Jim Farley to compete in Mustang Challenge with the all-new Mustang Dark Horse R

This weekend, just a few hours south of Dearborn, a major milestone for Ford Performance will kick-off at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, OH: the first round of the all-new Mustang Challenge racing series. Mustang Challenge is IMSA’s newest ‘one make’ series, meaning all 26 cars in the field will be the exact same model – the Mustang Dark Horse R.

For the past few years, Ford Performance, IMSA, Ford Performance Racing School, Multimatic, Watson Racing and several other key partners have been hard at work to develop the Mustang Dark Horse R race car and the structure of this racing series. This car and series set the ‘foundation’ of our sports car racing programs, leading up to Mustang GT4 and Mustang GT3 above.

To mark this special occasion and as a show of support, Ford Motor Company CEO (and racer!) Jim Farley will join the series for the Mid-Ohio round, racing a Mustang Dark Horse R in a special tribute livery honoring the first race win for Mustang at Mid-Ohio in 1967 with Jerry Titus, as part of the Terlingua Racing Team. The car, adorned with the iconic pale yellow, black hood and black stripes of Jerry Titus’ 1967 race and championship winner, is a continuation of our celebration of Mustang’s 60th anniversary, and highlighting the major milestones in our Mustang sports car racing history.

The Terlingua Racing Team was started by Carroll Shelby and named after the southwest Texas ghost town he and fellow racer Dave Witts purchased in the early ‘60s, which was used for hunting, riding dirt bikes, libations and an infamous annual chili cook-off. The cars run by Shelby under the Terlingua banner quickly amassed notoriety in the ‘60s with major race and championship wins by well-known drivers including Ken Miles and Jerry Titus. The Terlingua name and logo quickly became associated with just having a good time—something Jim Farley intends to do in his first Mustang Challenge race.

This is not Farley’s first foray into IMSA sports car racing, as he raced in IMSA’s VP Sports Car Racing Challenge series ‘GSX’ class in a Mustang GT4 at Daytona International Speedway in 2023.

“The Mustang Challenge Series is an important moment for the whole Ford Performance team and I wanted to show my support for this great initiative,”  he said. “It shows how we are delivering on our ladder of opportunity for Mustang that sees us providing grassroots racing all the way up to GT3 at Le Mans. It is also another step in the right direction towards creating an exciting business around our racing activities, and I hope this will be the first of many races both in the US and maybe even further afield in the future. I can’t wait to get going and to watch Mustang being raced hard and fair at Mid-Ohio.”

After Mid-Ohio, the five-weekend, 10-race series travels to Watkins Glen (June 20-23), Road America (Aug 2-4), Circuit of the Americas (Aug 31-Sep 1) and Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Oct 4-6).

Stay up to date with the latest news and tune-in details on our series website. Click here to visit it.