While the new 5.0 liter engine in the BOSS 302R Mustang endured teething problems this year in Grand-Am Grand-Sport competition, it dominated the recent NASA national championship at Miller Motorsports Park. The 2011 Mustang’s first road racing championship was captured by Dean Martin and Rehagen Racing of Livonia, Michigan on September 19th. The new car did not shine in American Iron qualifying, but during the race Martin came from the back of the pack to win. Second place went to David Royce and third place went to Ross Murray, both in Ford Mustangs making American Iron a Ford pony car sweep.
While some may say that Rehagen Racing is a professional level team competing in a grassroots organization like NASA, the 2011 Mustang racecar was developed and constructed in just 60 days. Quite impressive considering most NASA American Iron entries are well sorted Camaros, SN-95 or Fox bodied Mustangs with hundreds of laps in the log books.
To pull the project together in record time, Rehagen worked with Ford Racing and the car served as a test bed the new 5.0-liter Ford Racing crate engine. With the car starting from a body in white, the Rehagen team spent hundreds of hours building the car from scratch and updating the new engine for road race conditions. No word on future plans for the NASA American Iron Championship winning Mustang, the team is evaluating series rules before committing to a 2011 schedule.