Ben Barker heads into the 2025 motorsport season confident of strong results in year two of his relationship with Ford, having announced a programme that will see him racing in two of the world’s biggest sportscar championships.
The Briton joined Ford as an official factory driver for 2024, and raced the brand new Mustang GT3 model developed by Ford Performance and Multimatic Motorsports in the FIA World Endurance Championship. For 2025, he will build on that relationship by also contesting the long-distance rounds of America’s premier IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship at Sebring and Road Atlanta.
Barker — a former Le Mans podium finisher and WEC stalwart since 2016 — will continue to race for Proton Competition in the FIA series, filling the gold-rated driver role in the reliveried #77 entry alongside new team-mates Ben Tuck and Bernardo Sousa. Although it wasn’t his car that made it to the podium, Barker is keen to build on the progress being made by Ford in developing the Mustang GT3, which followed up third place at last year’s Le Mans 24 Hours with a 1-3 result at the recent 24 Hours of Daytona. He will join Mike Rockenfeller and Sebastian Priaulx behind the wheel of the #64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports entry in his selected American appearances.
“I’m excited to announce that I will be racing in the remaining IMSA endurance events this year, in addition to my regular commitment to the FIA World Endurance Championship,” Barker confirmed. “Although I unfortunately had to miss Daytona with injury, the performance of both Mustang GT3s is highly encouraging and I look forward to joining Mike and Seb at Sebring next month.”
Although he will resume testing at the Florida airfield venue next week, Barker’s first race outing of 2025 will come at the Qatar 1812km, the opening round of the 2025 FIA WEC calendar.
“I’m looking forward to getting back into the #77 car in Qatar and picking up where Ford and Proton left off in 2024,” Barker added. “The team has assembled another strong driver line-up across both its entries and we’re looking forward to a successful season. Of course, there is some unfinished business at Le Mans where, even though I still hold the LMGT3 lap record with my qualifying lap from last season, the #77 car ran into problems during the race. The podium finish achieved by the #88 sister car showed what might have been possible but, of course, the team wants to go a couple of steps higher on the podium this time around. Rewarding their development work with a win at the biggest sportscar race of them all is definitely amongst the goals for 2025.”
The FIA WEC season kicks off in Qatar over 26-28 February.
