. drivers.
This year, racers from Belgium, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom have joined the Americans.
Pack ‘em up
Ford shipped 24 privately-owned Mustangs on a Boeing 747-400 cargo plane from Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in South Carolina to Hahn Airport in Germany, between Frankfurt and Luxembourg in Germany. For the final part of the journey, seven trucks carried the vehicles and equipment, Scott Bartlett, global sports car marketing manager for Ford Performance, told Shifting Gears.
(Owners delivered the Mustangs to the South Carolina airport from different parts of the country. The vehicles were stacked and packed on racks for the plane, a feat coordinated by Scan Global Logistics .)
Time was tight. Just weeks earlier, many of these vehicles competed in a Mustang Challenge series at the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, Calif. While a slow boat was more affordable, it wouldn’t arrive in time, Bartlett said during an interview while on break from race prep in France.
Another 18 Mustangs made the trip by sea, shipped in advance to be rented by “arrive and drive” competitors who wanted the experience of the Le Mans track.
Ford lined up the 40 Dark Horse Mustangs along with two GT3 Mustang racing cars.
Farley told me that Ford sees itself as a customer racing company, “a big change from the past,” when the Dearborn automaker focused exclusively on selling cars through dealers.
Bartlett, 38, the son of a retired school teacher and computer programmer, came to Ford two years ago after playing a key role with Porsche’s Motorsport marketing and the Porsche Experience Center in Los Angeles.
This is a new era at Ford designed to attract new Mustang drivers who compete and graduate from one level to the next and the next, he said.
‘Mind-blowing to me’
Robert Nokaer, 21, of Dunkannon, Penn., drives race cars and works on race cars. After a year behind the wheel of the Mustang Dark Horse, he is running a four-car team at Le Mans and his first time competing in Europe.
“I work in the garage all day,” he told Shifting Gears. “Most of my training, I would say, is driving the car itself. I make sure I’m getting a lot of protein and drink enough water in the days leading up to the race.”
The atmosphere is unlike anything he could have imagined and unlike anything we’re used to, Nokaer said. “We get here on Monday and people are here. Six days before the race, there are more fans than normal. By the first practice on Wednesday, it’s packed. People are lining the fence. Seeing people so interested in Mustang and Ford, it’s definitely beyond what I thought it was going to be. People are literally camping in the middle of the woods all week just to watch the cars go around. To have that many dedicated fans that want to do that is just mind-blowing to me.”
He usually exceeds 115 miles an hour racing and his qualifying time placed him first, Nokaer said. He took 4:21.9 minutes to complete the 8.467 mile track.
“I think the coolest thing is that the cars we’re running are entirely based off the street car,” Nokaer said. “All the body work, all the suspension, is the street car. You can sit the race car next to a street car and, if you would ignore the roll cage inside, they look pretty much identical.”
‘You can’t make an error …’
Tom Tait, 60, a real estate developer from Paradise Valley, Ariz., is a former pro driver for Porsche and Lamborghini. That was back in his 20s. And now he’s back. He raced the debut Mustang event at Le Mans in 2024 and now he’s back driving car #8.
“When I was a kid, I was a professional race car driver and I quit at age 23. When I turned 53 in 2018, when all my kids were finally graduated from school … ,“ he returned, Tait said.
“I started training with a trainer in the gym five days a week. I take spin classes four days a week,” he said. “All the kids are laying on the ground after the race. You’re running at an elevated heart rate for a sustained period of time. Your goal is to perform at the maximum for the duration of the race. Without the training, you can’t do that. Without the driving training and physical endurance, you can’t do it. You will get tired. Your thought process will degrade. It would be like going out and saying you’ll run 10 miles and maybe for the first 100 yards you feel great, but the second 100 yards is hard. You must keep going at the maximum.”
“In race cars, you can’t make an error. You will crash. The physical training allows you to perform at peak intensity without making a mistake. If you get tired, you make mistakes. When you make mistakes, you crash.”
His spin clases deliver a high intensity cardio workout, Tait said. “Most pro racers bike or row for two or three or four hours. They’re matching their performance capability with enduring the race.”
Tait is racing for Competition Motors owned by Chris Lucas. Tait’s race jacket says, “White’s Ford,” which is in Orrville and Urbana, Ill.
“Ford is very focused on continuing to be a successful brand through passion products,” Tait said. “Ford has made no bones about it; They want their brand associated with customer passion. Not just engagement but brand loyalty and passion. How you get brand loyalty is through passion. Racing is one of the most passionate forms of sports from a fan and participant perspective.”
‘Very, very thundering’
As a former pro racer, Tait said, he sees Ford the way TV viewers used to look at the influential E.F. Hutton stock brokerage firm. “When Ford makes a move within the world of motorsports, it’s very visible. They do it through a conclusion of success. Their Ford GT program? They raced it and won everything. They have a track record of sticking to it until they prevail.”
Below: Ford Mustang Challenge Le Mans Invitational video
Pulling regular people into racing is a trend that has proven lucrative for companies including Mazda, Toyota and Chevy. But Le Mans is different. And Mustang is different, Tait said.
“The sound of the Mustang is visceral, like no other,” he said. “… These cars are very, very thundering. It’s old school.”
The hobby — and dream — isn’t cheap. Cars can start at $150,000, not including the cost of fees and tires and mechanics and crew. Some racers can spend $500,000 for a season, Tait said.
Mustang, built in Michigan by UAW members, play a key role for consumers and investors, Farley has said during earnings calls in the past.
This weekend offers a glimpse of things to come, he told me.
The Le Mans Invitational Mustang races will be live streamed and replayed on the Ford Performance YouTube channel. Race 1 happened Friday, June 13 at 5 a.m. (EDT). Race 2 leads up to the 24 Hours of Le Mans on Saturday, June 14 with a 2:45 a.m. (EDT) start.
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Note: I’m a proud member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. This week, I recommend an essay by Debra Engle titled, “Feeling Empty?” about the power of a single word. Check out our work here. Just a great mix of national political analysis, features from the Heartland.
Ms Howard
Not only is the headline attractive, the article about another good thing the Ford people are doing is .... fun, happy, and impressive. Them's some smart people.
Mr Farley is one smart leader.
Thanks for writing this story.
PEACE
Gregg, retired!