Ford introduced us to its newly formed Ford Performance division in December, divulging plans to introduce 12 new performance vehicles through the year 2020 and to take racing more seriously, among other goals. As a result, the automaker has moved former director of racing for Ford Racing, Jamie Allison, to a new position in marketing, Motorsport reports.
Allison has reportedly been named Ford Marketing, Sales and Serviceworking in the automaker’s Global Connected Vehicle & Services sector. Dave Pericak, who was named director of Ford Performance late last year, said Allison will now report to him, and while he will still have a hand in racing, it will be on the marketing side of things.
Ford Performance is in part the brainchild of Ford Group Vice President, Global Product Development, and Chief Technical Officer, Raj Nair. Because Nair comes from an engineering background and takes racing very seriously, he wanted to put engineers in charge of the automaker’s motorsport efforts. Pericak, a former engineer himself, explained to Motorsport why Nair put such an emphasis on putting engineers in charge.
“So no disrespect to Jamie or any marketing members but when it comes to performance on the track, who knows better how to make the cars go around than our engineers?,” Pericak asked. “I don’t know if people understand what it means and what the dedication is from the company, but you will very shortly see as we start producing more vehicles and we get more wins on the track. There’s a new approach within the company to race and to race the right way.”
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