Welcome to Mustang On Track. I enjoy taking my ’95 Cobra R to the race track with both SCCA and NASA. It became more and more apparent that there was just not a source for consistant information for those of us that take our Mustangs to the race track.

Since I could not find a quality steady source of information to help me at the road course, I decided I could create it myself.

With the help of BROOKS Performance we have re-launched Mustang On Track. If you race American Iron or American Sedan or just like to take your Shelby GT500 to Watkins Glen for a club open track day, Mustang On Track is for you.

Click around the site and you will find a story on Alison Goodwin, our driver project, who is working her way thru the NASA-SE license program with the hope of getting her competition license. You will also be able to find her blog here.

We will also have car and driver features on Mustang race cars and track cars. As the month of February passes you will be able to find some great in Mustang track video and a review of the new configuration at Carolina Motorsports Park.

This online magazine grows out of a road racing series that I produced for Mustang Enthusiast Magazine where after purchasing a nicely kept vintage Mustang race car I was encouraged to actually race it and write about the experience. It turned out that even with having space in the M.E. every month, only a small portion of what I was learning was able to be used. That included the racing, the travel, the people I met, the cars I saw, the tips on car creation and driving that I got and more.

Here is where all that information has a home. With that I should introduce you to our racing team. The first piece is a 1995 Cobra R. The ’95 R was built with the IMSA Grand Sport division specifically in mind. That was a street stock race class that found mostly Pontiac Firebirds and Ford Mustangs in competition. The ’95 was built around a 5.8L(351W) engine that was only available in the Cobra R.

This particular car, the #05 Cobra R, was one of two IMSA GS cars built and campaigned by Steeda. The Steeda trademark #20 car was driven by cult NASCAR hero Boris Said. The #05 car was driven by European Formula 3 driver Joe Sulentic(the owner of the car) and Italian Formula One driver Alex Caffe. This would be the first time a Mustang had been raced by a F1 driver since Dan Gurney’s time in a Shelby 1969 Boss 302 in the Trans Am series.

The car raced a little SCCA Touring One in 1998 and 1999 in addition to the 1996 IMSA racing, but that was all the racing it had done when I bought it in the fall of 2006.

My race team began with the #05 car, a 2002 F250 pickup and an ATC open trailer. Midway thru our 2007 magazine series production, I hooked up with veteran racer Britt Ponder of Cumming, GA. Ponder Racing Services began to prepare my Cobra R for the track and Britt started to teach me how to race. PRS is Britt Ponder and a small staff at the race shop. I occasionally take PRS staffer Steve Koen on the road as crew chief, otherwise we race with Britt’s 3 or 4 man outfit.

In November, after being able to run in the middle of the pack to the lead group for a number of weekends, we decided to try a three hour enduro with the Cobra R at Road Atlanta in the SCCA’s major event, the ARRC. We added World Challenge driver Dwight Kelly to the team as our co-driver. Dwight’s impact on the team was immediate. We adjusted the set up to allow him to drive the car faster than I had and in 3 practice sessions he had cut six seconds from my laps times.

With the aid of both our Traqmate relationship and our Chasecam, Dwight was able to help me cut a full three seconds off my best laps times at Road Atlanta.

For 2008 we have acquired a 1999 SVT Cobra Advanced Racing School car from Bondurant. These cars were specially built for the race track by Roush and have some very interesting modifications, not all of which are available on any other Roush Mustang or over the counter as aftermarket parts. We will built this car from school track car to a race car that we can run in both SCCA and NASA competition.

We are also running a pretty full schedule of NASA American Iron races, SCCA ITO Class SEDiv SARRC races and enduros.

Since our team cars are prepared by one of the most respected racing shops in the country and since we have a World Challenge driver(Dwight), a second year driver(me) and a development driver(Alison) and since we have both a pushrod and a mod motor race car we felt like our team has a little bit of almost everything to offer.

You will see regular race and car build reports for technical information. You will get blogs from all three drivers as well.

We also want to hear from you. What features and what tech types are you looking for?

Send us your track car photos and your track stories. You may find them here. Email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Enjoy the start of something new.

Rob Bodle
Editor
MustangOnTrack.com