It isn’t always the case that an automotive CEO is a car person. It’s rarer still when the CEO is also an avid racing driver. One such case is the CEO of Ford, Jim Farley. (Another is Toyota chief Akio Toyoda.)
Farley has been racing vintage cars for well over a decade, including iconic Fords such as the GT40 and the Ford-powered 427 Cobra. He has described racing the GT40 as his form of yoga.
Soon, though, he will race a modern Mustang GT4 in the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge, one of the lead-up events for the 2023 24 Hours of Daytona scheduled for later this month.
Sportscar365 was first to notice that Farley is on the docket for the race, which runs this weekend at Florida’s Daytona International Speedway. It will be Farley’s first entry in an IMSA-sanctioned race.
Farley, who will compete in car no. 98 for the Multimatic Motorsports team, will be one of 24 entries, nine of which will be LMP3 cars and the rest GT4 cars. The GT4 cars will compete in a special Grand Sport X (GSX) class.
Other GSX entries will include the Aston Martin Vantage GT4, BMW M4 GT4, Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R, Mercedes-Benz AMG GT4, and Porsche 718 GT4 RS Clubsport.
The VP Racing SportsCar Challenge kicks off on Jan. 20 with a pair of practice sessions, followed by qualifying session on Jan. 21 and two races on on Jan. 22. The Daytona 24 Hours will run the weekend starting Jan. 28.
