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Ford prevailed in its battle against Chevrolet for Production 4WD honours at the 2024 Tatts Finke Desert Race.
The see-sawing battle between the two rival manufacturers continued today, with Craig Lowndes/Dale Moscatt in the factory Chevrolet Silverado initially retaining their overnight lead.
The Ranger Raptor, driven by father/son duo Brad and Byam Lovell, was making inroads though, only for the mouth watering contest to stop in its tracks at the 39-kilometre mark when the Silverado suffered front suspension failure.
That meant the Ford Performance entry only needed to make the finish to win the class, the Lovells coasting home with a total time of 5h58m23.501s.
“It’s a huge deal for us to be back here before the Chevy,” said Brad Lovell.
“Coming over here from the US this is a big deal, there’s a lot of pressure on us. We’ve got the best team around us, engineers, mechanics, everybody. A lot of pressure and it feels great to come out on top.
“We couldn’t ask for a better vehicle, we had the best weapon out there today. The Ford Ranger Raptor had blistering pace through the whoops for a stock vehicle, it held together and it got us to the finish line.
“The biggest thing you need to do coming into a race like this is just worry about you, your truck and the desert. Because that is going to dictate how fast you can go.
“I’m glad our formula worked out to be faster than Chevy, but I tried not to be worried about them and their pace, because it is just a distraction.”
For the second year running Lovell missed out on the Production class record, having been in cruise control once the Silverado was out of the race.
That could be the carrot needed for Ford Performance to return to Finke for a third crack next year.
“We missed the record by a few minutes, so that still gives us something to shoot for,” Lovell added.
“I love it here, hopefully we’re back next year.”
