Daytona 24 Hours GTD Pro winner Frederic Vervisch spoke about a ‘historical’ triumph for Ford over Chevrolet as Detroit-based manufacturers.
“I think it’s quite historical, the battle between the Ford and Chevrolet,” he told Motorsport Week in a post-race press conference.
“So yesterday we met Jim Farley [Ford CEO] and he said, ‘Yeah, whatever you do, you have to be in front of Chevrolet’ as a joke, of course.
“We were aware of this [Corvette] and I think they’re extremely strong, and I think they hide their A Game till the end, because suddenly they were going a lot faster than yesterday [Saturday].
“And yeah, super proud that we could stay ahead and maybe out-strategise them or not say too much, but we did some very ‘ballsy’ calls, I would say – and the team.
“So big congrats to the team as well for that and it was exciting for me, and Chris [Mies] to be on the sidewall for him of course but I think it was for us even worse.”
Corvette Racing have run their GT endurance sportscar programme since 1999 with four 24 Hours of Daytona wins.
Even though Ford and Multimatic previously ran in sportscars with the Ford GTLM programme in the IMSA SportsCar Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship, in partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing, Ford were up against Chevrolet’s Corvette brand in the GTD Pro category.
The Mustang, like their Z06 GT3.R, is two years old and two of the newest generation of GT cars along with Ferrari’s 296 GT3.
All throughout the 24 hours, since Ford took 1-2 in qualifying, Ford and Corvette fought regularly as GTD Pro protagonists – though Corvette clashed with BMW.
Ford made the most of the subsequent battles with two Mustang GT3s on the GTD Pro podium by the end.
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