The new Evo kit for the Ford Mustang GT3 made its race debut at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, where the array of GTD Pro and GTD teams showed flashes of pace, but fell short of another Daytona victory, with three out of those four cars suffering terminal failures.
As promising as Daytona was at times, it’s at this weekend’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring where the Mustang GT3 ‘Evo’ should benefit from the range of improvements to the suspension, aerodynamics, and brakes, according to Ford factory driver Mike Rockenfeller.
“I think, this track, we benefit more from it than in Daytona, in terms of handling and the way the car drives,” says Rockenfeller, after driving in Practice 1 on Thursday morning.
“If you see the lap time (in Practice 1), it doesn’t look that great – but in terms of how the car feels and how it performs, it’s pretty okay. We improved the braking a little bit. The downforce level is a bit higher, so that helps everywhere. Overall, it’s an improvement.
“Also suspension, with the geo(metry), we changed some stuff there. I have the feeling this morning that in Turn 1 and 17, I had the best Mustang I’ve ever had. So that was nice. And those corners are important: You want to have confidence to carry speed, and they are very bumpy and high-speed. I think there, we made some gains.”
Despite the positive feedback, though, Ford Racing ended Thursday’s practices facing an uphill battle to feature in the fight for GTD Pro victory. Across the two daytime practices, the best laps of the #64 and #65 Ford Racing Mustang GT3s were the slowest in the category; in the night session, they finished up ninth and 12th. “We are not the quickest, so it’s going to be tough,” Rockenfeller admitted.
“But I think clearly, in IMSA, the beauty is that no matter what, the race always unfolds differently than you expect, or there’s always stuff happening. It’s a long race, you know? It’s a tough one.
“Last year, we finished fifth with our car. And my guess is that if we could make it to the top five or six, I think we did a good job. That’s my current feeling, because it is looking like it’s not gonna be easy for us, pace-wise.”
Rockenfeller, who won the GTLM class at Sebring in 2017, also spent a bit of time trying to dial in the Mustang GT3 Evo’s ideal setup ahead of Qualifying, where he expects a clearer indication of where Ford stands heading into the race on Saturday.
From there, he and full-season co-drivers Ben Barker and Dennis Olsen can get a solid finish to make up for a spectacular engine failure at Daytona, giving them a boost for the rest of the season before Rockenfeller embarks on his new challenge in the European Le Mans Series, as part of the new Proton Competition/Ford Racing LMP2 programme.
“It is a long championship, and you have those races where you will have the chance to win, and you need to take those,” Rockenfeller continues. “And the ones where you are maybe on the back foot, you need to maximise your points. Let’s see.
“Last year, we finished third in the championship, and we won two races (Detroit and Indianapolis). We made one or two mistakes; if we hadn’t made those, we would have had a chance to fight for the championship.
“For me, that is the goal this year, even though I’m not doing the full year. I hope that the team and my car, or the other car, can fight for the championship. But right now, we’ll focus on this race.”
Image courtesy of Jack Webster
