Dark Horse R is in Aquilante’s “Wheelhouse” Ahead of Debut

Andrew Aquilante said the Ford Mustang Dark Horse R is in his “wheelhouse” as he prepares for his debut in Mustang Challenge at the final round of the season at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval this weekend.

Aquilante is a 15-time SCCA champion, with nine Touring 1 and six in the GT2 category titles. He also has a long history of success with the Blue Oval, with nine of his SCCA titles coming behind the wheel of production-based Ford Mustangs.

He also finished second in the 2015 Pirelli World Challenge GTS standings, having completed in a Ford Mustang Boss 302S.

The 38-year-old mentioned that the design and platform of the Dark Horse R was a motivating factor in selecting Mustang Challenge over other single-make championships.

“I think it really boils down to the type of car,” Aquilante told Sportscar365. “These cars are what I would consider my wheelhouse. I look at the glory days of IMSA GS as being 2005 to 2014 and this is basically a GS car from that era. It’s a challenge to drive and I like that sort of thing.

“The [Super] Trofeo car and the Porsche Cup Car are cool cars but in this day and age, where everything is going paddle shift and all that sort of stuff, it’s an old school car.

“That also changes the affordability of certain things throughout a weekend. The crew costs and what it takes to run a car.”

Aquilante revealed that he was part of the testing and development team for the Dark Horse R, which helped him get seat time in the production-based Mustang prior to this weekend.

However, Sportscar365 understands that this Friday’s practice sessions were his first time driving the Dark Horse R in its current iteration after upgrades were brought to the car ahead of this season.

“I did a lot of driving for Ford last year in terms of development stuff, so I know all the buttons and switches and all those sorts of things,” he said. “And it’s a Mustang. It’s a V8, heavy, it makes good power and has small tires.

“It was really cool to be a part of that and see the series launch.”

Aquilante will compete under the Robert Noaker Racing tent this weekend in the No. 32 entry and said his goals for the weekend are exploratory as he examines the possibility of launching a Mustang Challenge or Mustang Cup campaign next year.

“This is a fact-finding mission to understand where we could potentially help customers who would want to buy a Dark Horse R and or run the series, whether it be here or in [Mustang] Cup,” he said.

“There’s a lot of different potential paths. Who knows what the future holds? Sure, it would be very cool to be able to run the full season, but that takes cubic dollars, which, without a critical mass of customers, is hard to pull off.

“The goal here is understanding what the car is and what the series is. Seeing it in action and feeling it in action and racing it.

“It’s like moving to a new school on the last week of the school year. We’re here at the last race of the season, jumping in. It’s a fun challenge. It’s fun to be back in a pro-level paddock.”

The club racing veteran also noted that he wanted to see where he stacks up when compared with some of the series’ top drivers, like the now two-time series Dark Horse class champion, Robert Noaker.

“The ultimate goal would be to give Robert a run for this money,” said Aquilante. “He’s the benchmark and he’s proven he’s got the experience in the car. Joining the school year at the end of the year, it’s much harder to step into that. But that’s why we do it. It’s a challenge.

“Let’s try to measure up and see where I stack up.

“After racing this track on iRacing, I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s a cool place and I want to go race there.’ And to be here on a NASCAR weekend and the excitement behind it is a cool feeling.”

Notably, the SCCA National Championship Runoffs are happening this weekend at Road America, though Aquilante has elected to make his Mustang Challenge debut this weekend in Charlotte, rather than defending his Touring 1 title from 2024.