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New Drivers Deliver a New Win for Ford Multimatic Motorsports
February 11, 2025
By John Oreovicz IMSA Wire Service
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. –
It’s almost impossible to overstate how important the Mustang has been for the Ford Motor Company since its introduction on April 17, 1964.
Through the decades, Mustang has survived government-imposed safety, emission, and fuel economy standards, a shift in market preferences to trucks and SUVs, and the recent industry trend toward electrification. With a lineup dominated by F150s and Explorers, Mustang is now the last “car” that Ford builds. It’s a true survivor.
Fortunately for car enthusiasts, Ford seems hell-bent on extracting every bit of performance out of what is officially known as the seventh generation of Mustang. And from the moment the engineering code S650 Mustang was revealed in September 2022, racing was an integral part of the program.
In the last 28 months, Ford has rolled out the Mustang Dark Horse performance package, including a Dark Horse R track day variation; the Mustang GTD, which is the ultimate street-going manifestation of the “pony car” genre; and the latest iteration of the Mustang GT4 that competes in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge.
Most significantly, Ford and its technical partner, Canadian engineering firm Multimatic Motorsports, created an all-out racing Mustang for the popular GT3 category. The Mustang GT3 recently claimed its first victory in worldwide sports car racing competition at the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the opening round of the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The double podium finish at the Rolex 24 in the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class was the culmination of midnight oil-burning effort from Ford and Multimatic. The No. 65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3 shared by Frederic Vervisch, Christopher Mies and Dennis Olsen won, with the No. 64 driven by Mike Rockenfeller, Seb Priaulx, and NASCAR regular Austin Cindric taking third place.
“This is an incredible result for everyone at Multimatic Motorsports and Ford Performance,” said Pascal Zurlinden, Executive Vice President, Multimatic Engineering & Multimatic Special Vehicle Operations (MSVO). “Two years ago, when Ford announced the Mustang GT3 program, the car didn’t exist. To be standing in Victory Lane today is proof that there is no substitute for hard work, whether that’s at the racetrack, the race shop, or during long days and nights in the simulator.
“It’s an honor for us to take a car as iconic as Mustang and turn it into a Daytona winner.”
Ford has taken home 20 first-place trophies from the Rolex 24: Two overall wins in 1965 (2,000 km distance) and ’66 (full 24-hour distance) with the driver pairing of Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby, plus a bevy of class wins with Mustangs fielded by Jack Roush in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
Plans for the Mustang GT3 were officially announced in the Daytona International Speedway media center in the run up to the 2022 Rolex 24 At Daytona, and the car made its competition debut at last year’s Rolex 24, where it for the most part ran reliably on the way to a sixth place GTD PRO class finish.
The car’s rapid development throughout the ’24 season resulted in a pair of late-season second place results for Rockenfeller and Harry Tincknell at VIRginia International Raceway and the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the car’s first two IMSA podiums.
Ford’s Fresh Faces Focus on IMSA Full-Season Effort
For 2025, Ford Multimatic Motorsports revamped its WeatherTech Championship driver lineup, with Rockenfeller the only ’24 IMSA full-timer to continue.
Mies and Vervisch have had extensive experience racing Audi GT3 cars. Third driver Olsen finished third at the LMGT3 class at Le Mans with Proton Competition and stood alongside Ford Motor Company Executive Chairman Bill Ford on the podium.
Priaulx – a Multimatic-contracted driver – co-drove with ’24 GTD PRO class champion Laurin Heinrich to a pair of race wins at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and Detroit in an AO Racing Porsche, but he has won with Ford in Michelin Pilot Challenge Grand Sport (GS) competition, co-driving with Cindric.
Cindric normally drives a Mustang for Team Penske in the NASCAR Cup Series. He stepped in as a late Rolex 24 substitute when Ben Barker sustained an injury prior to the Roar Before the Rolex 24 weekend.
“Daytona is surely a special place whether I’m racing in NASCAR or in IMSA,” Cindric stated. “To be a part of this program, see its success, and be a part of the double podium was really cool. It’s really cool to see such a big race be the first win for this car.”
Rockenfeller, who has vast experience with works racing programs including Porsche, Audi, and Ford’s archrival Corvette, has become the anchor of the factory Mustang effort.
While disappointed to miss out on the Mustang GT3’s first IMSA race win, the veteran German was happy just to have made it out of the first corner on the first lap after starting from the GTD PRO class pole. A competitor in the LMP2 (Le Mans Prototype 2) class spun and briefly blocked the track.
“We wanted clearly to come out of the first lap 1-2 as Ford, and we didn’t because of that incident,” Rockenfeller said. “I was definitely not ready for that, even though you should be. Somehow I wasn’t expecting it, but luckily, everybody reacted well and there was no incident.
“What a day!” he added. “Congratulations to the No. 65 team and their drivers. Of course, we would have loved to win the race, but we did our part to help them out. It was a great team effort that we can all be proud of. To finish first and third is pretty amazing. Now we will try to compete for the series championship.”
The start to the ‘25 campaign couldn’t have gone any better for Mies and Vervisch, both of whom are embarking on their first full season of IMSA competition after running the Michelin Endurance Cup schedule for Ford Multimatic Motorsports in 2024. The Daytona victory has only whetted their appetite for more.
“It was always a dream of mine, I always wanted to come here full-time,” said Mies, a 35-year-old German, who scored a GTD class win at Motul Petit Le Mans in 2017. “IMSA goes to incredible places. I like the racetracks here way more than in Europe. There are no discussions about track limits; it’s track, grass, wall, and this is how I like it. To finally drive on these tracks now will be incredible.
“Last year, obviously we had to learn a lot about the car and had to learn that the competition is very high,” he added. “You just don’t show up and dominate everyone else. There are incredibly good drivers, teams, and manufacturers here. I feel like a year later now we have learned so much. Just as a team, as a car and everything, we are a lot better, we are maximizing our potential. We are aware of the strength and the weakness of our car, and we keep improving every race.”
Mies and Vervisch, a 38-year-old Belgian, may be new to IMSA. Vervisch has previous North American race experience on some IMSA tracks from a year racing Formula Atlantic open-wheel cars in 2009.
But they are fully aware of the longtime battle for supremacy between Ford and Chevrolet and the current fight between Ford Multimatic Motorsports and longtime IMSA kingpin Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, among the rest of the stacked eight manufacturer-strong GTD PRO class field.
“I think it’s quite a struggle, the battle between Ford and Chevrolet,” Vervisch acknowledged. “(Saturday at the Rolex 24) we met Jim Farley (Ford Motor Company President and CEO), and he said, ‘Whatever you do, you have to be in front of Chevrolet’ – as a joke, of course.
“But we were aware of this, and I’m super proud that we could stay ahead and maybe out-strategy them. We did some very gutsy calls, so big congrats to the team for that.”
