Tincknell Impressed by Ford’s Customer Support With Gradient

Photo: Jonathan Grace

Harry Tincknell said he’s been impressed with Ford Performance and Multimatic’s high level of customer support offered to Gradient Racing as the team makes its Mustang GT3 debut in next weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Multimatic-contracted driver Tincknell and fellow former GTD Pro pilot Joey Hand form half of the team’s GTD class lineup that also features Tatiana Calderon and Till Bechtolsheimer for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season opener.

Tincknell, who along with Hand had led the Multimatic-built car’s development program, feels they can bring their knowledge and Mustang GT3 expertise to the Andris Laivins-led operation for Daytona.

“I’ve done more or less every day the car has run since the first day of testing, and so has Joey, so from that side, we are experienced and we know the direction we went with the car last year and made a lot of progress,” Tincknell told Sportscar365.

“We even led the race early on last year, which was kind of unexpected!

“I think it’s a track that suits the car and obviously Gradient are a strong team and have had wins in some of the biggest races, like Petit, podiums last year as well.

“Having two plug-and-play drivers in myself and Joey, and all the laps we’ve done in this car is definitely big and hopefully we can [have a good result].”

The Rolex 24 marks Tincknell’s first outing in a customer Mustang GT3 entry after his season-long campaign with the factory Ford Multimatic Motorsports operation last year.

“The plan was always for it to be a car that would be run by customers,” he said. “We are getting a lot of support as well from Multimatic and Ford Performance.

“To be honest, it’s funny being on this side of the coin, because you see all the support the customers get, which will be very helpful when it’s your first weekend and it’s the biggest race of the year. I’m looking forward to it.

“Everyone has made us feel very welcome, it’s tight-knit, it’s a new car but the team is existing. That makes a difference because when it’s a brand-new team everyone is getting to know each other.”

Hand Echoed Tincknell’s comments, in bringing the knowledge of the car to the Texas-based team.

“Having Harry makes it a lot easier because we know each other very well,” Hand told Sportscar365. “And we were the first ones to drive these cars — not that we’re the only ones — but we definitely have a lot of laps in them.

“The nice thing about that is that we can accelerate the curve for these guys. We can say what we’ve done already, what we haven’t done.

“It’s going to be fun to be with new guys and have a different take on it, have a car they’ve never seen before and just a fresh look at it.

“That’s always a good thing in my mind.

“The goal here, especially in my mind, is to help out, and help these guys get there faster.”