Proton Competition and Ford Performance have announced a new collaboration, as they are presenting the brand new Ford Mustang GT3.
So they are throwing in their cap, to participate in the brand new GT3 category in the FIA World Endurance Championship, which is replacing the GTE category.
Ford has been in and out of the sportscar world. They have had a NASCAR programme for many years, as their primary motorsport activity. But they have also had an engine programme in IMSA, in the DP category, and more recently with the Ford GT in GTE spec, which raced in both FIA WEC and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Proton Competition has been linked to Porsche for many years, and has bought several of their brand new Porsche 963 LMDh cars, which they will compete with in the FIA WEC and IMSA.
But once the new GT3 rules comes into place, there is only room for two cars from each manufacturer, and if you are talking Porsche, they will most likely bring their own team – potentially under the Manthey name.
Graphics: Ford Performance
But Proton really wants to stay in the FIA WEC with some customer racing, where they have had bit success in running the cars, to win races and championships through the years.
The team hasn’t been fully locked into Porsche as a brand. They started out by working with WeatherTech Racing in the IMSA series, where they would run a Porsche 911 RSR in GTE spec. But the team wanted to switch to a Mercedes AMG GT3, but would keep Proton as the service provider.
They have also done a bit of LMP3 testing, plus running their own LMP2 car in the European Le Mans Series, plus a single race at the Daytona 24 Hours.
It is not known if they will run the car in other series too, since there aren’t the same restrictions on the number of GT3 cars in the European Le Mans Series, as there will be in the FIA WEC, with a maximum of two cars per manufacturer.
The final participation in the FIA WEC is of course down to Ford and Proton actually getting a spot on the entry list for the 2024 season.
