You Better Win: The History of Ford Racing

In 2005, drifting in America belonged to Japanese drivers in Japanese cars. Then a 24-year-old IT guy from Maryland showed up at Irwindale in a Ford Mustang he’d paid over sticker for, and beat the best drifters in the world at their own game.

In the series finale, James Pumphrey, Vin Anatra and Zach Redpath tell the story of Vaughn Gittin Jr. and how the Mustang became America’s drift car: from Ford backing Vaughn as a factory driver to the launch of RTR, Chelsea DeNofa’s championship, and James “the Machine” Deane’s run to a record fourth and fifth Formula Drift title behind the wheel of a Mustang RTR.

Twenty years later, that drift DNA is in Ford showrooms. Vaughn and Chelsea helped develop the Drift Brake now offered on the Mustang, the Mustang RTR is on sale, co-engineered by Ford and RTR, and the Bronco RTR arrives early next year. https://youtu.be/g3Y4IIPVoc4?si=zfTIn7U1mDUi7mey

Bob Tasca Sr. could rebuild an engine down to the last bolt, but if you asked what he did, he’d tell you he was a car salesman. In the early ’60s, his Rhode Island Ford dealership started building race cars, putting its own drivers in them, and beating the Chevys at the drag strip. Then he sold those same cars to the kids who watched them win. That’s where “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday” comes from.
James Pumphrey, Vin Anatra and Zach Redpath tell the story of how one dealer pushed Ford into building drag cars anyone could buy, from the factory-built Thunderbolt to the King of the Road project that became the Cobra Jet. Three generations later, the Tasca name is still racing Fords in NHRA, and it’s still winning.

Ford races in more series around the globe than any other automaker, and some of its best stories never made it to America. James, Vin and Zach head to Australia, Germany and England for three of them. At Bathurst, a spectator's rock knocks Dick Johnson out of the lead, and Australian fans, with Ford Australia matching every dollar, put him back on track. In Germany, Michael Kranefuss takes Ford's Capri into battle with BMW and goes on to shape Ford Racing for decades. And in England, Malcolm Wilson and M-Sport lure Colin McRae with a secret test and build the Focus WRC into a winner, ending Ford's long wait for a World Rally manufacturers' title.

Long before the Raptor changed truck culture, a soft-spoken California race car builder named Bill Stroppe fell in love with the Ford Bronco. James, Vin and Zach trace how a publicity stunt grew into the Baja 1000, and how Stroppe and Indy 500 winner Parnelli Jones turned a napkin sketch into Big Oly, the winged Bronco that smashed the Baja record by more than an hour. From there it's six decades of Ford using the desert as its lab, from the Rough Riders to today's Raptor and Ford's push to win Dakar.

When Enzo Ferrari walked away from a deal to sell his company to Ford, Henry Ford II set out to beat him at the race Ferrari owned: the 24 Hours of Le Mans. James, Vin and Zach dig into how Carroll Shelby, Ken Miles and a crew of unsung engineers turned the GT40 into a world-beater, and how Ford went from humbling defeats to a historic 1-2-3 finish in 1966. Along the way they compare the real story to the hit film Ford v Ferrari, pore over Miles' original test logbooks in the Ford Archives, and hold the internal note that gave this series its name.

Before NASCAR had a name, Ford V8s were already tearing up the sand at Daytona Beach. James, Vin and Zach trace Ford's stock car story from the flathead V8 and Bill France's first races to the Wood Brothers inventing the modern pit stop, the 427 wars, and Richard Petty walking across the street to drive a Ford. Then come Jack Roush's self-funded leap into Cup racing and Penske joining the Blue Oval, all the way up to Joey Logano's championships in the Mustang.

In 1901, Henry Ford was 38, out of work, and one failed company deep. So he built a racecar and challenged America's biggest name in cars to a head-to-head race in front of 8,000 people.

James Pumphrey, Vin Anatra and Zach Redpath kick off You Better Win: The History of Ford Racing with the story that started it all. From the Quadricycle and the 2 AM test drive that required an axe, to the Sweepstakes upset over Alexander Winton at Grosse Pointe, to the 999 and Barney Oldfield. Plus James and Vin ride in an exact replica of Sweepstakes at The Henry Ford, and the crew explains where the name "You Better Win" came from.

New episodes of You Better Win, an 8-part series from Ford Racing and Speeed. Next up: Ford in Formula 1.

Over 100 years of Ford throwing everything they had at every finish line on Earth. James Pumphrey, Vin Anatra, and Zach Redpath dig through Ford's archives for the best stories in racing, from Le Mans to NASCAR to the Baja desert. 8 episodes. The first two drop September 30. Follow now so you don't miss it.

Produced by Speeed in partnership with Ford Racing.