Return to Home Page

Dominant season earns IMSA title for Johnson, Maxwell and Ford Shelby GT350R-C

Ford Shelby GT350R-C earned its first championship title in its first full year of competition, thanks to a dominant season from Multimatic Motorsports in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge this year.

Drivers Billy Johnson and Scott Maxwell ran the table at the final race weekend, the Road Atlanta 150, earning their sixth win in their No.15 white Ford Shelby GT350R-C after starting on pole for the sixth time. With that win, they clinched the manufacturers’ championship for Ford as well.

The Ford Shelby GT350R-C was an immediate success when it debuted on pole at its first race in 2015, then went on to win two races in its first partial season. The domination continued this year.

“We’re very pleased with how the Shelby GT350R-C has performed on the track since its debut,” said Dave Pericak, global director, Ford Performance. “It’s just another proof point where we have used the race track as a laboratory to help develop an outstanding performance car for the street. Congratulations to Scott, Billy, Multimatic and the whole Ford Performance team on their efforts this year.”

Maxwell put the No. 15 on pole on Thursday in competition that was separated by only tenths of a second. It’s their first championship title together for the Toronto-based team, and Johnson’s first ever in Continental Tire competition.

“It was the longest 45 minutes of my life,” said Maxwell, who had to complete a minimum drive time of 45 minutes to earn his half of the drivers’ championship. “The car was fine, it was just trying to go around and not get involved in any trouble.”

“With Scott Maxwell and Billy Johnson in a Ford Shelby GT350R-C, my sheepdog could’ve run that race and won it,” said Multimatic’s Larry Holt with a laugh. “That’s not to say anything about the competition. The competition in this series is fantastic and we had to fight for every win this year. It’s just Scott and Billy are so good and that car is so good. It was an unbelievable year. Every single piece of this team is good, from the car to the partnership with Ford and we’re excited to see what next year brings.”

10/05/16

More from Sports Car Illustrated