Archive for June, 2018

Video|FORD STARTS 2018 NASCAR SEASON OFF HOT

Posted on: June 1st, 2018
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MOORESVILLE, NC –  June 1, 2018 – Ford Performance has started the 2018  Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Season off HOT! Seven points wins in the first 12 races, as the Ford Performance teams roll into Pocono this weekend.

 

* Courtesy of Ford Performance

COUNT DOWN TO LE MANS 2018

Posted on: June 5th, 2018
Location: post

MOORESVILLE, NC – June 5, 2018 – When the 2018 Le Mans 24 Hours gets underway next week (June 16-17) the Ford Chip Ganassi Racing team will face its greatest challenge yet. The class in which the Ford GTs compete at Le Mans – ‘GTE Pro’ – now boasts 17 of the world’s best GT cars and 51 of the world’s fastest racing drivers, making it the fiercest competition the team has faced so far.

Now in the third year of its successful Ford GT race programme, which has seen Ford Chip Ganassi Racing win at Le Mans in 2016 and finish as runner-up in 2017, the team is ready to take on all challengers.

“It’s rewarding to see all four cars come together as one team every year at Le Mans,” said Mark Rushbrook, global director of Ford Performance Motorsport. “It shows the scale of the global effort we launched in 2016 and have been building on since.

“Le Mans is always the ultimate challenge but this year it has gone up a level through the sheer size of the opposition. We’re going up against the best that Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin, Corvette and BMW have to offer and we can’t wait. This is why we race.”

The Le Mans 24 Hours is always a highlight in Chip Ganassi’s racing calendar and he too is fully committed to shooting for another Ford victory in 2018.

“The Le Mans 24 Hours is one of those races that you have circled on the calendar,” Ganassi said. “It has everything. It’s on an historic track in France, it is an endurance race and it is one of the most spectacular events in the world. When you win a race like Le Mans, you know you have accomplished something. It is multiple drivers, crew members and the right manufacturer all coming together. I can’t wait to get back there to compete for another win.”

The #66 Ford GT crew of Stefan Mücke (GER), Olivier Pla (FRA) and Billy Johnson (USA) took their first victory in the opening round of the FIA World Endurance Championship at Spa in Belgium last month. Le Mans has been hard on them over the last two years, so they hope the Spa win signals a change in their fortunes.

In the #67 Ford GT, IndyCar star Tony Kanaan (BRA) joins last year’s runners-up, Andy Priaulx (GB) and Harry Tincknell (GB), and they all have their eye on the top step of the podium.

Already podium finishers in 2018, the drivers of the #68 Ford GT are the history-makers: the crew that took Ford’s first modern-day Le Mans win in 2016. Joey Hand (USA), Sébastien Bourdais (FRA) and Dirk Müller (GER) would love to do the double.

The drivers of the #69 Ford GT got their 2018 campaign off to the best possible start by winning the Rolex 24 At Daytona. Ryan Briscoe (AUS), Richard Westbrook (GB) and Scott Dixon (NZ) are more than ready for another 24-hour win.

*Courtesy of Ford Performance

1-2-3 FOR STEWART-HAAS RACING IN MICHIGAN!

Posted on: June 11th, 2018
Location: post

BROOKLYN, MI – June 11, 2018 – Clint Bowyer along with Stewart-Haas Racing teammates made it a 1-2-3 finish at Michigan International Speedway, sweeping the FireKeepers Casino 400. The No. 14 of Bowyer, with Kevin Harvick and pole winner Kurt Busch, made history with the first 1-2-3 finish for Stewart-Haas Racing in a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race while marking Bowyer’s 10th career Cup win and SHR’s 46 points Cup win.

Ford Motor Company also brought home the Heritage Trophy, awarded to the winning manufacturer at Michigan.

“Congratulations to Clint, Tony, Gene and the Stewart-Haas organization,” said Doug Yates, President and CEO of Roush Yates Engines. “It was a strong showing by the Ford’s this weekend with Kurt taking the pole Friday and to see seven Fords finish in the top-10 was great. We always want to run good, but when you’re in Michigan its extra special when you can help bring the Heritage Trophy back to Dearborn and the Ford family.”
The Ford Fusions powered by the Ford FR9 EFI engines all ran strong from the time they were brought off the haulers at Michigan International Speedway with the No. 41 of Kurt Busch winning the pole at 203.361 mph. The Ford teams went onto lead 121 out of the 133-lap race.

