Class Action
The Ford Racing School tests its new fleet of 2015 Mustangs and Boss 302s
By Steve Turner
Photos courtesy of the Ford Racing School
Regular readers should recall that we recently showed you how Watson Racing prepped a fleet of new 2015 Mustang GT’s equipped with the Performance Pack option for the rigors of the Ford Racing School at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah. School will be back in session in March, but before then the instructors headed to sunny Southern California to put these new Mustangs—and their recently upgraded Boss 302s—through their paces to ensure they are ready for this year’s influx of students.
If you aren’t, pardon our pun; up to speed on the Ford Racing School, it is a performance driving school hosted at Miller Motorsports Park. Its main curriculum is based on performance driving instruction in Mustangs. The school offers one-, two-, and three-day schools in the Mustangs. Also offered are the Raptor Assault school for F-150 Raptor owners, and the ST Octane Academy for owners of Ford’s hot hatches.
The school got its start with S197 Mustangs similar to those run in the now-defunct Mustang Challenge, and eventually expanded to include the Boss 302 Track Attack school for owners of the vaunted 2012-2013 Boss 302. Students in the Track Attack or Octane Academy schools could opt to extend their learning by adding days in the more aggressively tuned school Mustangs, which featured numerous handling upgrades and Bullitt-spec powertrains.
For a bit more background on the school, you can watch this…
While those cars were well-balanced handlers, they had seen a long run as school steeds. That sort of action can take its toll. Additionally, the arrival of the 2015 Mustang meant it was simply time to upgrade the fleet to the latest hardware. So the school procured a fleet of Performance Pack-equipped S550s and had them prepped for track duty by Watson Racing before they were shipped out to Utah for finishing touches.
Though the school sold off its early S197 GTs, it retained the Track Attack Boss 302s. These cars were converted to all-out road racers, dubbed the Boss 302FRS, which is along the lines of a Boss 302. This will serve as rides for drivers in the advanced driving school. Having attended the Boss 302 Track Attack, we can say the bolt-on Bosses were quite capable, so they must be downright amazing in all-out race form, but that’s a story for another day.
With classes set to begin in March when things get warmer in Utah, it was important to see if the new fleet would be up to the task of taking student drivers to the next level. As such, a group of the school’s instructors took a handful of school cars to Willow Springs International Raceway in Rosamond, California, to test their mettle. Apparently, it went well.
“The cars are wicked fast and fun to drive! It’s going to be an exciting season at the Ford Racing School,†Johnny Kanavas, lead instructor at the Ford Racing School said.
Given the better-than-Boss handling credentials bred into the 2015 Mustang GT Performance Pack, it certainly stands to reason that these will make fine school cars.
“The new 2015 school cars will take our training program to a whole new level. These cars are not only haul the mail but they never missed a beat during testing. We still have some more work to do, however this first test was over-the-top good,†Cindi Lux, director of the Ford Racing School, advised. “I can tell you one thing, we will have a hard time getting students out of these cars after a session on track! (They are) Pretty insane.â€
Sounds great to us, and if you were looking for a way to safely find the limits of the latest Mustang’s capabilities, the Ford Racing School is a great opportunity to do just that. They even offer a new one-day school, Intro to Racing, for people with no previous track experience, so there’s no reason not to get out there and have some fun in a new Mustang.
