Ward: Strong Early Interest in Mustang Challenge Spa Invite

Photo: Wes Duenkel/Ford

Ford Racing has received a strong level of early interest from drivers and teams wanting to compete in next year’s IMSA-sanctioned Mustang Challenge Spa Invitational according to the manufacturer’s global customer racing manager Chris Ward.

Announced for next June in support of the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, it will mark the second invitational event for the Ford Mustang Dark Horse R, which now successfully races in three different Mustang one-make series around the world.

“The customers that enjoyed the 2025 Le Mans Invitational have responded really, really positively to a new track, a new adventure in Spa,” Ward told Sportscar365.

“Every team that participated at Le Mans has raised their hand and said, ‘We’d love to come to Spa.’ That’s great and really encouraging.

“Of course this year we’ve got the advantage of our antipodean colleagues in Australia who are very excited to join us and are rifling through their calendars and working out how they can make all of that work.

“We’ll obviously help them with all of the logistics of it.”

Ward said they’ve received considerable interest from European-based teams, in a market that does not currently feature a Ford single-make series.

“There’s also new teams from lots of different paddocks, some unexpected, that have reached out and said, ‘This looks really cool. We heard great reports about Le Mans. We’d love to come and play.’

With last year’s inaugural Le Mans Invitational having ultimately been capped to 40 entries, Ward envisions a similar grid size for Spa.

“I think we’ve all agreed as a team that operationally would be our goal,” he said. “Trying to manage more than that, from a logistics standpoint, is quite problematic.

“With the success of that event, there’s paddock space limitations. Then you layer on supporting everybody from an engineering point of view.

“You layer on supporting everybody from a parts perspective and you layer on supporting everybody with fabulous hospitality that Ford Racing is renowned for, doing more than 40 cars would be quite a challenge.

“I don’t think we’ll be turning anyone away but we’ll see.

“Michelin has been a great supporter, the ORECA Group is already on board.

“It’s putting the band back together, really, and already thinking about where we could go next. It doesn’t stop.”

While there are numerous iconic circuits around the world, Ward indicated that future Mustang Challenge Invitationals will likely remain in Europe, for a variety of reasons.

“Given we’re America’s Race Team and a large number of our customers are from the U.S., taking them to Europe is a real experience for them to be able to drive these legendary circuits over there,” he said.

“It gives the families a great opportunity to go enjoy the summer in Europe, which many of them did following Le Mans.

“At the moment we’re really only looking at the European continent. But who knows which other circuits.

“Given the importance of Le Mans, I could see another visit to Le Mans in the not-too-distant future.

“We don’t have any news there right now. But wouldn’t a return there be an ideal way to show the Ford Racing Sports Car Pyramid: Dark Horse R, GT3 and Hypercar? ”

As for launching a dedicated Mustang Challenge series in Europe, Ward stressed they must take a measured approach.

“We still feel that it’s a market worth us investigating, in addition to other markets,” he said.

“The Ford Racing product is less well known in Europe. The market for one-make racing… I wouldn’t call it oversaturated but it’s fully saturated in Europe and very mature.

“If we were to arrive in Europe in the future, it needs to be with the right approach at the right time for that market.”

With Daytona International Speedway set to open the 2027 Mustang Challenge North America season, and Mount Panorama to be featured on the Motorcraft Mustang Cup calendar for the first time next year as well, Ward indicated there could be extra incentive from competitors wanting to tick off the iconic circuits.

“Part of our evolving strategy is that you could imagine a situation where a customer might participate at Daytona and then ship their car to Spa, for example, and why not go all the way around the world and end up in Australia at Bathurst?” he asked.

“Because the last round of Motorcraft Mustang Cup Australia is at Mount Panorama.

“For a customer to have an opportunity with their car to do an around-the-world tour at those three iconic tracks, I think it’s something that could in the future be really, really cool for our customers and is something we’re investigating.”

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