Ford Celebrates 110 Years of Racing at the 2011 SEMA Show

Ford will celebrate its racing heritage through a unique booth display and an outdoor exhibition at the 2011 SEMA Show.

Ford Motor Company will have something extraordinary to celebrate at the 2011 SEMA Show: 110 years of racing supremacy. In 1901, driving a car called Sweepstakes, Henry Ford defeated Alexander Winton in a race whose prize money helped him found his automobile company two years later. That company will commemorate Henry's victory and Ford’s racing heritage this November in Las Vegas with a unique booth display and an outdoor exhibition of Ford racing prowess.

In addition to highly modified examples of its current car and truck lines, the Ford booth at the SEMA Show will feature examples of its classic racing lineage. Some of the machines that will be on hand include the Lotus that Jim Clark drove to victory in the 1965 Indy 500; the Mark IV GT40 built by Carroll Shelby, in which A.J. Foyt and Dan Gurney won the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans; the Boss 302 Mustang in which Parnelli Jones posted five 1970 Trans Am wins; Bill Elliott's ’87 Thunderbird, which still holds the top speed for any NASCAR qualifying run at 212 mph; multi-year NHRA champion John Force’s Funny Cars; and the No. 21 Ford in which rookie Trevor Bayne won this year’s Daytona 500.

“These cars reflect the spirit and success of the Ford team across venues and around the world,” said Kevin Keling, Ford’s North America corporate events manager. “The lessons from racing transfer into the production-based cars and trucks you will see on display.”

The company will also celebrate its current crop of star drivers and racing vehicles in the Ford Out Front exhibition, which will once again assume a place of prominence just outside the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center. The Ford Out Front experience will showcase Ford high-performance drivers performing drifting, gymkhana and freestyle demonstrations in Ford high-performance products. In 2010, Ford brought drivers Vaughn Gittin Jr. and Ken Block to the SEMA Show, and the program will be even bigger and better for 2011. It will showcase more drivers, more vehicles and a track that will be double the size of last year’s arena. The race drivers will provide rides for a select group of lucky attendees who will be chosen at random to experience high-performance Ford action from an in-car perspective. In addition, instructors from the Ford Racing High Performance Driving School will join the action to allow even more access to the course.

It all adds up to a celebration not to be missed. Join Ford at the 2011 SEMA Show, to be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, November 1–4.