Multimatic to Forgo 2019-20 WEC Race Program

Photo: Drew Gibson/Ford

Multimatic has not lodged entries for the 2019-20 FIA World Endurance Championship season although remains open to supporting potential Ford GT customers in the championship and abroad, according to company boss Raj Nair.

The Canadian-based firm, which operates the Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GTs in the WEC, will not run the mid-engined super car under its own team banner following Ford’s exit from factory competition following next month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Ford’s IMSA program, run internally by CGR, will continue until the end of the 2019 WeatherTech Championship season, with its future still unclear.

Nair, the President and COO of Multimatic, said they’ve “always” been in dialogue from teams wishing to run the Multimatic-built Fords, although nothing is confirmed at this point beyond Keating Motorsports’ effort at Le Mans this year.

Ben Keating, who purchased a car for his upcoming Le Mans GTE-Am effort, with support from Multimatic, hasn’t ruled out additional WEC races and even admitted he considered lodging a full-season entry. 

“Multimatic designed and built the race cars, so we’d be happy to support it,” Nair told Sportscar365.

“We’re more a factory support-type effort. if someone wants to go racing, we’ll do support but Multimatic on our own entry, it’s just not what we do, unless it’s in support of the business in other ways, like selling GT4 Mustangs.”

Nair confirmed the only Multimatic-badged effort for the time being is in the British GT Championship with its two-car Ford Mustang GT4 program, which is aimed to sell cars to the European market.

Having been deeply involved in the creation of the Ford GT in his former executive role at Ford, Nair is hopeful the car will still be racing next year, despite the lack of factory cars. 

“I hope so,” he said. “It’s a great car. The drivers enjoy it, the teams enjoy it. It’s a good car to work on, it’s a good car to engineer and a good car to drive. I hope it does keep racing.”

WEC Facing Significantly Reduced GTE-Pro Field

With the absence of the two factory Fords and BMW’s recent withdrawal from the series, the WEC could be faced with a reduced six-car grid in GTE-Pro and down to three manufacturers, from five.

Porsche appears set to defend its GT World Championship title with two Manthey-run entries, while Aston Martin and AF Corse will also return, although the number of cars have not been disclosed.

The deadline for full-season WEC entry requests closed on May 21 for the 2019-20 season, which kicks off at Silverstone in September.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John