Ford Racing Returns: From Baja 1000 Raptors to Le Mans-Born Mustang GTD, the Blue Oval Goes Back to Its Roots
Ford retires the Performance badge and revives its iconic Racing brand, bringing lessons from the desert and the track directly into street-ready vehicles.
A Legacy Reborn
Ford isn’t just dusting off an old name—it’s bringing back a piece of its soul. The company has officially retired the Ford Performance banner and revived the legendary Ford Racing brand. This shift is more than marketing—it’s a mission to align Ford’s track efforts with the vehicles sitting in dealer showrooms.
The move echoes the roots of the company itself. In 1901, Henry Ford gambled his reputation on a homemade race car called Sweepstakes—and won. That victory launched Ford Motor Company. Fast-forward a century, and the message is the same: racing fuels innovation, and innovation fuels the vehicles we drive.
Why Racing, Why Now
According to Will Ford, great-grandson of Henry and head of the new division, “this is more than a name change. It’s the reintroduction of our racing brand, a reminder of why we race.” The new logo—a bold blue oval stamped with RACING—anchors that message.
What’s new is structure. Ford’s motorsport programs and performance engineering teams are now one unit. That means the same aerodynamicists and engineers building F1 or Le Mans cars are also shaping the next Raptor, Mustang, and Lightning. The racing shop and the showroom are now on the same pit crew.
Baja Lessons in Every Raptor
Nothing illustrates Ford’s race-to-road philosophy better than the F-150 Raptor. Born from desert racing, the Raptor has always been a Baja-bred beast. In 2023, the Raptor R went head-to-head with the Baja 1000—a race notorious for destroying trucks—and came out a winner.
That’s no coincidence. The same shocks, drivetrain, and chassis tech that conquered the Baja desert find their way into production Raptors. “Lessons learned in grueling desert races directly inform the engineering of our performance off-road vehicles,” Will Ford explained.
For enthusiasts, this is bragging rights on four wheels. When you mash the throttle on a Raptor, you’re piloting a truck with race-proven DNA.
Le Mans Engineering in a Mustang
Ford isn’t just talking about the desert—it’s looking at the world’s greatest road courses, too. The clearest example? The upcoming Mustang GTD.
This isn’t a regular pony car with fancy trim. Developed alongside the Mustang GT3 race car, the GTD is essentially a Le Mans racer wearing a license plate. Packing an 815-horsepower supercharged V8, race-spec suspension, and active aerodynamics, the GTD is engineered to run with Europe’s finest exotics.
CEO Jim Farley put it bluntly: “We didn’t engineer a road car for the track. We created a race car for the road.” And he proved it—lapping the Nürburgring in under seven minutes, the GTD joined an elite club that’s usually reserved for million-dollar hypercars.
Global Stage, Local Pride
Ford Racing won’t just be at Baja or Le Mans. The new banner will wave across Formula 1, NASCAR, Dakar, Australian Supercars, and endurance races like Daytona. The strategy is clear: dominate globally, but channel every lesson back home into vehicles Ford fans can buy.
Will Ford summed it up best: “The Blue Oval will be in front of a global audience like never before. And we are going in with the same goal we always have at Ford…to win them all. After all, we are America’s race team.”
The Road Ahead
The first Ford Racing-branded production model will debut in early 2026, alongside fresh campaigns at Dakar and Daytona. From there, expect more direct trickle-down tech—from track-tested EV components to advanced suspension systems—making Fords sharper, stronger, and more thrilling to drive.
Ford Racing is more than a revival. It’s a declaration that racing isn’t a hobby—it’s the company’s heartbeat. For customers, it means driving vehicles born in the crucible of competition, whether that’s a desert-tested Raptor or a Le Mans-bred Mustang GTD.
For enthusiasts, the checkered flag isn’t the end. It’s the start of a new era—one where Ford Racing proves every weekend that what wins on the track will make your daily drive even better.
