3 Dog Garage Partners With Riley for Mustang GT3 Program

Photo: Ford

Renowned historic vehicle museum and restoration shop 3 Dog Garage has partnered with Riley Motorsports for its Ford Mustang GT3 effort in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship next year, in what founder Ross Myers says is “taking it up one notch” in his foray into modern-day sports car racing.

Myers, the director of the non-profit organization (pictured top, left), along with general manager Chris Liebenberg, have purchased two Multimatic-built Mustang GT3’s for the planned single-car GTD entry next year, with the goal of taking the program to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The team will be known as Meyers Riley Motorsports and is set to debut at next month’s IMSA-sanctioned test at Daytona International Speedway.

“I’ve been a Ford guy ever since my dad restored a Model T in 1951, when I was two years old,” Meyers told Sportscar365. “[Growing up], I was in the garage with my dad, handing him wrenches and screwdrivers.

“I bought my first ’36 Ford when I was eight [years old]. I bought my second one when I was 11 and fixed that up and drove it to high school. My love and passion for cars and restoring them evolved from there.

“As our business got larger and more successful, I was able to start collecting cars again and get into vintage racing in the mid-’80s, and it’s just developed since then.”

Located in Boyertown, Penn., 3 Dog Garage is home to more than 100 vintage road and race cars, predominately Ford-bodied and/or Ford-powered, including an extensive collection of legendary Ford Racing machines including a Bud Moore-prepared 1970 Mustang Boss 302 that was driven by Parnelli Jones and George Follmer, the Motorcraft-sponsored Roush Mustang IMSA GTO championship-winner from 1985 and Tommy Kendall’s Roush Mustang Trans-Am record championship-winner from 1997.

Myers, his wife Beth and Liebenberg have dedicated to making the museum a “garage experience” for Ford enthusiasts, which is open to the public, free of charge, that’s aimed to help bring awareness to the restoration and preservation of cars. He estimates there will be 6,000 visitors to the facility this year alone.

His connection with Riley came when his group was working to restore the Bob Riley-designed Mustang GTP, a Zakspeed-built carbon-fiber chassised race car that competed in IMSA in the 1980s.

“It was something we had never been involved with,” said Myers. “Most of our stuff is all steel or aluminum tubed [chassis]. This was something that was really unique.

“We called Riley Motorsports and said, ‘Would you be interested in helping us with this car?’

“It was the only one left in the world, and I felt it was very significant and needed to be restored to racing conditions again. Bob and Bill took it on as a project. I think they both really enjoyed it and did an amazing job restoring and preserving this car for us.

“It was a neat experience and journey. We became very friendly with Bill, and we’ve had huge respect for his team.

“The relationship started. He called us and said, ‘Hey I would really love to get back into the Ford Racing program. Would you be interested in partnering up on it?’

“I thought about it, talked to Chris, and we felt encouraged by how fun the opportunity would be, together.”

Myers and Liebenberg, along with Bill Riley, were among those on hand in taking delivery of their Mustang GT3 at the Henry Ford Museum last month, which Ford Racing wrapped in a Motorcraft-inspired livery from the 1985 Mustang GTO.

However, Myers said the car will likely start out in a Bud Moore livery and could evolve through the WeatherTech Championship season, paying tribute to other historic Ford road racing cars.

“I’ve always led my life by ‘Let’s just get a little bit better every day.’ It’s amazing how over the course of a lifetime of how far you can get,” added Myers.

“For me it’s part of that journey. We’ve been blessed to have had a lot of fun and been very successful with the collection and the vintage racing.

“For me, this is taking it up one notch – to the next level – and see what that’s like.

“I’ve always found that if you surround yourself with great people, and if everyone works hard, it’s amazing what you can accomplish.”

Myers said their goal is to take the program to Le Mans, indicating that the entry could feature a Bronze-rated driver that would be eligible to win IMSA’s Bob Akin Award, which provides an auto-invite to the French endurance classic.

“I just love the Ford story on how they went to Le Mans,” he said. “I know Bill really wants to go back there. I think it’s a lifelong dream of his to win at Le Mans with a Ford product.

“I can’t think of a better goal. That’s our goal. We want to race IMSA; we think it’s a great series.

“Our goal is to do well enough in the IMSA series to get a spot at Le Mans. You have to dream big.”

Source: Sports Car 365