Barker Confident “Results Will Come” for Ford, Proton

Ben Barker remains convinced that more strong results are on the horizon for Proton Competition and Ford in the FIA World Endurance Championship as the Blue Oval seeks to add more podium finishes to its tally heading to its home race at Circuit of The Americas.

The Ford Mustang GT3 has scored one podium finish in WEC so far this season, which came when Stefano Gattuso, Giammarco Levorato and Dennis Olsen finished second in class in May’s 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.

Since then, Barker, Bernardo Sousa and Ben Tuck picked up seventh place at the 24 Hours of Le Mans before Proton recorded a double DNF in the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo.

Barker’s No. 77 car encountered an exhaust problem while the sister No. 88 machine fell victim to a front damper issue in the third hour.

Despite that, Barker struck an upbeat figure speaking about Ford’s progress amidst its second season with the Mustang GT3, maintaining that performance has “improved massively” and expressing confidence that more strong results will follow.

“Of course, we’ve got these little niggling issues, which are obviously delaying us getting results sometimes,” Barker told Sportscar365.

“But, actually, the overall performance of the car has improved massively. And these things will get solved, 100 percent.

“The pace is looking better and the results will come. We’ve had results this year. The sister car got second, we got fourth at Spa.

“We’ve had pace at Imola, which we should have done a lot better there.

“Let’s wait for the rest of the season. We’re only halfway through and hopefully we get on the podium a few times.”

Barker was keen to put the Interlagos disappointment behind him, labelling it “a shame” but putting the focus on the next race at COTA.

The Lone Star Le Mans event will be a home race for Ford Performance, with the single-make Mustang Challenge series again appearing on the support bill similarly to last year.

Barker’s No. 77 Ford finished sixth at the Austin circuit last year, which was the Mustang GT3’s strongest result in its debut campaign outside of its maiden podium finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

“It’s a shame, because everyone worked tirelessly,” said Barker about the Interlagos outcome.

“We actually had some pace and we could have got some a good haul of points there. Not a podium, but a top five I think was possible.

“COTA [is a] home race. I think we showed fairly strong there last year so hopefully we can continue that and try and aim for a podium.”