The last round before the Le Mans 24 Hours is just about to start and the Ford team are getting ready to bring their GTs to the World Endurance Championship (WEC) Six Hours of Spa. Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GTs will be back on track at the FIA championship in Belgium later this week on 6th May.
This is just over two weeks after the team made its debut at the WEC in Silverstone, and now its gunning for a podium finish. Spa-Franchorchamps Grand Prix Circuit is one of the favourite tracks of most international racing car drivers, so there’s a lot of anticipation for this weekend’s events. It’s a demanding seven-kilometre track that weaves through the Ardennes Forest and there are difficult tests of skill that include legendary corners like Eau Rouge and Blanchimont.
This is what makes the course at Spa so perfect as a last rehearsal for the Le Mans track, as its difficult conditions and sharp corners push the competitors’ skills to the very limit. After finishing fourth and fifth in their debut race at the Six Hours of Silverstone, the Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Team went for an endurance test at the Motorland Aragon circuit in Spain. The aim of this was to take the Ford GT’s capabilities as far as possible in safe conditions, so the team knows exactly what lengths it can take at Le Mans.
George Howard-Chappell, WEC team principal, said: “We completed a run that was comfortably longer than the Le Mans 24 hours, which gives us great confidence in the reliability of the cars.” It’s so important to know what the limits are of the vehicle you use, and having realised what these are, Mr Howard-Chappell believes that the Ford GT will be able to “improve on our Silverstone result and make it onto the podium”.
At Silverstone Stefan Mucke finished in fifth place in the #66 Ford GT at Silverstone with Oliver Pia and Billy Johnson, but the German racer has his sights set higher. We can’t wait to see what’s going to happen this weekend, as the Ford GTs take to GTE Qualifying on Friday to hopefully race in the WEC Six Hours of Spa endurance race on Saturday.
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