Exactly 50 years after Ford finished 1-2-3 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ford Performance unveiled the Ford GT race car at the La Sarthe circuit at this year's twice-around-the-clock classic. The car will be run under Chip Ganassi Racing in both the TUDOR Championship's GT Le Mans category and the GTE Pro category of the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2016, and, on Tuesday, it made its debut in America.
Multimatic Motorsports development drivers Scott Maxwell and Billy Johnson turned laps at Road America in the car in a single-day test ahead of this weekend's Continental Tire Road Race Showcase.
By lapping in about the 2:04 area, the car was under one-second off the pace of the 2014 GT Le Mans class pole time. With it being in the early stages of its development, this is very impressive for the car.
Tuesday's one-day test was just the third different track that the car has turned laps at, after it first lapped at Calabogie Motorsports Park back in May, followed by testing last month at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. These both came after it underwent straight-line testing at Michelin's Ladoux test facility in France, which came ahead of the program's unveiling at this year's Le Mans.
The Ford GT GTE-spec car will join the new Ferrari 488 GTB and IMSA-only BMW M6 GTLM at next month's mandatory Balance of Performance testing in France, among other 2016-spec GTE challengers.
Also taking to Road America on Tuesday, per Sportscar365 were Mazda Motorsports' gasoline-powered SKYACTIV LMP2-style prototype, the Alex Job Racing Porsche, and the two Prototype Challenge teams of PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports and RSR Racing.
The Continental Tire Road Race Showcase begins this Friday at Road America. Follow @VAVELSportsCar on Twitter for comprehensive coverage during the race weekend.
Aaron Durant is the editor of the VAVEL USA Racing section. Follow him on Twitter at @DoubleA291.