The second-generation Ford GT road car was unveiled at the 2015 North American International Auto Show, explicitly designed with a Le Mans racing programme at its core. Unlike many road cars that are subsequently adapted for racing, the GT's architecture was conceived from the outset around aerodynamic efficiency and low drag, principles derived directly from LMP1 car design. The powertrain — a twin-turbocharged 3.5-litre Ford EcoBoost V6 — was chosen partly because its compact dimensions gave designers maximum freedom to shape the aerodynamic body around the mechanical package.
Ford announced its return to Le Mans in June 2015, and the four-car GTE-Pro effort operated as Ford Chip Ganassi Racing, partnering Ford's factory motorsport programme with the established Ganassi racing organisation. The race cars were developed in parallel with the road car, sharing the same carbon-fibre monocoque structure and overall layout.
The Ford GT LM GTE-Pro made its competitive debut at the 2016 24 Hours of Daytona, running in the GTLM class, where the two American entries finished seventh and ninth in class. As the season progressed, the cars raced simultaneously in the WEC under GTE-Pro rules and in the WeatherTech Championship in GTLM trim.
The programme's defining moment came on 19 June 2016, when the number 68 Ford GT of Ford Chip Ganassi Racing took class victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LM GTE-Pro class. The date was precisely fifty years after Ford's famous 1-2-3 finish at Le Mans in 1966. The win was celebrated as a milestone moment for Ford's motorsport heritage. Later that year, at both the 6 Hours of Fuji and the 6 Hours of Shanghai, the Ford GTs dominated the GTE-Pro class by finishing first and second, with the number 67 car winning both races and the number 66 placing second.
The 2017 WEC season opened with victory for the number 67 car at Silverstone. At the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans, again held on 19 June to mark fifty years since Ford's 1967 win at Le Mans, the number 67 Ford GT finished as GTE-Pro class runner-up.
Ford Chip Ganassi Racing continued the programme through the 2018 and 2018-19 WEC seasons, as well as the 2018 and 2019 IMSA seasons. At the end of the 2019 season, Ganassi announced the conclusion of the factory Ford GT racing programme after four years of competition.
The race car shared its carbon-fibre monocoque with the road car and retained the twin-turbocharged 3.5-litre EcoBoost V6 engine, although tuned and restricted to comply with Balance of Performance regulations under GTE rules. The car featured the same distinctive flying-buttress rear bodywork that channelled air over the cockpit and across the rear wing, an aerodynamic signature of both the road and race versions. Active aerodynamics, including the rear wing system, were adapted from road car hardware to suit the demands of endurance racing, with the wing deploying as an airbrake under heavy deceleration.
The Ford GT GTE programme is remembered primarily as one of the most strategically planned factory motorsport returns in recent history. Ford's decision to tie the racing debut of the second-generation GT directly to the fiftieth anniversary of the GT40's Le Mans triumphs of the 1960s gave the 2016 class victory a cultural resonance that extended well beyond motorsport. The programme validated the second-generation GT's credentials as a genuine racing machine rather than a road car made to look the part, and established Ford's EcoBoost V6 as a competitive endurance racing powerplant.