Grice to race new Mustang Trans Am
Ben Grice will be driving a brand new Ford Mustang at the next Trans Am round in Phillip Island after his big Tassie shunt.
Grice will race the new Mustang for the remainder of the 2023 Trans Am season after his previous chassis was wiped out at Symmons Plains.
The allying #03 Mustang was limping out of the final corner before being struck by James Simpson with significant front to rear contact.
The impact sent Simpson into a row, while Grice went careering into the pit straight wall after the huge hit which occurred behind the driver’s roll hoop.
After a post-event assessment of the damage, the Melbourne based team decided the chassis was unrepairable.
This sparked a search for a new chassis, whilst the remaining salvageable parts of the original Mustang have been used to get the new car race ready.
Before the Symmons Plains smash, Grice had shown promising speed at the season opener.
James Simpson climbs over the back of Ben Grice in the Tasmania crash which destroyed Grice’s Mustang. image: Stan Sport
He qualified on pole and finished runner-up in the opening race, and was fighting for the lead in race 2 before the mechanical problems which led to the scary crash started.
Grice will get familiar with his new Mustang during a Phillip Island test session on Wednesday before the second Trans Am round takes place at the same venue on May 12-14.
Grice said the importance of Wednesday’s test session cannot be underestimated after a busy period between meetings.
But he is extremely confident a new car will not slow him down having collected two podiums last year at the seaside track.
“Wednesday’s test will be important, I’m feeling good. It’s just a matter of getting comfortable and learning this new car,” said Grice.
“The car is basically brand new from the windscreen back, but we know we’ll still be strong and competitive when we return.
“I’m fortunate to have such a wonderful support group around me, with Les Small, Chris, Glenn and Callum, I couldn’t ask for a better group of people.
“I’m so proud of their persistence, hard work, dedication and attention to detail to build a car to come back.
“We just need to have a clean weekend and do what we did at Symmons Plains where we ticked a lot of boxes. We know at Phillip Island we’re going to be fast, we were last year.
“I think we’re due for some good results to repay the guys in the workshop as well as All American Drive Line.”
The Phillip Island SpeedSeries event takes place on May 12-14.
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