A total of 15 cars entered to race at Phillip Island as part of the Shannons SpeedSeries weekend on March 27-29, though a late withdrawal reduced the field to 14.
The field included several drivers who were only confirmed to contest the opening round, including Garry Rogers Motorsport trio Aaron Cameron, James Golding and James Moffat, and Race 2 winner Cameron McLeod.
Speaking with Speedcafe, Ward said interest in the series had been high and that prospective competitors were taking a wait-and-see approach to its first weekend.
“I think 15 is a good starting point,” Ward said.
“Do you always want more? Yes, the answer is yes.”
Mustang Cup joins an already crowded marketplace of one-make categories alongside the options by Porsche and Ferrari.
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Mustang Cup cars are nearly as quick as their GT4 counterparts, but are just a fraction of the cost.
“For categories in Australia, there have been some that have started and maybe haven’t had a successful continuing years,” said Ward.
“So I think there was some trepidation and people not sure – ‘Oh well, is this really going to happen?’
“Hopefully with the car count that we’ve got here with the drivers that are in the field they can see that Ford Racing is fully behind this program and that they should get on board now while the cars are available.”
Mustang Cup’s footprint is largely focused on the United States with the Mustang Challenge North America as part of the IMSA undercard and the Mustang Challenge USA with USAC.
Ford debuted the Dark Horse R in Europe at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2025, though a series on that continent does not exist yet.
Ford also has McLeod on its books as one of its development drivers and wants its drivers to ascend from Mustang Cup through its GT ranks all the way to Hypercar.
Asked why Ford decided to expand Mustang Cup into Australia, Ward said the market made sense.
“The reason is because the one-make series forms an integral part of our sports car racing pyramid from the one-make series with the Dark Horse R to our GT4 to our GT3 and excitingly, next year, the Hypercar program,” Ward explained.
“Coupled with our Ford Racing driver development team program, it’s paramount in the number two market for us in the world as Ford Racing that we had Mustang Cup here in Australia.
“We couldn’t be more excited. We’ve got a great platform here with the Shannons SpeedSeries. I think it’s a really good foundational platform for us here, and to kick off with 15 cars at round one, we couldn’t ask for more.
“It was almost exactly a year ago to the day that I was here in Phillip Island to begin exploratory talks with Motorsport Australia, with our partners Driving Solutions and with SRO to investigate the possibility of bringing our one make series Mustang Cup, to these shores.
“That time has flown by. There has been a huge amount of planning and effort to get the cars over here, the parts over here, the technical support infrastructure in place, all the work behind the scenes.
“Thanks to our partners at Motorsport Australia for working on the technical regulations and everything for bringing this exciting new category to Australia.”
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