By Team Ford Performance Correspondent
Joey Hand spent three seasons racing in the European-based Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters championship. He returned to America in 2015 and joined Ford Performance as a key part of the Ford EcoBoost developmental team.
On Sunday, Hand will again join his Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates racing teammates at Watkins Glen for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen. The 36-year-old driver is looking forward to the event for reasons beyond the obvious.
“The new Ford GT -- we can finally talk about it!” said Hand, who with Scott Pruett shares driving duties of the No. 01 Ford EcoBoost Riley DP in the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.
It’s hardly been a boring week for Hand, who spent the early part of the week testing the car at Putnam Park, just west of the team’s shop in Indianapolis.
Hand looks like a kid just given the keys to a candy store when the subject of the new Ford GT arose. He didn’t talk about the No. 01 race car test long before the subject again turned to the latest Ford to take on Le Mans.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Hand half-asks, half-exclaims. “I’m very proud to say I’ve been a part of the Ford GT’s development, particularly with respect to the Ford EcoBoost engine, the same engine as we have in our race car. Whoever gets in that car -- and I’m talking about just the street version -- is going to have one sweet engine. They’re gonna love it!”
Abandoning for a moment thoughts of the Ford GT, whose GT40 Le Mans-winning ancestors likewise had a homologated street version, Hand turned his attention to the test earlier this week.
“It’s the first test when I’ve been the sole driver of our EcoBoost-powered car,” Hand said. “I really needed the seat time in it and enjoyed the test immensely. I got in a lot of seat time learning some of the things I hadn’t yet really fully understood. I feel far more comfortable in the car.”
Some help to the team’s race car is coming from IMSA in the form of a larger opening in an engine air-intake restrictor the team has had for the 2014 and the first five races of the 2015 seasons, although a smaller increase than either Hand or Pruett would like.
“It’s a tough job,” Pruett said with respect to the sanctioning body’s need to provide tight competition. “We should’ve either had an increase in the air intake’s diameter or changes allowed in the body long before now because the help has come at a time when it’s not helping us in the points championship; plain and simple.
“Our V-6 EcoBoost engine is unlike anything seen before and with engine electronics playing such a huge role nowadays, it’s probably been difficult for the sanctioning body to gauge the balances necessary to provide tight competition.”
Pruett couldn’t help but talk about the Ford GT.
“I’ve gotten a really good shot of adrenaline from all the excitement surrounding the Ford GT program, particularly in regards to our Ford EcoBoost engine. Everything we’ve done has been aimed at making the Ford GT the best car on the road. And it’s such an incredible car to drive. I’m very proud to be an ongoing part of that program.”
While at the recently completed 24 Hours of Le Mans, Pruett got to do a few things many could only wish to do.
“We filmed for three days,” Pruett said of a photo shoot centered on the car’s return to France in an effort to reprise Ford’s success at one of the world’s most recognizable races, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“I got to drive the Ford GT in Paris up the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe (de l'Étoile), the city streets, out in the countryside and at Le Mans. I’m telling you, I’m getting goosebumps again just talking about it.”
“It has been such a huge adrenaline pump that I can’t wait to get back into the competition this weekend at The Glen.”
Ford’s excitement at Watkins Glen International doesn’t end with the Ford GT because the new Ford Shelby GT350R-C will be showing the new stuff of which it is made.
Making it debut Saturday in the Continental Tire 150 at The Glen is the latest Mustang in an evolutionary chain of Mustangs that in time stretches all the way to 1964, when Ford Motor Company’s innovation started what soon became known as racing’s spirited “Pony Car” era.
Because the “flat-plane crankshaft”, a.k.a., 180-degree crank, couldn’t simply replace the cross-plane crank that for decades has been an essential part of the reciprocating engine, a new engine design had to come from the minds of Ford engineers and now can be found in the Mustang.
Gone with that cross-plane crankshaft are eight large counter weights and thus shaved from the new power plant are huge amounts of weight, allowing for quicker revs, the ability to push out exhaust gases far faster than has been the case in the past and together provide a far-faster throttle response in the Shelby GT350R.
Also gone are cantilever ball joints, replaced by cross-axis joints that work with the Ford Shelby GT350R’s cross-link suspension and stiffer control arm delivering a better feel for the road and responsive handling most often found in the world’s most expensive sports cars.
Look for the new 2015 Ford Shelby GT350R-C to bear the Nos. 15 and 158 out of the Multimatic Motorsports stable for now. Expect a lot of new Ford Shelby GT350R-C numbers in the future.
Live television coverage of the Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen begins with the race start on Fox Sports 1 at 10 a.m. EDT, Sunday, June 28, and spans four hours until 2 p.m. EDT, when the coverage shifts to Fox Sports 2 until just beyond the race's conclusion.
The Continental Tire 150 at The Glen will be broadcast live Saturday beginning at 12:25 p.m. EDT. A delayed broadcast of the race can be seen July 5 on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 10 a.m. EDT.
Source: racing.ford.com
Source: racing.ford.com
