• by Tanya Gazdik , Yesterday

Goodbye, Ford Performance. Hello, Ford Racing. 

Ford Motor Co. is rebranding its high-performance division and the multinational name used for its motorsport and racing activity.

“This is not a marketing exercise,” writes Will Ford, general manager of Ford Racing, in a blog post on Ford’s From the Road website. “This is a promise. It signals a new, more focused mission to tear down the wall between our race teams and the engineering of the vehicles you drive every day on and off road.”

Under one global Ford Racing banner, engineers and designers will develop performance road cars right alongside race cars.

In 1901, Ford’s great-great-grandfather, Henry Ford, drove a car he built called “Sweepstakes” in a race against the most famous driver in America, Alexander Winton, who founded the now-forgotten Winton Motor Carriage Company in 1897.

“Since its inception, Ford Motor Co. has been fueled by racing,” according to The Detroit News. “Henry Ford won the 1901 Sweepstakes race to secure investors for his fledgling company. Ford v Ferrari at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans became movie legend. And Mustang is one of the most recognized GT racers in the world.”

Ford chose the 125th anniversary of the win for the reorganization. 

“By rebranding as Ford Racing, the Blue Oval is placing even more attention on its ever-growing competition arm,” according to Road & Track. “The brand currently competes in rally raid, off-road racing, NASCAR, drag racing, spec Mustang racing, and IMSA and WEC GT3 racing. The list is set to expand in the next two years with its high-profile additions of both a Le Mans Hypercar program and a partnership with Red Bull Powertrains.”

Ford Performance was created in 2014 when Ford merged its Ford Racing division with the Special Vehicle Team (SVT) and Team RS to form a unified global high-performance and motorsports entity. 

The new program will still cover both racing operations and the brand's performance road car offerings, like the Mustang GTD, a GT3-inspired, Mustang-based supercar.

“The new logo consists of the stylized Ford in white lettering inside a solid blue oval, with the capitalized word RACING in a bold blue under the oval,” according to The Associated Press. “The first Ford Racing production vehicle will make its debut in January at Ford’s season launch, but the logo and name change implementation will begin immediately. It will be on racing vehicles in January at Dakar and Daytona.”

Ford Global Racing Director Mark Rushbrook continues in that role.

“Ford Racing competes across a wide swath of disciplines and series and says its racing technology developments inform production vehicles and vice versa,” according to Autoweek. “A renewed push into customer racing, performance vehicles, and even merchandising is also in the pipeline.”