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Ford v Everything: 2026 Ford Racing takes on major on-and-off track titles
Posted by Talbot Payne on November 7, 2025
In 2026 Ford Racing is leaning into the brand’s roots with assaults on major open-wheel and sports car championships including Formula One, NASCAR and the World Endurance Championship and IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship with Mustang.
But wait, there’s more.
Ford will also be off-road racing a Raptor T1+ in Saudia Arabia’s Dakar Rally and a production-based Ford Ranger Raptor in Mexico’s Baja 1000, meaning the Ford factory will be taking on the world’s three major international off-road endurance races (Dakar, Baja, King of the Hammers in California) as well as the trifecta of major sports car endurance races (24 Hours of Le Mans, Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring in Florida).
Ford, Ford
The assault is confirmation that Ford sees racing as an opportunity to expand its brand — not just in the traditional on-track races that featured it in the Hollywood blockbuster “Ford v Ferrari” — but with its dirt-kicking SUV/truck-Raptor models as well. Ford announced this week it has hired one of the world’s premier, all-around factory drivers, Romain Dumas, to lead the off-road effort. A Le Mans-winning Porsche factory driver, Dumas has also raced extensively at Dakar and the Pikes Peak Hillclimb in Colorado.
“I like to drive everything,” said the modest Frenchman after the announcement. “(Off-roading is) the most stressful, the most difficult to anticipate.”
Dubbed the “The Man Who Races Everything” by his peers, Dumas is an apt standard bearer for Ford’s racing brand.
Marian Chytka, Ford
“I can’t think of another brand that races comprehensibly across on-track and off-road disciplines,” said veteran racing writer Steven Cole Smith, special projects editor for Hagerty. “Ford has always advocated to ‘race what you make’ and they are carrying that mantra on to SUVs and trucks.”
With the Big Three championships in both on-track and off-road in its sights, Ford now races across 22 different series. Ford’s ambitions on both terrains is similar in that they mix prototype and production GT racers.
The Raptor T1+ Dakar entry is similar to Ford’s legendary 1960s Le Mans GT40s — and the Ford Le Mans Hypercar targeted for Le Mans in 2027 — in that it is a bespoke race car built specifically for Dakar’s T1+ prototype category.
Ford, Ford
In the Baja and Hammers races, on the other hand, Ford will enter production versions of, respectively, the Ranger Raptor truck and Bronco SUV to seek class victories. On track, Ford outfits production-based Mustang racers to compete in GT3 and GT4-class racing in events like Daytona and Sebring.
“One is a frame chassis … the other is a pure prototype. You cannot give the same intensity to both cars,” Dumas said of the different driving styles required for his Baja and Dakar steeds.
He will first tackle the 2025 Baja 1000, which starts Nov. 10, racing the opening leg (a navigator by his side as demanded of tortuous off-road racing) and then handing over to another crew.
Alastair Staley, Drew Gibson Photography
“Race to road and road to race is our primary mission,” said Ford Racing General Manager Will Ford in an interview this fall. “We’re not just racing for fun or for managing purposes. We race to make our products better and put the best performance vehicles in the hands of our customers.”
Dumas, 47, is also a factory race driver for Porsche — another automaker with a multi-series commitment to racing. He won Le Mans three times (twice with Porsche in 2013 and 2016, once with Audi in 2010) while expanding his resume off-track to Dakar in 2015 and Pikes Peak Hillclimb in 2014. The latter event, the world’s premier hill climb in Colorado, has been a proving ground for Ford electric racers like the SuperTruck and SuperVan.
Ford’s motorsports ambitions dovetail with its 125-year racing anniversary, dating back to Henry Ford’s 1901 Sweepstakes win in Grosse Pointe, which helped secure needed investment for Ford Motor Co.
Ford, Ford
Since then, its track programs have attracted legendary names including Mario Andretti (Formula One), Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt (Le Mans) and Jim Clark (Formula One, Indy 500). Now comes Dumas, determined to add off-road titles to his resume — and to Ford’s.
“Ford is getting good bang for their buck with the off-road racing,” said Cole Smith. “It’s a way to get traction for their buyers just as they’ve done with Mustang and sports car racing over the last 60 years. SUVs and trucks are where the market is now, and they want to be dominant in racing in an area where they sell production cars.”
Ford sees racing not just as a branding opportunity, but as a benefit to technology transfer between race and road. Competitive environment push engines, like the Coyote V-8 in the Dakar racer, to the limits of durability, giving engineers learnings for the street.
Ford, Ford
“Ford is such an interesting brand we have no problem selling a $700,000 GT or $113,000 F-150 Raptor R,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said at Le Mans this summer of a brand that’s core sales come from $40,000 pickups and SUVs. “We’re already making multi-billion dollar profits in the (production) off-road world. Racing is helping us deliver even more technology to Raptor and Bronco on the road side.”
Dumas Pikes Peak success represents a potential third lane of Ford Racing: electric. In 2018, he took the overall record with an electric VW protype before contracting with Ford Racing. The past three years, he has taken the Ford SuperVan 4.2, F-150 Lightning SuperTruck and Ford Mustang Super Mach-E to three class wins.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or @HenryEPayne.