After a rain delay start to the race, the Ford Fusions showcased their speed as Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney won Stage 1 and SHR Harvick won Stage 2. As the weather moved in just after the completion of Stage 2, a strategy call by Mike Bugarewicz, Crew Chief of the No.14 decided to take two tires. In the showdown between teammates, Bowyer held off Harvick on the final restart and was able to retain the lead before rain shortened the 200-lap race and stopped the event.

“That was a gutsy call,” commented Bowyer on Bugarewicz’s call. “When we went out there on two tires I looked in the mirror and I was so far ahead of everybody else, I was like, ‘Oh man, we are in trouble!’ The rain came just in enough time. He was so much faster than me in one and two. I got down in three and just had to take his line because that bear was coming.”

In total, seven Ford’s topped the leader board to end the race; Bowyer (P1), Harvick (P2), Busch (P3), Wood Brothers’ No. 21 Paul Menard (P5), Team-Penske teammates No. 2 Brad Keselowski (P6), Joey Logano (P7) and Ryan Blaney (P8) and just outside the top-10 was No. 10 Aric Almirola (P11).
“I think it’s a real honor to drive the Roush‑Yates engines when you get to a place like this because you can be a lot easier on your car,” commented Harvick after the race. “Doug Yates and those guys, they like to make big horsepower on the big end of the motor, put a lot of effort into this particular race weekend.”

The Ford Performance teams will ride this momentum out to Sonoma Raceway on June 24th. Reference the full 2018 schedule on Roush Yates Engines.

14 CHAMPIONSHIPS – 332 WINS – 297 POLES!

FORD GT WRAPS UP FIRST ROUND OF QUALIFYING

Posted on: June 14th, 2018
Location: post

Le Mans – June 14, 2018 – After a successful test on the Circuit de la Sarthe just over a week ago, the Ford GTs of Ford Chip Ganassi Racing took to the legendary Le Mans track for real today, putting four cars through a four-hour Free Practice Session and then a late-night, two-hour provisional qualifying session.

In the first of three qualifying sessions, the GTs qualified 3rd, 4th, 8th and 10th in the very strong 17-car GTE Pro Class. Leading the team was the No. 66 Ford GT of Billy Johnson (USA), Stefan Mücke (DEU) and Olivier Pla (FRA), who managed a 3:49.191 lap during the cool evening. The trio won the season-opening FIA WEC race at Spa in May.

The No. 68 of Joey Hand (USA), Sébastien Bourdais (FRA) and Dirk Müller (DEU) was just a tick behind their teammates at 3:49.582 as the team looks to repeat its 2016 class victory here. Bourdais, a native of Le Mans, returns after a one-year absence due to injuries in practice for the 2017 Indianapolis 500.

This evening’s qualifying followed today’s afternoon practice session that saw the cars go 4th (No. 66), 8th (No. 68), 9th (No. 69) and 10th (No. 67). Quickest time for the Ford GT during practice was 3:51.498.

The No. 67 team is made up of IndyCar star Tony Kanaan (BRA), Andy Priaulx (GBR) and Harry Tincknell (GBR). The No. 69 team includes 2018 Rolex 24 at Daytona GTLM champions Ryan Briscoe (AUS), Richard Westbrook (GBR) and Scott Dixon (NZL).

The teams return to the track this evening for two more, two-hour qualifying sessions at 19:00 (1:00pm – 3:00pm EST) hours and 22:00 (4:00pm-6:00pm EST) hours.

*Courtesy of Ford Performance

FORD TAKES THIRD STRAIGHT PODIUM AT LE MANS 24 HOURS

Posted on: June 18th, 2018
Location: post

LE MANS, France, June 18, 2018 – For the third consecutive year, a Ford GT driver trio is on the GTE Pro podium at the Le Mans 24 Hours

Joey Hand (US), Sébastien Bourdais (FRA) and Dirk Müller (GER), drivers of the #68 Ford GT who captured a victory here in 2016, returned to the podium with a strong, third-place finish in 86th running of the world’s toughest endurance sports car race.

The trio was in the mix of the battle for the top spot early in the race with the winning No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR when an ill-timed safety car caught #68 and the other leaders in the pits, causing the rest of the GTE Pro field to be nearly a lap down the rest of the race.

