Images Courtesy: Ford Racing

As an ex-SVT chassis engineer, Dean Martin knows what it takes to build a car to go quickly around the twisties, and this past weeekend at the SCCA’s Detroit Grand Prix event at Belle Isle, he decided to show off his talents. For the last decade he’s been competing out of the Rehagen Racing shop in NASA’s American Iron and Grand-Am Continental Tire Challenge classes, but with a with the Grand Prix right in his Detroit backyard he decided it was time to make his debut in the World Challenge GTS class.

Just one week prior to the event, the Rehagen Racing team started putting together the GTS car – a Boss 302 Mustang that was “thrown together” in time to make the event. Martin selected the number 50 to ride on the flanks of the car to pay tribute to friend, fallen Mustang racer and 2011 World Challenge champion Paul Brown, who passed away in 2012 after a battle with cancer.

Fuel system issues on Sunday during qualifying left Martin in the eighth qualified position, but not long after the green flag dropped Martin was already up to fifth and in a battle for fourth with fellow Mustang racer Alec Udell. A late-race crash between Andy Pilgrim’s Cadillac, Jack Baldwin’s Porsche, and Lawson Aschenbach’s Chevy left the tiniest hole for Martin to sneak through and claim the lead before the yellow caution flag came out.

 Martin was able to seize the lead and hold onto it for the rest of the race, marking the first time a Mustang Boss 302 racer has won in 2013 in the GTS class. “I don’t know if there was more than three inches extra between Andy’s [Pilgrim] car and the wall,” Martin said. “Alec [Udell] and I managed to get between them, and then just started charging on when I saw the green flag. It looked like Aschenbach got hurt in the accident, or just checked up. I just stuffed it in there and got by him, and then came around and saw the white flag.”