Is Podium Finish Around The Corner For Mazda Prototype?

Subtitle:"We’re part of the story now"

“Now, we’re in the hunt!” team owner Sylvain Tremblay said with a smile prior to the recent Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida, with the No. 55 Mazda Prototype set to start fifth – the best qualifying result turned in by the team.

Tremblay and the Mazda Motorsports team had more reasons to smile following the race. Both of the soul red Mazda Prototypes finished in the top 10 for the first time in the brief history of the program, including a lead-lap finish for the No. 55 entry with drivers Tristan Nunez, Jonathan Bomarito and Spencer Pigot. Their sixth-place finish matched the team’s best overall result, while the No. 70 of Tom Long, Joel Miller, Ben Devlin and Keiko Ihara placed eighth, the first car one lap down.

“I think a podium is right around the corner for us,” Tremblay said. “Obviously some things have to fall our way, but when we get to where a P2 car will be strong – like Mazda Raceway, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Circuit of The Americas – our expectations are to finish on the podium.”

Mazda entered the year with great expectations, switching from diesel power to a gasoline-fueled MZ-2.0T engine. The move paid immediate dividends when the two cars were third and fifth quickest in the Roar Before the Rolex 24 At Daytona. Three weekends later, though, the team received a splash of cold water on its expectations, when both cars were on the sidelines with mechanical problems prior to the midway point.

“Obviously, Daytona was pretty disappointing,” Tremblay admitted. “We had done quite a bit of testing, and had no real reliability issues. Then to have one car come out early and another one 11 hours into the race was hugely disappointing. Definitely not equal to the effort we put into the race.”

With one car sidelined by flywheel damage, and the other by a valvetrain issue, the South Florida team went back to work.

“We rallied the wagons, as they say, and looked at every single part of the cars,” Tremblay said. “We made a big push to get some reliability back for Sebring. Luckily, the effort was rewarded by two finishes at Sebring, with one car on the lead lap. We’re not jumping for joy for finishing where we finished, but it’s definitely a relief that all the work we put into working on reliability definitely paid off at Sebring, which is a pretty difficult circuit in the best case scenario.”

“I think we’re definitely closer to the performance envelope of where we hoped we would be. Sebring was only the second race for this particular package. We’re part of the story now. We still have some work to do. Some other cars can do certain things better than we can, so we’re still working on that. But as a whole, it’s the job that we needed to do, and we can build from here.”

Now, the team is preparing to travel west for the BUBBA burger® SportsCar Grand Prix at Long Beach, a 100-minute race on the Southern California street circuit on Saturday, April 16, followed by a two-hour race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on Sunday, May 1.

“Long Beach was difficult for us in the past, simply because of the nature of the circuit, with our diesel package,” Tremblay said. “I think we’ll be more competitive with this engine. I have more hopes for Mazda Raceway. We had a real good run there last year with the diesel package, one of our best performances, so we think with our new Mazda MZ-2.0T we’ll be right in the thick of it.”

John Doonan, Director of Mazda Motorsports North America, noted the difference in the team’s attitude after leading in the early going in both the 2014 and 2015 editions of the Rolex 24.

“Last year, we led the Rolex early on fuel mileage, and we all cheered loudly,” Doonan recalled. “But when we led this year’s race, there wasn’t an outburst because the team had worked so hard that we believed we would lead - we expected to lead - and that our work was paying off. It hurts to fall out while fighting for the win, but we know we have the team, the drivers and the new MZ-2.0T engine that will challenge for podiums and race wins all season. It’s going to be great fun.”