When Rylan Gray burst onto the scene last year in the Miedecke Motorsport with Lubrimaxx Ford Mustang GT4, it was in winning fashion, but the rising star will steer another version of the famous Ford Mustanf in Darwin when he makes his Supercars Championship debut as a Wildcard for Tickford Racing.
For the last season and a half, Miedecke and Gray have paired up in Monochrome GT4 Australia whilst Gray has also been focusing on a program in Super2 at Tickford Autosport.
In addition to the Miedecke and Gray pairing's growing Monochrome GT4 Australia success, Gray secured his maiden Super2 round victory at Bathurst last year and his first race win at the most recent round at Symmons Plains.
Having been a former competitor in Super2 himself, Miedecke was full of praise for his young co-driver.
“His star just continues to rise,” said Miedecke.
“It’s great for me because he gives me a co-driver that keeps my skills sharp and I’ve got to try really hard to be near his benchmark, which is great. It’s why I race, to be as competitive as possible.
“We’ve known since the start this kid was something special.”
Racing the Miedecke Motorsport with Lubrimaxx Mustang GT4 has grown Gray’s relationship with Ford Performance in response to his impressive performances and the dual program has aided his progression through the ranks at Tickford.
“For him to be able to show that now through his achievements in Super2 at Symmons Plains is the beginning of him realising his potential and he’s cold as ice, which I definitely wasn’t at 18-years-old,” added Miedecke.
“You put him in the car, and he very rarely puts a foot wrong and you know it’s going to go close to as fast as possible, but it will come back without a mark on it. It’s a great endorsement of a driver and we’re adamant that the success we’ve experienced is due to the strength of our driver line-up.”
Gray plays an integral role in the continual development of the Ford Mustang GT4, which has aided in the model’s success both locally and overseas.
“When we got these Mustangs, they were so new and Ford was able to give us some rough direction, but we really blazed our own trail in regards to setting it up,” Miedecke explained.
“Having the benefit of my father Andrew’s experience alongside that of Chris O’Toole, Rylan and myself we were able to quickly get on with the business of setting this thing up.
“We’ve found some more gains recently and the Mustang GT4 is a pleasure to drive at the moment.”
The next round of Monochrome GT4 Australia is at Sandown Raceway as part of the Shannons SpeedSeries platform on July 25-27.
Purchase tickets to the event via shannonspeedseries.com.au/tickets