Hand, Mueller Focused on ‘Logging Miles’ in Mustang GT3

Photo: John Dagys

Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller said the primary focus of this week’s IMSA-sanctioned test at Daytona International Speedway will be to “log miles” with the Ford Mustang GT3 ahead of the car’s competition debut in next month’s Rolex 24.

The longtime driver pairing have been reunited for the 2024 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season, sharing the No. 65 entry in the GTD Pro class, alongside the sister No. 64 Ford to be driven by Harry Tincknell and Mike Rockenfeller.

All full season drivers except for Rockenfeller were previously part of the factory Ford GT program that ran from 2016-19 with success in IMSA’s GT Le Mans category, as well in FIA World Endurance Championship competition.

“This is a big deal because it’s the start of another project,” Hand told Sportscar365.

“When you think back to knowing how the Ford GT program went, when we rolled in here at the end of 2015 to start that project, everyone was new at Ford.

“Now we know what happened there. And I think there’s history to be made again. There’s cool stuff we can do.

“We have a Mustang racing again. There’s a lot of things that go through my head.

“When you’re racing all the time and doing the same every year, you’re kinda like, ‘You’re racing.’ But this one for me is different because it’s kind of like a comeback.”

Thursday’s start of on-track action for GT machinery will mark the first time the Multimatic-built Mustang GT3 has taken to the Daytona high banks.

“In terms of reliability, we have not been here on this track,” Mueller told Sportscar365. “Daytona is a very specific track but the engine has probably been on the dyno [simulating this track].

“We have been on different tracks in the U.S. for sure.

“We’ll know more by the end of this week. The car is still brand-new. It’s the very first two new racing cars.

“Before we were with test [chassis]. We did a shakedown and a test with these, so this is the third event for the cars.

“Everything is brand-new, prepped from the team. It’s also a transition from developing, having a test car, to the transition over to building race cars.

“As we speak, they are building race cars, which is very interesting.

“Last week, I went to the shop in Mooresville [N.C.] to do a seat fitting. At the same time there were cars already getting ready. It looked really, really cool. It’s very exciting.”

When asked what the primary focus will be, at least with Thursday’s running, which comes without any of IMSA’s ‘targeted performance testing’, Hand said it will simply be about getting additional mileage.

“Any time you have a brand new car coming in, it’s still about miles,” he said. “I don’t think we’re concerned that the car is going to do what we don’t already know.

“I think it’s just a matter of running on a track that’s this fast and this style and just see how it works.

“For me, in my mind, it would be doing the miles along with doing this BoP test and letting the car run the laps, and gather data on that.

“Tomorrow is going to be about getting the car on track, balance check, make adjustments and make the car feel good and just log miles.

“Nobody is going to be against logging miles.”

Mueller added: “In the engineering department, there’s books full of what they want to do. There’s a lot of stuff we’ll definitely discover.

“Even though we have done tests prior, we want to repeat stuff and do simple things.”

New Michelin Tire An Unknown for GTD Pro/GTD Classes

Both Hand and Mueller spoke on the unknowns of Michelin’s new Pilot Sport Pro GT H1, which will be making its wide-scale debut this week ahead of the 2024 season.

“We don’t know a lot about this new Michelin tire,” said Hand. “Nobody does. I think that stands out on the list, on where’s the tire deg at here. Is there one end of the tire that degs higher? Is it strong?”

Mueller feels the new tire could play into their benefit, with it being the new variable for the entire class.

“We have been testing lots of miles, over here and over in Europe,” he said. “We’ve been able to discover different tires.

“We did the Goodyear testing. We did the Pirelli testing. At the same time we were able to get the new Michelin for the first time, very recently for a short test.

“That means it’s different. Whatever you did on the [Michelin] S9M is not the same in the new tire in that respect. So that’s something new for everybody, which is good.”

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