Ford Performance Renamed to Ford Racing

Image: Ford Racing

Ford Performance, Ford Motor Company’s motorsports and high-performance road car division, has been renamed to Ford Racing, which was announced on Thursday by Ford Racing general manager Will Ford.

Originally launched as Ford Performance in 2015, the rebranding back to Ford Racing comes amid the manufacturer’s upcoming global motorsports programs in the Hypercar class of the FIA World Endurance Championship and power unit provider to Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls in Formula 1.

Mark Rushbrook, who assumed the position as global director of Ford Performance’s road car division in January in addition to his long-standing leadership in the manufacturer’s motorsports department, will continue in the same role under the newly unified Ford Racing banner.

“This is not a marketing exercise,” Will Ford wrote in a blog post. “This is a promise. It signals a new, more focused mission to tear down the wall between our race teams and the engineering of the vehicles you drive every day on and off road.

“Under one global Ford Racing banner, our engineers and designers will develop our performance road cars right alongside our race cars. The technology that survives the Baja 1000 will be in the DNA of the next F-150 Raptor.

“The aerodynamic lessons we learn at Daytona and Le Mans will be sculpted into the body of the next Mustang.”

The name change takes effect this weekend, where Mustang GT3s are racing globally at Circuit of The Americas (WEC), Barber Motorsports Park (GT World Challenge America powered by AWS) and Salzburgring (ADAC GT Masters), with the single-make Mustang Dark Horse R in action for Mustang Challenge at COTA.

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