Ford to run four GTs in 2017 Daytona 24 Hours
Ford will run four cars in next month's Daytona 24 Hours in a bid to emulate its Le Mans 24 Hours class victory of 2016
The pair of Ford GTs fielded in the IMSA SportsCar Championship by the US Chip Ganassi Racing squad will be joined in the January 28/29 series opener by the British-based World Endurance Championship team, which also races under the Ganassi banner.
The Daytona campaign reprises Ford's four-car assault on Le Mans this year when both branches of the Ganassi squad contested the blue-riband round of the WEC, taking first, third and fourth positions in GTE Pro on the debut of the Ford GT.
Dave Pericak, who masterminds the GT race programme in his role as global director of Ford Performance, said: "It would be easy to just talk about what we've already done with this Ford GT but really we're focused on the future.
"We didn't have the strongest race at the Daytona 24 Hours last year, but we have a season of learning experiences behind us with this programme now, and we're proud that when we come back to Daytona in 2017, we'll come with all four Ford GTs."
Team boss Chip Ganassi described Daytona as "unfinished business" for his squad, which took delayed seventh and ninth-place positions in GTLM in 2016.
Ford has also expressed an intent to return to Le Mans with four cars in 2017.
The US Ganassi operation is taking part in this week's IMSA test at Daytona with full-season drivers Dirk Muller, Joey Hand, Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe, as well as Scott Dixon.
The final line-ups have yet to be confirmed, but Ford is known to have signed its regular drivers on two-year contracts.
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