Mustang involved in a gruesome clash with a kangaroo in the very early stages of the race<\/a>.<\/p>\nIt was the worst case scenario for Ford with its fears of only running one car realised before daybreak.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not a risk Ford is willing to take a second time around with work already underway on a beefed up Bathurst 12 Hour program next year.<\/p>\n
The plan includes a minimum of two cars, and perhaps more, potential input from Supercars teams, and a move to the Evo-spec Mustang that was introduced overseas at the start of this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew coming in that we didn\u2019t want to come only with one car this year,\u201d Ford\u2019s global motorsport boss Mark Rushbrook told Speedcafe.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we certainly didn\u2019t expect to lose that one car on Lap 3. So yeah, we were very disappointed, although we were very encouraged by what we saw [at Bathurst] in terms of the performance capability of the car.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd remember, that is the original car, not the Evo, so when we come back in 2027 it will be with the Evo, so the car will be even better.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we know we need to come back with more than one car, and ideally more than two cars.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s great potential partnerships [in Australia] with all of our Supercars teams and an ambition from many of them to the race a Mustang GT3 as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the early morning heartbreak at this year\u2019s race, Rushbrook says Ford\u2019s appetitive for Bathurst 12 Hour success has been well and truly whet.<\/p>\n
When asked if Ford now considers the Bathurst 12 Hour a must-win, Rushbrook said: \u201c100 percent. We love Bathurst as a track and we loved winning the Bathurst 1000 with Grove Racing last year. That was phenomenal.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the Bathurst 12 Hour has always been on our radar as a race that we want to be in, and a race that we want to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were happy to be able to get one car for this year, but absolutely, it\u2019s a race we\u2019ll be coming back to.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/294243.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The HRT Ford Mustang at the Bathurst 12 Hour. The Blue Oval debuted in the round-the-clock GT race…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,216,213],"class_list":["post-344732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-slot3","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Ford\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Bathurst12Hour-Friday-119.jpg\")