It was a whirlwind week for George Miedecke and his team prior to the opening round of Monochrome GT4 Australia at Phillip Island, but it ended in success.
Miedecke is a veteran of the Australian motorsport scene, but made his debut in the formula last month driving the highly anticipated Ford Mustang GT4 alongside young gun Rylan Gray.
Despite receiving the new model the week of the event, the duo powered to a clean-sweep of race wins at the Island at what was a celebration of the Mustang’s 60th anniversary.
“Because this was one of the first cars built and spent so much time getting to Australia, a lot of the parts changed were developments such as new splitters, oil coolers they’ve found since running the car overseas,” Miedecke explained.
“The rest of the set-up included SRO dataloggers and timing systems, but you can bolt them out of the truck then run pretty competitively relatively quickly.
“It’s been a bit of work, a bit more than we would have liked on a race weekend, but by the time we got through Saturday afternoon it was pretty smooth sailing.”
Vastly experienced in many disciplines, the 2024 season marks a return to the national scene for Miedecke and the Mustang has turned out to be the perfect way to do it.
“I’ve done a fair bit of GT3 and Supercars racing, but the cool thing about the Mustang as at its core it is a naturally aspirated, front-engined, rear-wheel-drive car, which it feels like that suiting my prior experience,” he said.
“The Mustang has a very GT-like driving style, while it is a big beast it still generate a fair bit of downforce and you feel that in the corners. Combine that with the fancy electronics to make it easier for me to go faster, it’s a good package.
“It’s a cool thing and something that I’ve adapted to really quickly, but also to his credit Rylan has done so too.”
Although a Porsche was on the agenda when Miedecke was considering to join the Monochrome GT4 Australia field, the Ford opportunity arose and so far so good.
“We were going to buy a Porsche and to be honest we got delayed with that,” Miedecke recounted.
“To be honest though, it could not have been a better outcome for us to go through with the purchase of the Ford.”
An added bonus in taking the first global victory for the Mustang in GT4 was a phone call from none other than Ford Global CEO Jim Farley.
“Ford Australia has been fantastic, Jim Farley was racing at Goodwood the same weekend with of dad’s old co-drivers Steve Soper, so all of that is just so cool,” recalled Miedecke.
“What a dream debut and to have the 60 years of Mustang event at Phillip Island, plus all of the Ford customers there was perfect.”
There is only one target for Miedecke now and it’s to come away with the laurels at the end of the season.
“We came in with our intent being to win Monochrome GT4 Australia,” he said.
“We’re chucking everything at it, you can see the team is very professional, we’re having a really good go at taking the title so it has to be the aim.”
Round 2 for Monochrome GT4 Australia is at The Bend Motorsport Park as part of the Shannons SpeedSeries on May 31-June 2.