Mazda Team Joest Shows Speed And Tests Endurance At Tough Daytona 24 Hours

February 1, 2018 by Mazda

•The world famous Daytona 24 Hours was round 1 of the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Series.

•Both Mazda RT24-Ps showed speed but retired before finish of America's toughest endurance race.

•British drivers Oliver Jarvis and Harry Tincknell, part of Mazda's full-season IMSA driver line-up.

The Mazda RT24-Ps of Mazda Motorsports demonstrated a major leap forward in competitiveness at Daytona International Speedway over the weekend, but unfortunately both cars retired before the finish of the 2018 Rolex 24 at Daytona, the first round of the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

The heavily-revised Mazda RT24-P's showed their increased speed throughout the week at Daytona. Rene Rast led the first practice in the No. 77 Castrol/ModSpace Mazda RT24-P that he shared with Tristan Nunez and Oliver Jarvis, while Jonathan Bomarito qualified in ninth position in the Prototype class in the No. 55 Mazda RT24-P that he shared with Harry Tincknell and Spencer Pigot. Underlining the progress made by Mazda Team Joest, Bomarito's qualifying time was 3.3-seconds faster than the best qualifying time of the RT24-P in 2017.

Both Mazda Team Joest cars moved forward into the top-ten of the field by the race's second hour, but then a variety of issues including multiple tyre punctures and electrical issues slowed their progress. The Joest crew responded by resolving every issue, and the drivers highligted the cars potential by running a competitive race pace through the day and into the night – and through a brief rainstorm that fell in the race's sixth hour.

However, just before 8:00am an exhaust failure caused the retirement of the No. 55 Mazda RT24-P, driven at the time by Bomarito. Shortly after that the team elected to retire the No. 77 Castrol/ModSpace Mazda RT24-P, driven at the time by Nunez, after repeated electrical issues led to the failure of the car's power steering.

The next round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will be the 12 Hours of Sebring on March 17.