Mustang home town heroes play starring role at Mosport in Grand Am Cup
Ford Racing Technology and Multimatic Motorsports' earned their first dual podium of the year at the team's home track in Mosport last weekend.
Despite the fact joint championship leader Scott Maxwell and two key team members were absent at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France, Multimatic Motorsports took the victory with David Empringham and Gunnar Jeannette - the second victory for each and their first win as a combination.
James Gue was joined by Tom Milner who filled in for Maxwell. After starting eighth, the two young American drivers fought their way up to third place with Milner passing Terry Borcheller on the final lap of the race.
"I am very proud of my guys today. Myself, Scott and our key engineer Jean-Francois Chretien were all at Le Mans but our team did a fantastic job to get our first double podium of the year," said Larry Holt, Multimatic Vice President and Technical Director.
"We have spent a lot of time testing and developing the Mustang FR500C at Mosport and it was really no surprise to see we were very competitive. However, we are under no illusion that this championship is going to be easy.
"There are going to be races at places like Phoenix and Trois-Rivieres which are going to be a real challenge for our team. The BMW remains our biggest rival and our greatest threat - they are very fast."
The next round of the 2005 Grand Am Cup Championship will be staged at Barber Motorsports Park near Birmingham, Alabama on July 29 - 30.
Ford Racing Technology embarked on this program to return the Mustang to the race track, and unveiled the new Mustang FR500C racer at the Specialty Equipment Manufacturer's Association Show in Las Vegas in November last year. Ford Racing worked closely with Multimatic on the design, development, and build of the race car to Grand-Am specification.
Ford Racing Performance Parts will offer the Mustang FR500C in Grand-Am Cup specification, as well as all the racing components necessary for race team support and for those enthusiasts interested in enhancing their own Mustangs.
In conjunction with the debut season of the new Mustang FR500C, Multimatic Motorsports has launched a new web site to commemorate the return to the track by the Ford muscle-car. The site is located at multimaticmotorsports.com/mustang/ and features driver profiles, race news, photo galleries and Multimatic Motorsports and Mustang history.
MOSPORT - RESULTS# CAR CL DRIVERS CAR TIME
1 05 GS Jeannette/Empringham Ford Mustang 2hr27min40.4s 2 99 GS Hainer/Said/Hand BMW M3 - 1.317 sec 3 05 GS Gue/Milner Ford Mustang - 2.553 sec 4 96 GS Marks/Borcheller BMW M3 - 3.290 sec 5 13 GS Rosser/Murry Porsche 996 - 3.845 sec 6 47 GS Smith/Kohler Ford Mustang - 9.462 sec 7 58 GS Pecorari/Kapudija Ford Mustang - 11.180 sec 8 17 GS Lacey/Wilkins Porsche 996 - 11.622 sec 9 7 GS Keravich III/Trinkler BMW M3 - 12.163 sec 10 38 GS Plummer/Kosmo Porsche
DAVID EMPRINGHAM
"The car was very strong here at Mosport and it was great for Multimatic to win for Ford at our home track."Our main competition also didn't score any points so that is even better for our championship assault."The BMWs were strong again and are definately still quicker, but we were fast in the important parts - the Ford V8 pulls really well up the hill and and on the long straights."That's how we were able to keep the opposition behind us - it really is the perfect track for the Mustang."
GUNNAR JEANNETTE
"It has been a fantastic weekend. We qualified 2nd, then earned the pole after the fastest guy was disqualified. To back that up, David and I win the race and I got voted as one of People Magazine's “America’s 50 Hottest Bachelors"."It really doesn't get a whole lot better than that. After the weekend James and I had last weekend, this is a great result for the entire team to get our first double podium of the year."
JAMES GUE
"It was fantastic to get both cars on the podium this weekend, especially since Scott Maxwell was at Le Mans."Multimatic prepared a great car for us and Tom did a brilliant job filling in for Scott this week."He was able to steal third place from Terry Borcheller on the final lap and that was a fantastic effort."After Gunnar and I had a really tough weekend at Watkins Glen, this race was just what we needed."
TOM MILNER
"We had a bit of trouble getting the set-up right leading up to Sunday but the track came to us a little during the race."We had some help with the yellow flags during the race and I was able to get close enough to put a pass on Terry Borcheller on the last lap. That was a great way to get on the podium."I have to thank David, Gunnar and James for helping me get up to speed."I really enjoyed racing the Mustang and glad I could do a good job filling in for Scotty and I hope I can do it again."
