RACING HISTORY: The great cars of racing: Ford Mustang
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
April 18, 2001DEARBORN, Mich. - If ever there was a car that appeared in the right place at the right time, Mustang was it. The Mustang was born 37 years ago today in 1964 ... and it was born to race.
In the early sixties, Ford and the other American automakers were "officially" out of racing. Racing was - and still is - recognized as a good way to promote an image of excitement and youthful spirit, and that time Ford was fighting an uphill battle to build such an image. However, Ford would win that battle with the introduction of the formidable "Total Performance" racing program of the mid- and late-sixties.
The "Total Performance" program would ultimately include the A.C. Cobra, the GT-40, the 427 and Boss 429 NASCAR and drag racing engines, the double overhead cam Ford Indy engine, the Ford-Cosworth DFV Formula One engine, and production cars like the Mustang. The name Mustang was suggested by executive stylist John Najjar because he was an aficionado of the P-51 Mustang fighter plane of World War II, and the wild-horse theme was adopted almost immediately.
The Mustang production car made its debut on April 17, 1964, at the New York World's Fair, amid high-volume sales and enthusiastic praise from automotive writers. Not much more than a month after its introduction, the Mustang was on the racetrack as a pace car where it led the 1964 Indianapolis 500. Before the year was out, however, Mustang was a winner in competition. Mustangs finished first and second in class in the 1964 Tour de France international rally -- an auspicious beginning, but merely a whisper of the thunder to come.
The first American assault came in drag racing, initially by individuals and dealer-sponsored teams. Racers squeezed 427 high-riser V8s into their Mustangs, and the "horses" were off and racing. By 1965, Ford was involved, with cars competing in NHRA's Factory Experimental, or A/FX class and the 427-cubic-inch single overhead cam V8 made a potent powerplant in Holman & Moody's A/FX Mustangs. Ten of these Mustangs were built, and five of them qualified in the Factory Stock Eliminator field at the '65 NHRA Winternationals where Bill Lawton drove his Tasca Ford Mustang A/FX to victory in the car's very first race.
Carroll Shelby, who had already distinguished himself with the Ford Shelby Cobra's impressive list of accomplishments, was asked what could be done to the Mustang to make it competitive in SCCA sports car competition. The resulting GT-350s were essentially stripped down Mustang 2+2s, but with modified suspension, shocks, steering, brakes and the Ford 289-cubic-inch V8. Jerry Titus, Bob Johnson and Mark Donohue drove GT-350's to national titles in 1965, and the GT-350 went on to win SCCA B-Production national championships for three straight years.
The inaugural year for the SCCA Trans-Am series was 1966, and Mustangs found a new racing home. Jerry Titus won the season finale at Riverside in a Shelby-prepared Mustang, and all told, Mustang racers won four of the seven races that season en route to the manufacturers' championship. That same year a new type of match-race car was evolving in drag racing as a crowd favorite - the first "Funny Cars" - and Holman & Moody built eight of these fiberglass-bodied 1966 Mustangs. At the 1967 U.S. Nationals, "Ohio" George Montgomery dominated the AA/GS division with his Mustang, powered by a supercharged 427 SOHC engine, and Mustang's record that year also included a Funny Car win by Tom Grove in the Spring Nationals.
The Mustang continued to be the car of choice for road and drag racers alike throughout the 1960s, enjoying factory support from Ford Motor Company. However budget cuts, oil embargoes and economic recession all contributed to the end of factory backing for Mustang's racing career in the 1970's, and to the end of the so-called "muscle-car era." But, of course, that didn't mean that the Mustang stopped racing.
Mustang was a favorite of short-track stock car racers and drag racers through most of the seventies. Dick Trickle raced a Mustang to a national record of 67 short track feature wins in one season, and drag racers like Connie Kalitta, Shirley Muldowney, Don Nicholson and Bob Glidden kept Mustang in the winner's circle.
The 1980's saw the resurrection of Ford's racing program, and Mustang figured prominently from the beginning. The turbocharged Miller Mustang, driven by Klaus Ludwig, came within a tenth of a second of winning its first race over the dominant Porsche 935 Turbos in IMSA GT competition, and by 1984, Ford Division had staked out the IMSA GTO series as the Mustang's turf. In SCCA road racing, the Mustang became the first domestic car ever to win the showroom stock a national championship when Ron Smaldone drove his turbocharged Mustang to victory at Road Atlanta.
Enter Jack Roush, who was to the Mustang in the eighties and nineties what Carroll Shelby was in the sixties. A Roush-prepared Mustang, driven by Willy T. Ribbs and Wally Dallenbach, Jr., won the GTO class in the three-hour IMSA season finale in 1984 at Daytona. That was the beginning of Mustang's reign as king of GTO, highlighted by consecutive drivers' and manufacturers' championships in 1985 and '86.
The Mustang marked its silver anniversary year, 1989, by competing in the Trans-Am Series. For Roush Racing, Dorsey Schroeder drove the so-called "anniversary car," numbered 25, scoring Mustang's first Silver Anniversary win in Dallas, which also put him on top of the drivers' point standings. Five more victories kept him on top for the rest of the season, winning the first title by a Mustang driver since Parnelli Jones in 1970.
The mid-1990's would see the Roush-prepared Mustangs dominate Trans-Am with continued factory support from Ford. From 1995 to 1997, Tommy Kendall would drive his Roush Mustang Cobra to 16 victories - including a record 11 straight in 1997 - and three consecutive Trans-Am championships before Ford withdrew its factory support following the 1997 campaign.
Today, the Mustang continues to make its mark both on and off the racetrack. Ten-time Funny Car champion John Force, the NHRA's winningest driver with close to 100 career victories, dominates the sport with his teammate, Tony Pedregon, in their Mustang Funny Cars. The Mustang also continues to live up to its grass roots heritage with special-edition racing versions, like the SVT Mustang Cobra R. The one sure thing about Mustang's future in racing is that it has one. It couldn't be any other way for a car that was born to race.
Text provided by Greg Shea
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