Tough day at the track for Mazda Prototype team

It was a beautiful, sunny day at the Circuit of the Americas today for the Advance Auto Parts SportsCar Showdown. But, it was if a dark cloud took hold over the Mazda Prototype team's small area of Texas real estate, as they struggled with a variety of mechanical and electronic gremlins to finish eighth (No. 70 Mazda) and tenth (No. 55 Mazda) in the Prototype class in the two-hour, 40-minute race.

The race started beautifully for the team, as Jonathan Bomarito jumped to fifth from his eighth-place starting spot in the 55, while Tom Long made an even bigger advance into sixth place from his tenth-place start. Approximately 20 minutes into the race, Bomarito reported a misfire that reduced the horsepower from the engine. The team tried repeatedly to correct the electrical gremlins, but were never able to get to the root problem of the mystery. In the meantime, the hard-charging Long soon began to suffer a turbo-boost issue on the No. 70 car. Both starting drivers gave way to their teammates (Tristan Nunez in the 55, Joel Miller in the 70), but the Soul Red 55 car retired from the race while the No. 70 overcame brake problems to cross the finish line.