Photo: Ford
Next month’s 2019 Le Mans 24 Hours is the last time we’ll get to see a factory-sanctioned Ford team on the starting grid of one of the World Endurance Championship's most famous races, at least for the foreseeable future. And to mark the occasion, special livery has been commissioned for the four cars of the Ford Chip Ganassi Racing team.
The current Ford factory racing program is barely three years old, having been started in 2016 with the help of the GT race car. The return was the carmaker's way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its 1966 Le Mans win. For unspecified reasons, the Blue Oval decided it's time to call it quits after this year's race.
To mark its exit, Ford painted all four Chip Ganassi Racing GTs in special livery and added a fifth model to the roster, one that races in the GTE Am class with Keating Motorsports. Each of the five cars is a tribute to former Ford racing glory cars and achievements.
The #66 Ford GT (Stefan Mücke, Olivier Pla) is painted black to honor the Ford GT40 that won Le Mans in 1966. The #67 (Andy Priaulx, Harry Tincknell, and Jonathan Bomarito) is a tribute to the 1967 winner GT40.
The #68 (Dirk Müller, Joey Hand and Sébastien Bourdais) is the most recent Le Mans winner, being on the top of the podium in 2016, exactly during the carmaker’s return. This car will wear the exact same livery as it did three years ago.
As for #69 (Scott Dixon, Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook), this one comes painted in the same colors as the GT40 that came in second in 1966. And last, but not least, Keating Motorsports’ #85 is using the colors of Wynn’s, the title sponsor.
Ford's WEC program as a whole is nearly gone, its only factory racing aspirations left to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The Le Mans 24 Hours kicks off on June 15 in France.
To mark its exit, Ford painted all four Chip Ganassi Racing GTs in special livery and added a fifth model to the roster, one that races in the GTE Am class with Keating Motorsports. Each of the five cars is a tribute to former Ford racing glory cars and achievements.
The #66 Ford GT (Stefan Mücke, Olivier Pla) is painted black to honor the Ford GT40 that won Le Mans in 1966. The #67 (Andy Priaulx, Harry Tincknell, and Jonathan Bomarito) is a tribute to the 1967 winner GT40.
The #68 (Dirk Müller, Joey Hand and Sébastien Bourdais) is the most recent Le Mans winner, being on the top of the podium in 2016, exactly during the carmaker’s return. This car will wear the exact same livery as it did three years ago.
As for #69 (Scott Dixon, Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook), this one comes painted in the same colors as the GT40 that came in second in 1966. And last, but not least, Keating Motorsports’ #85 is using the colors of Wynn’s, the title sponsor.
Ford's WEC program as a whole is nearly gone, its only factory racing aspirations left to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The Le Mans 24 Hours kicks off on June 15 in France.
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