MIAMI, FL (May, 2007) -- The Ford Mustang is once again THE car to drive if you want to win in road racing. That's the message race-winning Mustangs are sending the competition this year at racetracks across the country and even around the globe.

Take America's Koni Challenge Series, for example. Here, the Mustang FR500C continues to battle -- and beat -- the imports from Porsche, BMW and Nissan. In fact, the FR500C is one of the most successful race cars in the series. The purpose-built competition Mustang from Ford Racing helped David Empringham win the Drivers Championship in 2005, and this year the car has already won the first three races in the Grand-Am schedule.

Tom Nastasi and the No. 5 Mustang of the Blackforest Motorsports team are now three-for-three in 2007, as Nastasi co-drove their racing Cobra with Empringham to victory in the "Fresh from Florida 200" KONI Challenge Series race at Daytona. Most recently, the Blackforest team won the Grand Sport class at both the Homestead-Miami and the Iowa Speedway races, with Nastasi and Ian James as co-drivers. In addition to the race victory at Homestead-Miami, Valerie Limoges, who was co-driver of the No. 4 Blackforest Racing Mustang FR500C, became the first female to win a pole position for a Grand-Am-sanctioned racing event.

The Mustang's success in Grand Am is now spreading over into other American road race series. New for 2007, the Shelby GT Mustang has been approved for competition in the Sports Car Club of America's Touring 2 (T2) class. Competition in the T2 class includes the rear-drive Pontiac GTO, as well as  the All-Wheel Drive Subaru WRX and Mitsubishi Lancer EVO. Carroll Shelby-modified Ford Mustangs brought SCCA racing into the national limelight back in the late 1960s, thanks to some historic battles against the Chevrolet Camaro and Dodge Challenger. Some 40 years later, Shelby and Ford have teamed up again to provide racers with an ultra-competitive American-made car.

In addition to an all-out road-racing assault here on the home turf, the Ford Mustang is doing battle overseas against many established European makes in the FIA's GT3 and GT4 classes.

Ford Racing Technology has homologated both the Mustang FR500C and FR500GT race cars for FIA competition this year. The Mustang FR500C is currently running in FIA GT4 competition, while the brand-new Mustang FR500GT is already being campaigned in the GT3 class.

Most recently, in the first round of the FIA European Championship held at Great Britain's historic Silverstone Raceway in May, the Mustang FR500C was victorious in its very first competitive outing. American Gunnar Jaenette, driving a Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang, won the second GT4-class race over such established European makes as Aston Martin and BMW.

"With the kind of success we've had in the States, we're excited about European customers racing both our Mustang FR500 race cars," said Dan Davis, Director of Ford Racing Technology. "Based on interest we've already seen from teams in Europe, we see this as an excellent commercial business opportunity to sell additional complete, ready-to-race Mustangs."

"Much like our successful Grand-Am KONI Challenge Series program, we see this as purely a customer program for private teams that want to race competitive Mustangs," said Davis, adding that this is not a first step for Ford to go "factory" road racing in Europe. "The success of the Mustang FR500C has shown that we can design and build ready-to-win race cars for our customers."

The Ford Mustang continues its storied history competing in endurance road racing events. For a car that started life with the label of "secretary's car," America's original ponycar has earned its world-class performance car reputation both on the street and at the track. While millions of Mustang owners have built Mustang's undisputable "street cred" over the years, the car's racing credentials have been established by more than 40 years of road-racing victories against legendary makes such as Porsche, BMW, Ferrari and Corvette.