Mustang Challenge Title “Still Soaking In” for Loftsgard

Photo: Wes Duenkel/Ford

Cole Loftsgard said winning the Mustang Challenge North America championship in his and Round 3 Racing’s rookie year in the IMSA-sanctioned single-make series is “still soaking in.”

The 31-year-old locked up the Dark Horse title with a pair of second-placed finishes in last weekend’s season finale at Circuit of The Americas, races that were won by championship rival Devin Anderson.

“I really wanted to win Race 1 [on Saturday] because that would have locked it up,” Loftsgard told Sportscar365. “This has never been a strong track for me, unfortunately.

“I thought we had a pretty good car in practice but maybe I was a little bit too conservative with my feedback and the car picked up a lot of understeer in the race.

“I just didn’t have anything for the 22 [car], especially the first ten minutes there, so I just settled in and thought I just need to take what’s given to me.

“[Sunday] was a little bit more of a measured approach.

“I could finish any position but last. I just wanted to get through Lap 1 clean, not hit the curbs, take care of the tires, and try to get fast lap, which we did.

“When we got fast lap, that locked it up.

“Devin and TechSport were really good all weekend; they had great pace but I wanted to make it interesting and make it a race there in the end.

“But it was good to just settle in and take what was given to me.”

Loftsgard won the title in a season that saw seven wins in 12 races, which kicked off with a sweep of the opening weekend at Sebring International Raceway in March.

“Sebring was just a phenomenal weekend for us,” he said. “We absolutely nailed the setup, the car was great to drive all weekend. It was great to start the year that way.

“I think it gave us a lot of confidence. But after Laguna we knew it was going to be a fight. I was just taking it race by race. Every victory could be a big swing because there was momentum in either direction.

“The 22 [car] seemed to be getting stronger and stronger as the year went on. It got to the point where racecraft was really important between us.

“I’m very proud of the effort. I feel like we had to win races all kinds of different ways this year, which is cool. It wasn’t a monotone season by any imagination.”

Loftsgard revealed that the Brad McCall-owned team only tested twice over the course of the year, a pre-Sebring outing and a session prior to the penultimate round of the season at Virginia International Raceway.

He credited the team’s longtime engineer, Steve “Mase” Mason, for being able to put the Ford Mustang Dark Horse R in the right setup window on each weekend.

“That was the budget we had this year,” said Loftsgard regarding the lack of testing. “Considering that, I think that’s a real testament to the team that we were able to unload that good pretty consistently and get it done.

“Coming into this year, I wanted to be competitive, I wanted to win some races. That was my goal: to be in the conversation for the championship and have some race wins.

“Then after Sebring the goal pivoted to, ‘OK, we need to try and win this.’

“It’s still soaking in. As I was telling Brad, it’s a feeling of relief right now more than anything because the last few months, I’ve just been thinking about every kind of way you could lose this thing.

“It’s not a good mental path to go down. You need to clear your head of that.

“I was just trying to take it one race at a time.”

Loftsgard Targeting Dual GT4 Program in 2027

With his first major sports car title in the books, Loftsgard is looking to follow in the footsteps of 2024 and 2025 series champion Robert Noaker in making the step up the Ford Racing Pyramid to Mustang GT4 competition next year.

“I’m excited to see where the leads,” he said. “This is really going to help me for next year, with the funding Ford provides.

“I’m hoping, if I can get some sponsor dollars and some other things work out, I can do a dual GT4 program in the U.S. and Europe.

“I’d like to do GT4 Europe and GT4 America. That’s the goal.

“I want to get as much seat time in the Mustang GT4 car as possible. Now the real work starts.

“It’s great to get this year and to win this, but for my ultimate goal, I’ve got to go up against the best drivers in GT4 in the world and prove myself against them.”

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