“It was great to be back at Le Mans, said Bourdais, the native of Le Mans who missed the race with injuries last year.  “It was a tough race, but we maximized everything as a team. And for that I am super proud of everyone at Ford Chip Ganassi Racing.  We did all we could and finished third, so that’s the cards we were dealt.  We’ll take them and move on.

“A good day at the office I would call it,” said Müller. “Being on the podium at Le Mans is almost like winning because this race is so special and unique.  P3 I know, but I am still smiling.  For the 68 Ford GT, a victory in 2016 and a third place today means a lot. I look forward to coming back next year and going back up two more spots. It was great job for all the boys who did a great job, and for our WEC boys, I am glad they got good points today.”

“We maximized our potential,” said Hand. “We always work to have really good race car.  It takes having a really good race car to win here, and we did.  We have no damage on our car at all.   We just got caught out a couple times there with safety cars and that hurt us, and we couldn’t make it up.  I have been here four times and been on the podium three of them, so that’s pretty cool.”

The #68 Ford GT did battle at length with the No. 91 Porsche 911 RSR for much of the second half of the race along with the #67 Ford GT of Harry Tincknell (GB), Andy Priaulx (GB) and Tony Kanaan (BRA), who just missed a podium with a fourth-place finish.

That fourth place helped the #67 trio score major points in the WEC championship, moving them into third place.

“For me personally this has been a good Le Mans,” said Andy Priaulx. “I had a lot of fun in the car, a lot of time in the car (8.5 hours) and I am driving with a brilliant team. I wouldn’t say we had the speed to win but we had the team to win. We could’ve done it today, but we were very unlucky with an early safety car, which put us two minutes behind and it’s so hard to get that time back. We got back up into the top two or three positions then we had more bad luck with a safety car. Despite this we had a great race. The car was great, the team did a brilliant job and we finished fourth in a race that is very difficult to finish at all.

“We scored some good points for the WEC Championship (third place) so we’re back on the scoreboard and we will come back fighting.  Harry (Tincknell) was the normal Harry: awesome, faultless and super quick. It was great to have Tony (Kanaan) with us too. It’s never easy to join a new team and race around Le Mans but he trusted us all and we became a strong team very quickly.”

The #66 Ford GT, raced by Stefan Mücke (GER), Olivier Pla (FRA) and Billy Johnson (US), was the top Ford qualifier in third, and was very competitive early before an on-track incident caused the car to go off-road and be damaged, losing significant time in the pits.

The trio, which won the WEC season-opening race at Spa, battled back to finish seventh in class, scoring valuable championship points.  They now sit fourth in the standings.

“We gave it everything today,” said Pla. “We pushed so hard as we had to recover when we lost two laps early on (due to suspension damage suffered when Billy Johnson had contact with a prototype). We had high expectations for this race. The Porsche was strong, but we had a good car for the battle and all I can say is thanks to the guys on our car because they did a fantastic job.

“Apart from that costly contact, nobody put a foot wrong so it’s disappointing that we spent the race fighting back rather than fighting from the front.  Stefan (Mücke) as always did a great job and now we’ll focus on the WEC Super Season. In terms of the WEC Championship we actually finished fourth today so, added to our win at Spa, we have a good amount of points to build on throughout the rest of the season.”

The #69 Ford GT of Ryan Briscoe (AUS), Richard Westbrook (UK) and Scott Dixon (NZ), who were trying for a rare 24-hour double after their victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona earlier this year, were running sixth with two hours to go before being hit with gearbox issues. The team repaired the car to allow it to finish the race.

“I think we battled hard. We certainly just seemed to lack a little bit of the pace through the night,” said Briscoe. “I think with our set-up and the combination of losing a little bit of track position, that hit us twice as hard when you lose the safety car lines. We lost touch with the leaders, but we were racing hard and hanging in there. We were going to have a great battle right until the end with Corvette. I had a really fun race. It just love driving on this race track. It’s so intense. It’s such a competitive field, literally pushing you out there to drive as hard as you can for 24 hours.”

Although not a victory, Mark Rushbrook, global director, Ford Performance Motorsports, was impressed with the team’s effort today.

