MUSTANG RAIDERS

Youngster Cam McLeod is leading a motley crew of Ford fighters to Le Mans.

The seven-strong posse is mostly made up of old-timers and dreamers who will be living their French fantasy in the Mustang Cup.

While the Aussie effort in the main event will be led by Matt Campbell in a prototype Porsche, with defending GT champion Yasser Shahin lining up against Stephen and Brenton Grove, the 'other' group will be heading the support program.

They will race in a field of 40-plus Dark Horse Mustangs as the US series makes a guest appearance at the world's biggest and best sports car contests.

Speedy veteran Andrew Miedecke is leading a seven-strong troupe to Le Mans for the race of a lifetime and has also organised the Aussie connection in his role as the local agent for Ford Performance and Multimatic, which builds all grades of Mustang racers.

He is joined by McLeod, Tony Quinn, Tim Miles, David Wall, Keith Kassulke and Hadrian Morrall.

The original idea was to include Miedecke's son George and their GT4 protege, Rylan Gray.

But Miedeck Jnr has to stay and run the family car business and Gray has a clash with his Super2 commitments.

"It's an oportuntity to drive at one of the greatest race meetings in theworld," Miedecke told Race.news.

"I was initially excited because of my associations with Ford. Then I thought we should run George to show the standard of Australian drivers, but then George said I should do it.

Despite decades of success in Australia, beginning with single seaters and most recently in Touring Car Masters, Miedecke is setting his personal bar low for Le Mans.

With 40 identical cars – and guest drivers including Tanner Faust, former Olympian and successful racer Sir Chris Hoy, and Top Gear presenter Chris Harris – he knows the competition will be tough.

"I would like to go and beat them. But you're not going to be beat them. Those Yanks have been running the cars for two years," Miedecke said.

Even so, he is aiming for a Top 10 finish and is planning a shakedown and test day ahead of the Le Mans meeting.

"It would be good to be in the Top 10 of the old blokes. I'd be disappointed if I wasn't somewhere up there."

But it's still a working holiday.

"I was going anyway for a holiday in Europe, and this came up and I didn't even need to change the flights."

It is also a dream come true for a driver who wants earned his spurs in the World Endurance Championship, driving for privateer owner John Fitzpatrick in a Porsche 952 at Sandown.

"I missed out on a Le Mans drive with John Fitzpatrick in one of his Porsches in the 1980s. I first drove with him at Sandown, backed by Bob Jane and Playboy magazine.

"We got on well and he didn't have a driver for a race at Malaysia on the old track, before Sepang. I qualified sixth and finished fourth in the WEC round.

"He said 'l'd love you to come to le Mans'. My ears were pinned back, but quite late in the piece he had some Japanese drivers with cigarette sponsorship.

"So when this came up I certainly thought 'this will be fun'."