Racer

Marshall Pruett

Ford's pair of twin-turbo V6-powered GTs demonstrated plenty of speed at IMSA's season-opening WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event in Daytona, but reliability was notably absent for both cars throughout their 24-hour debut.

Although the Ford Chip Ganassi Racing went into the Rolex 24 with victory in mind, history suggested problems for the GTs were likely – almost a rite of passage for any new car entering endurance racing, and with the race team also making its debut in the GT Le Mans category at the Rolex 24, the event was filled with learning opportunities for FCGR.

Comprised of existing crew members from Ganassi's Daytona Prototype program that ran full-time through 2015, and a host of newcomers, FGCR went into the event as a machine seeking the experience to solidify its operation. Following Mike Hull's insights from January on how the GT team was built, Ganassi's managing director walked RACER through his post-race evaluations, the lessons learned, and the improvements needed as FCGR prepares for Round 2 in Sebring.

PRUETT: I know finishing seventh and ninth at Daytona in a class with 11 cars can't be satisfying, so what are your overall takeaways from the Ford GT program's first race?

HULL: We found out a lot about ourselves, and ourselves is defined by everybody who works on the project. That meaning Ford, Multimatic, Michelin, and key people's partners that are invested this program. and Chip Ganassi Racing itself and all the people that work at Chip Ganassi Racing.

Because in spite of what happened, it was totally unexpected based on the days and nights that we tested. That was in combination with Multimatic, so it wasn't just one racecar running on the racetrack prior to all the things we did, it was two racecars running in the off season preparing to be ready for the first race of the year. And then we had two racecars which ran, didn't miss a beat through the Roar test and through the sessions leading up to the race itself.

Again, what happened to us was absolutely unexpected. We came out of Daytona knowing we needed to the bottom as to what happened with the electronics that caused the major issues that we had, primarily with the transmission and shifting, because we had not experienced any of that.

I guess if I had to say what was really positive about it was two things. One is a lot of people would've put the cars in the trailer, especially when we broke that layshaft and the gear ratio and the dog ring in half and had to change the whole transmission, which is not an easy feat. And, secondly, nobody stopped working. Everybody continued to work all the way through the end of the race. They never gave up.

That is a big testament to the dedication the people at Chip Ganassi Racing have, in combination with Ford. Ford was the same. They didn't give up, either. They kept working through the process.

The third thing is it shows everybody working on the program the true challenge we face. If we didn't already know how seriously technical and seriously difficult this category is, we were shown that. If we'd have gone there and had a great day, we probably wouldn't be working as hard as we are right now.

I hate to say it, but I think that's a big positive thing for us because nobody can sit around and pat themselves on the back and say how great everything is right out of the box. What we are going to have to do is bust our humps to make it better now for the next time we go race. I think that when we go race at Sebring, that will be telling as to how far we have dedicated ourselves and gone past what we were ready to do at Daytona.

PRUETT: What does the post-Daytona improvement to-do list look like?

HULL: It is quite large. It's not quite the phonebook size, but we're moving well along on it, that's for sure. Because once again, we learned an awful lot about all of the things we need to do better. Let's face it, that's the first race we have done in that category with pit stops. We had never done GTLM pit stops before.

We learned an awful lot about the strategy of how you race in that category, as opposed to the Prototype category, which is a bit different. I think we gained an awful lot and I think the book will have several pages in it of items to work on for the next go here.

PRUETT: I've always believed debuts need to go one of two ways: If you can't win, I'd rather have a complete meltdown – a big kick in the ass – to get everyone focused on how much work remains. Finishing mid-pack and doing nothing remarkable is a sign you aimed too low and are in for a long haul. And if you're fast but fragile, as the GTs were, at least you know reliability is all that's standing between you and Victory Lane. I'm sure you weren't happy leaving Daytona, but I'm not sure I'd be overly upset.

HULL: I think it's a fair way to look at it. If the ego is satisfied when you first begin, I think it makes it actually more difficult to achieve what you need to achieve to find the next level, the next platform. I think it is harder to get there. Because when you are in a room full of competitive people, if they have been knocked down a little bit, that means they're going to work much harder to stand up and take it again. I think you're right about that, I think it's very true. You have to have a starting point that doesn't have something to feed the ego.

PRUETT: What was the general feedback after Daytona from Ford and the other partners in the GT program?

HULL: Disappointment in the result. But I think what was really great about it was everybody in the outer and inner circle, no matter what part of the circle, everybody looked at each other in the eye after the race and said, congratulations. And I thought that was a really big testament to our resolve.

We didn't run to the airplane to get out of there. We didn't run for the rental car. We didn't hurry to pack the truck up. Everybody took the time to talk to each other after the race. That means everybody from Chip Ganassi Racing, everybody from Ford, Multimatic, we were all in the garage area after the race. I think that's a big testament to the fact that they are very fully engaged.

They were in there with us, not trying to find answers, but they were excited about the fact our guys worked as hard as they did, they worked as hard as they did, and we got to the end of the race with the cars. The cars were actually running when we finished. And they were excited about that. That says a lot about where we are going to go with this program.

PRUETT: General Motors won the GTLM race with its Corvettes. How was that received by you and the Ford team on pit lane?

HULL: When [Corvette Racing crew chief] Danny Binks came walking by with his family, I went out to talk to him. When I saw Dan, I thought, "I've known this guy forever and I'm really excited for him," and when he came by, that's exactly what I said to him. I think it's people like Dan in this sport that have done what they've done for a long time and good things come back to them.

What's really good about those guys is you could take a big lesson from the way their senior management, guys like Mark Reuss and Jim Campbell, run that deal. They know how to win with modesty. Those guys that represent the brand, and are out in the public eye when they are at an event, know how to win with modesty. I think Danny Binks represents that. Most of those guys at Pratt and Miller certainly do, if not all of them.

PRUETT: Sounds like having the Corvette Racing team as the benchmark for the Ford GT team to beat isn't a bad thing.

HULL: They also showed us how to do it as a two-car team, and I think we learned that – or had that reinforced – by watching their performance. They just laid it right out for us. They showed us how much work we are going to have to do as a team to be able to race like that.