“You want to win every race you compete in, but to come here, the world’s hardest sports car race, and see the effort that Ford Chip Ganassi Racing put in was great,” said Rushbrook. “They fought hard all day, finished third on the podium for the third straight year and for the third straight year all our cars finished.  It’s unfortunate that most of the GTE Pro field got caught out by that early safety car because it changed the dynamic of the race. But we have to be proud of what this team did.”

“We brought competitive cars here and I was happy with that aspect, but this is a race where you need a little bit of lady luck on your side, and unfortunately this time around we didn’t have that,” said Chip Ganassi, owner, Ford Chip Ganassi Racing. “We got separated from the pace car on one occasion, and then held back in a few of the slow zones, and that was costly. The leaders didn’t have to deal with that, and they benefited from the situation. I was a little disappointed with that, but that’s the way it goes here. Le Mans picks its winner. And it just didn’t pick us this year.”

*Courtesy of Ford Performance

CONVERGENT SCIENCE AND ROUSH YATES ENGINES RENEW PARTNERSHIP

Posted on: June 27th, 2018
Location: post

MOORESVILLE, NC – June 27, 2018 – Roush Yates Engines announced today that it has reached a multi-year partnership extension agreement with Convergent Science.

Convergent Science, an industry leader in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) located in Madison, Wisconsin, has been a Technical Partner of Roush Yates Engines since 2016. Over the past two years, Roush Yates Engines (RYE) and Convergent Science have celebrated 57 wins and 56 pole positions together. In addition, the 2018 season has started out fast with 19 wins and 16 poles to date. These accomplishments were made possible in part with the foundation that Convergent Science and RYE have built over the past two and half years, working together and leveraging the power of CONVERGE CFD software.

“In the highly competitive world of NASCAR racing we continually search for competitive advantages,” said Doug Yates, President and CEO of Roush Yates Engines. “Our partnership with Convergent Science is a key to our performance on the track. With the use of their cutting edge CONVERGE CFD software and analysis tools we can simulate designs faster than ever before, giving us the data to make better decisions quicker. As we look to the future we are excited about the continued search for speed with CONVERGE.”

The CONVERGE CFD software suite includes a powerful set of tools. The software combines simulated fluid flow analysis with advanced automated meshing capabilities in one product making it ideal for product development and advanced testing.

“The future plan with Convergent Science is to build on our established partnership, focusing on improving through-put and building on the strengths of what CFD analysis offers our engineering and technical staff,” commented Jamie McNaughton, Technical Director of Roush Yates Engines. “It is critical that in a time when competition is at its highest level that we leverage the right tools at the right time to deliver the most accurate results that will assist our team in making those championship winning decisions.”

Using CONVERGE software helps RYE make decisions that have a significant impact on the cost and time requirements for actual physical testing. Multiple part designs can be compared and evaluated against each other in a virtual environment, reducing the number of necessary tests and associated expense. This selection process makes the physical testing more productive by not physically testing inferior designs.

“In all forms of CFD, the quality of the results is dependent on the quality of the mesh,” said Brian Kurn, Simulation Analyst of Roush Yates Engines. “CONVERGE’s Automated Mesh Refinement (AMR) takes the guess work out of meshing by increasing mesh resolution only where it’s needed. AMR simultaneously improves the solution quality and reduces solution time.”

Having the proper set of tools has accelerated the product development process, making it more effective and cost efficient for our business model and needs.

“We at Convergent Science pride ourselves on continual innovation,” said Kelly Senecal, Vice President and Co-Owner of Convergent Science. “Our partnership with Roush Yates Engines has been and continues to be very fruitful. By seeing which features and physical models in CONVERGE provide the most value to Roush Yates Engines, we can better identify our next targets for software enhancements.”

Roush Yates Engines and Convergent Science: partners that continue to push each other. Now there’s a winning combination!

About Convergent Science
Founded in 1997 in Madison, Wisconsin, Convergent Science is a global leader in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software. Its customers include leading automotive and commercial vehicle manufacturers, tier one suppliers, and professional motorsport teams.

Its flagship product, CONVERGE, is an innovative CFD software with truly autonomous meshing capabilities that eliminate the grid generation bottleneck from the simulation process. CONVERGE is revolutionizing the CFD industry and shifting the paradigm toward predictive CFD.

For more information about Convergent Science please visit convergecfd.com.

*NASCAR image courtesy of NASCAR Media