Ford Performance and Chip Ganassi Racing will sport two special liveries on their Ford GTs for the 2019 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, which will be shown live on the NBC family of networks beginning Jan. 24.
The special paint will commemorate key moments in IMSA as the series kicks off its 50th anniversary year.
The No. 66 of Joey Hand, Dirk Muller and Sebastien Bourdais will carry colors replicating Roush Racing’s Motorcraft Ford from 1985. Wally Dallenbach Jr., Doc Bundy and John Jones drove that car. Jones went on to win the IMSA driver’s championship that season.
The No. 67 of Richard Westbrook, Ryan Briscoe and Scott Dixon will pay tribute to Castrol oil with retro looking green and red stripes.
“We’re excited to show off our Ford GTs in a new way, and at the same time join IMSA in celebrating its 50th anniversary,” said Mark Rushbrook, global director, Ford Performance Motorsports at IMSA.com.
Ganassi won the last two Rolex 24 GTLM titles, bringing their total to eight.
“I’m really excited and proud that Ford is doing something to celebrate the 50th anniversary of IMSA,” Westbrook said. “Ford and Castrol had a lot of successful history in those years, so for the two to come together and do something as eye-catching as these new liveries, I’m going to be really proud driving that car. I’ve seen enough footage of cars in that livery going around Daytona before the bus stop chicane was put in, which was a very iconic period of IMSA racing, so to be in an iconic car in that livery trying to defend our title will be something really special.”
#FordIMSA | Time to switch it up. For this year’s #Rolex24, we’ll be throwing back with @MQL_Racing & @Castrol! #IMSA50 #TBT pic.twitter.com/hm0nfmxhrM
— Ford Performance (@FordPerformance) January 10, 2019