The Blue Oval debuted in the round-the-clock GT race in February with factory-backed German squad Haupt Racing Team bringing a single Mustang to Mount Panorama.

The highly-anticipated entry was short-lived, though, the Mustang involved in a gruesome clash with a kangaroo in the very early stages of the race.

It was the worst case scenario for Ford with its fears of only running one car realised before daybreak.

That’s 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.

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.

“We knew coming in that we didn’t want to come only with one car this year,” Ford’s global motorsport boss Mark Rushbrook told Speedcafe.

“But we certainly didn’t 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.

“And 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.

“But we know we need to come back with more than one car, and ideally more than two cars.

“There’s 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.”

Despite the early morning heartbreak at this year’s race, Rushbrook says Ford’s appetitive for Bathurst 12 Hour success has been well and truly whet.

When asked if Ford now considers the Bathurst 12 Hour a must-win, Rushbrook said: “100 percent. We love Bathurst as a track and we loved winning the Bathurst 1000 with Grove Racing last year. That was phenomenal.

“But 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.
“We were happy to be able to get one car for this year, but absolutely, it’s a race we’ll be coming back to.”