Riley Motorsports will renew an historic family connection with Ford’s Mustang with a 2026 IMSA GTD program fielding a new Mustang GT3.
The Mooresville, N.C. operation took delivery of their new steed at Dearborn, Mich.’s Henry Ford Museum, the car presented in a white base, red-striped livery inspired by the Motorcraft-sponsored 1985 Roush/Protofab Mustang GTO, which captured an IMSA class championship the same year.
But the Riley family connection goes back earlier still with the Blue Oval, Bill Riley’s legendary car designing father Bob, who passed away last year, had engineering input on Ford’s GT Mk IV and was lead designer on the 1983 front-engined Mustang GTP.
“We’re really excited to have Bill Riley and his team on-board with Ford Racing,” said Alex Allmandinger, Ford Racing global sports car manager. “We continue to grow and expand our customer base, recruiting highly competitive, top-level teams to run the Mustang GT3.
“We’re thrilled to see them competing in the GTD class next year. We have paired this championship level car with championship caliber teams, and with that, have proven that Mustang GT3 is capable of winning top-level GT races globally.”
Bill Riley, Riley Technologies and Riley Motorsports co-owner and president, said: “It feels like ‘coming home’ in a way, having grown up in Detroit.
“To receive this Ford Mustang GT3 at The Henry Ford has been very nice, as well as seeing all the capabilities Ford Racing has to offer its customers. Now it’s up to us to execute. This is a very exciting time for Riley Motorsports. The ‘all-American’ aspect really delivers with that big V8 up front. It is so striking how good of a job Ford Racing and Multimatic Motorsports did on the Mustang GT3.”
The Ford GTD announcement comes as Riley prepare for the last outings of its two current IMSA programs at this weekend’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-concluding Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. The race will mark the final chapter of Gar Robinson’s full-season LMP2 effort with the team as the double IMSA class champion pivots to Rally Raid.
Riley will also stand down after a single season as the service provider for Lamborghini’s single car GTP campaign with the SC63 ahead of a pause in the program.