MUSTANGS TO RUN RIOT

A stampede of Ford Mustangs will gallop into Australia in 2026.

As many as two dozen 'stangs will compete in a new one-make series for the Mustang Dark Horse R track car, with a fresh batch of GT4 Mustangs and the new GT3 hero car also expected to arrive next year.

The action for 2026 will follow the Mustang attack on this year's GT4 Australia Series, where four cars started the season opener at Phillip Island, and the entry of 10 drivers from Australia and New Zealand in a one-make supporting event at the Le Mans 24 Hours in June for the Dark Horse R.

Confirmation of Australia's newest one-make series came directly from Ford 'royalty', William Clay 'Will' Ford III, at the 100th anniversary celebrations for Ford in Australia. The giant event at the Melbourne Showgrounds included an appearance by the Dark Horse R which was also on display at the Australian Grand Prix.

Ford is the general manager of Ford Performance and also visited the Shannons SpeedSeries event in a family group with his father, Bill Ford, the executive chair of the Ford Motor Company.

"We've got the Mustang Dark Horse R here and we're going to bring her down to Australia for a new one-make series. A lot of good stuff. A lot of exciting stuff going on, right now," Ford said during the event at the Island.

"We hope it's a very successful platform here. This hopefully will give a lot of aspiring racers the chance to participate in our one-make series and keep climbing up the ladder to GT4 and GT3, and stay in the Ford family."

The 100th anniversary display included a wide variety of historic Ford racing cars, led by Allan Moffat's legendary Coca-Cola Mustang, although his failing health meant he could not join Dick Johnson, John Goss and the current Mustang drivers from Supercars at the event.

"There is a lot of love for Mustang here in Australia. We've had it in this market since 1965, since the earliest days of Mustang, and I think there is a lot of love," said Ford.

"We're very proud to be here. And to give more Aussies the chance to race Mustangs.

"We want to give people all over the world the opportunity to race Mustang. Mustang is global, all over the world, and we need to be racing it. For its credentials as a sports car we want to be racing it at every level."

But he could not give any confirmation, or timing, for the arrival of the first Mustang GT3 racer in Australia.

"We're working on it. Soon," was all he would say.

While Ford was vague on the GT3 program, which is expected to pivot on entries at next year's Bathurst 12-Hour Race, there is strong early interest in the one-make series.

There is nothing official yet, but the Mustang Cup for Australia is highly likely to headline on the Shannons SpeedSeries program in 2026, perhaps with several cameo appearances at major Supercars events including the Bathurst 1000.

"We've had very strong interest. We've got verbal confirmation already for six cars for next year," said Andrew Miedecke, the Australian agent for Multimatic, which builds the GT and Dark Horse R Mustangs for Ford.

"I reckon we'll have a minimum of 20 cars on the grid for next year."

Miedecke told Race.news he was working with Ford's one-make manager, Chris Ward, on details of the Mustang Cup cars for Australia.

"The cars are $US159,000. Not including GST. But we're looking to reduce the freight component as much as possible," he said.

Miedecke said his company, Miedecke Motorsport, would also be responsible for stocking parts for the cars, as it already goes for the Mustangs in the GT4 Australia Series.