The Ford Racing Mustang Challenge, a professional racing series co-developed by Ford Racing and Miller Motorsports Park, will come to an end this season. Series officials have announced that the season ending event at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, UT, is the last to be run.
Utilizing the Larry Miller-developed Ford Mustang FR500S and sanctioned by the Grand-Am Road Racing, the Mustang Challenge has been a support series to major professional road racing events across North America for the past three years.
“It is with mixed emotions that we announce the end of the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge,” offered Miller Group President Greg Miller. “On a personal level it has been fun and exhilarating for me to have been a part of this series from the time of the earliest discussions between Ford Racing and MMP.”
The Mustang Challenge series was first announced at the SEMA show in November, 2007, and launched at Road Atlanta in May, 2008, when Trans-Am Champion Dorsey Schroeder waved the first green flag for twenty spec Mustang cars. Built at the Auto Alliance assembly plant in Flat Rock, MI, the FR500S Mustang made Ford history being the first-ever production-built vehicle to go straight to the track.
“The Ford Racing Mustang Challenge has been an excellent partner for GRAND-AM, so we are naturally disappointed that 2010 will be the last season of operation for the series,” said David Spitzer, GRAND-AM Vice President of Competition. “Thank you to the Miller family, Ford, and the entire Miller Motorsports Park organization for what they have been able to accomplish since the inception of the Mustang Challenge.”
Two-season champion, Andrew Caddel was the only driver ever to be presented a trophy by the series visionary, Larry H. Miller. Miller, whose empire included dozens of car dealerships in the Rockies, Miller Motorsports Park and the Larry H. Miller Charities, died in February of last year. Since late 2008, the Mustang Challenge series has generated over $100,000 in support of the Austin Hatcher Foundation for Pediatric Cancer.
Two events remain in the series. Next on the schedule is at Autobahn Raceway in Joliet, IL, followed by the series finale at Miller Motorsports Park. As part of the Ford Racing Championship Package, the series champion will in the season-opening GRAND-AM Sports Car Challenge at Daytona International Raceway, early in 2011.