Giddy up: The Mustang Challenge should bring many positives to IMSA weekends

Ford is joining other manufacturers like Mazda's MX5 Cup and Toyota's GR Cup to have its own series as well in IMSA competition

The Ford Performance Mustang Challenge will be the newest series added to the IMSA family come 2024, and with that comes what could be one of the most exciting series amongst the other partnering series in IMSA.

The inaugural season, which won't kick off until June 2024 at Mid-Ohio, features a five-race schedule, one of the smallest schedules amongst series in IMSA.

The series will travel to 3 tracks that are not on the main WeatherTech Sportscar Championship calendar (Mid-Ohio, Circuit of the Americas, and Charlotte Motor Speedway) and 2 regulars in Watkins Glen and Road America.

This new Mustang Challenge series will also be crucial in helping debut the brand-new Ford Mustang Dark Horse R, one of the newest cars joining the IMSA grid next season.

Photo courtesy Ford Performance

Although directed, this series should have a positive impact on IMSA and give fans something unique, not typical of your usual sportscar series, and there are many ways that the FP Mustang Challenge could help build up IMSA.

#1: New Audience

One of the biggest positives coming with this new Mustang-only series is the opportunity to gravitate new fans toward the sport of IMSA.

The FP Mustang Challenge is not your typical sports car series, being that the Mustang has been looked at as an American muscle machine, even with Ford’s extensive sports car racing pedigree with the model.

Being able to add a series such as this Mustang Challenge could very well bring a new audience into sports car racing, especially one that may be trying to test the waters.

Having it be all Mustangs allows fans of American Muscle and Ford to relish the opportunity of being able to support their style of racing.

In theory, this series could be like a Trans Am style of series and may even attract people from series such as NASCAR and stock car racing.

While it will still be an IMSA-ran series, the Mustang Challenge should bring a different flare, like potentially the Mazda MX-5 Cup, which has proven to be one of the most exciting partnering series on the calendar.

#2: Promote and Learn

Not only for teams and drivers, but fans as well, this new series allows for everyone to be able to learn and understand the workings of this new Mustang on a more conjoined level.

Mustangs having their own series allows these teams to learn and understand the workings and functionality of this new machine that is entering IMSA.

Having that knowledge is crucial for teams, especially in the main series, which will be fielding this new car in 2024.

The one downfall would be that the series doesn’t start until next June, meaning team knowledge and understanding of the car may be known, but being able to add in the extra knowledge is always positive towards the success of a team and its drivers.

While it may take a bit for the Mustangs to get to a competitive level in the main series, having this feeder series for this legendary American Muscle is just the icing on top of the cake and may make the Mustang GTD entry a force later down the road in 2024.

Final Thoughts

This new series brings a lot to IMSA.

Diversity, character, and power. Those are even words to describe this new Mustang as itself, being how it changes a bit of the landscape in IMSA.

Having a Mustang-only series brings its perks more than it does its shortages, but the fact of the matter is that it's different, something that IMSA needs.

No, it doesn’t have to be NASCAR-like, but having a Mustang Challenge allows for fans of American Muscle and racing in general to buy into IMSA, resulting in a potential new market for the organization.

Who knows, the potential of the Mustang in IMSA may draw NASCAR guys more into IMSA, which could be the best of both worlds for all parties.

No matter what, this new Mustang series is going to bring light to the series for all.