Celebrity-Turned-Racer Frankie Muniz To Race in Le Mans Support Event
Frankie Muniz will take part in a Mustang Challenge support race during this year's 24 Hours of Le ... More Mans weekend.
Ford Motor Company's performance arm Ford Racing recently announced that former actor and current NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series racer Frankie Muniz will take part in a Mustang Challenge invitational race during this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans weekend. As a support race, it's a chance for Ford to garner attention from both attendees and viewers from all over the world. The cars are prepped for competition with proper safety and circuit-ready equipment, those still heavily based on the production Ford Mustang Dark Horse. North American racing fans know the spec from the International Motor Sport Association's Mustang Challenge, a supporting sprint series that takes part in six of the organization's races this year—Muniz has taken part in a few of its races since it came to be last year.
As reported by Sportscar 365, Muniz will be joined by pro-drifter and automotive personality Chelsea Denofa, as well as FoMoCo CEO Jim Farley. Farley's been no stranger to race paddocks over the past couple of years. The rest of the field is expected to be announced sometime soon, as the legendary event at France's Circuit de la Sarthe kicks off next week on June 11th. The particular class they'll be battling it out in is 'Dark Horse Stars,' designed for one-off racers, with eligibility defined on a Ford website detailing the manufacturer's efforts during the weekend.
The Mustang Dark Horse R, the official race car of Mustang Challenge.
Interestingly, eligibility appears to be pretty open. There's no quote on cost (I can only imagine it's quite a piece of change), but various motorsports sanctioning bodies' licenses are accepted, including those issued by the Sports Car Club of America—a historically club-level, non-professional organization—and the National Hot Rod Association. The latter doesn't deal in door-to-door circuit racing, so it's possible that this is to draw racers from a wide mix of disciplines, along with their followings.
While originally making a name for himself as the lead in Fox's hit family comedy of the 2000s, Malcolm in the Middle, Muniz has had a deep involvement in the automotive and racing industries for quite some time. For a time he owned one of the Volkswagen Jetta movie cars from The Fast and the Furious, and has quite a resume in circuit racing. Fun fact: this won't be his first invitational race in a celebrity class, as he took part in Toyota's famous Pro/Celebrity Race at the Long Beach Grand Prix four times between 2004 and 2011, with a top spot on the podium in 2005. Additionally, he's raced in the ARCA Menards Series and formula car-based ChampCar Atlantic Series.
Muniz has experienced a string of bad luck recently this year in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, so here's to hoping he sees some success in France. It'll also be great to see who else takes part in Mustang Challenge Le Mans-style, as well as hear the mighty roar of the cars' 5.0-liter Coyote V8 engines echo off of the circuit's historic tarmac.
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