2011 BOSS 302R Makes Debut At Daytona

It was just a month ago that Ford Racing pulled the drape off the new Mustang BOSS 302R race car that will be campaigned this year in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. Formerly known as the KONI Challenge series, the Grand-Am season started off at Daytona Beach last weekend.



Ford brought out the whole gang including racing legend Parnelli Jones who helped make the original BOSS 302 a legend some 40 years ago. Three of the new Mustang BOSS 302R’s raced at Daytona; #37 Bret Seafuse & James Gue, #16 Gunnar Jeannette & Frank Montecalv, and #15 Scott Maxwell & Joe Foster.





It was unfortunately not a great opening for the new Mustang as the new BOSS 302R models did not show as well as perhaps Ford might have preferred. But given the three teams campaigning the car had just taken delivery and barely had time behind the wheel, it does not necessarily forecast the season to come.

In the race itself, #37 James Gue & Bret Seafuse all but entirely overcame a self-inflicted early race miscue to finish fourth in Friday’s Fresh From Florida 200 the race’s top-finishing Mustang. Taking delivery less than two weeks ago, the driving pair hardly had enough time acclimate themselves to their new Mustang Boss 302R.

One of six Mustangs in the field’s top-10 qualifiers, the pair started 8th but Seafuse soon was ordered to the field’s rear. “We went down the board because I made a bit of a blunder on the second [race] restart and I jumped the start,” Seafuse said. “So I had to come in for a stop-and-go. We went from 7th or 8thto dead last behind all the ST cars and everybody. I’ve never done that before.”

Handing off to Gue (goo-EH), the JBS team mixed brainpower with horsepower in a run toward the scoreboard’s top, stopped short only by the 63-lap race’s checkered flag. “Though we hurt ourselves early, our finish is made all the more remarkable when you consider I only was able to get my first laps in the Boss [Thursday]—it ran well straight out of the box,” Gue said.

“We’re off to another really good points start and we can only get better now that we’ve got a little more time to get used to our newest horse.”

The other two Mustang BOSS 302R’s finished down the roster. #16 Gunnar Jeannette & Frank Montecalv placed 49th and #15 Scott Maxwell & Joe Foster came in at 56th.