Pericak was instrumental in integrating Ford Racing, Ford Team RS and the Special Vehicle Team (SVT) under the Ford Performance banner nearly three years ago.
After his departure from the director’s job at Ford Performance, his duties will be split between Motorsports Engineering Manager Mark Rushbrook, who will oversee Ford’s racing arm, and SVT Director Hermann Salenbauch, who will handle production.
Pericak is returning to the production side of Ford as the Engineering Director for Unibody.
“All the stuff we’ve been doing for the past three years has been pretty impressive, I think, personally, and I’m proud of it. Now, it’s time for me to go and take this global approach and bring it to the mainstream, where we can start affecting the way that we do production cars and trucks on a larger scale,” Pericak told motorsport.com.
One notable achievement from Pericak’s reign is winning the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans GTE Pro class on the 50th anniversary of Ford’s 1966 victory. Ford entered four cars and finished first, third, fourth and 10th.
Pericak recruited Stewart-Haas Racing prior to the 2017 season in an effort to bolster Ford’s presence in NASCAR and also developed Ford Performance’s technical center in Concord, N.C.
As Engineering Director for Unibody, Pericak’s responsibilities have grown to oversee the interior, exterior and engineering of Ford’s cars on a global scale.
