By alley - Jul 18, 2017, 11:00 AM ET

Mazda Team Joest to debut in 2018

Mazda Motorsports has signed Joest Racing to take over its IMSA Daytona Prototype international program.

With the stunning move, the Reinhold Joest-owned, Ralf Juttner-led outfit will immediately replace the Florida-based SpeedSource Race Engineering group as Mazda's WeatherTech SportsCar Championship service provider. The new team will compete under the name "Mazda Team Joest."

In concert with the program's shift from SpeedSource to Joest, Mazda's current IMSA Prototype campaign will come to an immediate end, marking the July 9 race at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park as its final outing of 2017.

To use the extra months made available by stepping away from IMSA's championship trail, Mazda's Riley/Multimatic-built, AER-powered RT24-P DPi models

will move to Joest's European headquarters

to begin an extensive testing and evaluation program. While in Germany, the RT24-P will be benchmarked to determine its current state of competitiveness before Joest can address and hopefully resolve the car's shortcomings.

Before the end of the year, Joest will return with the RT24-Ps to a new base that it will establish in Atlanta, Ga., where it will staff and run Mazda's DPi program. Once the redevelopment process is complete, a heavily optimized version of the RT24-P will resume competition in January at the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

In assuming full responsibility for the RT24-P, Joest will work directly with AER and Multimatic (which parted ways with Riley Technologies on the DPi/WEC P2 program) to find the speed and reliability that has been elusive since the car's introduction in December.

"It's time to put our pinnacle program in a higher position," Mazda Motorsports director John Doonan told RACER. "This partnership that we have just executed with Joest Racing puts us with the undisputed greatest of all time. And we could not be more pleased to give this opportunity for success to the Mazda brand."

Following Audi Sport Team Joest's departure from the FIA World Endurance Championship at the end of 2016, hiring the German squad became an unexpected option for Doonan and Mazda to explore. Through its affiliation with Audi, Joest Racing became the most successful team in the history of sports car racing as it led the German factory effort to 13 unparalleled wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans (most recently in 2014, below), and multiple championships in an assortment of prototype series throughout the world.

Although fresh speculation positioned Joest as developing a DPi effort for Audi, Doonan and Joest have been working on the Mazda plan for months. Discussions and meetings took place between both parties in Europe and America before the manufacturer and team came to terms in recent weeks.

Facing stiff competition from Cadillac, Nissan, and the inbound Acura DPi effort led by Team Penske, the alliance between Joest and Mazda should pivot the program from a non-threatening underdog to a serious contender within the next 12 to 18 months.

The hard decision to part ways with SpeedSource, which delivered championships and major wins for Mazda in the former Grand-Am Rolex Series, comes after four hard years of failing to turn Mazda's prototypes into durable, race-winning performers.

"It isn't an easy decision for us," Doonan said. "We've had a 20-year relationship with SpeedSource, but this transition is 100 percent about going to the race track to win races for the Mazda brand [and] win championships for the Mazda brand."

With Joest in place to work directly with Multimatic and AER, Doonan will rely on its new partner to build a coalition that can overcome the competitive gap to Cadillac and Nissan.

"Clearly, Multimatic has taken a very huge role in the development of the RT24-P," he said. "They are a Le Mans-winning effort, so we're confident the dedication from Larry Holt, Peter Gibbons, Stephen Charsley, the entire team there, is going to continue the development we need to become a championship-winning team. AER, our engine partner, has definitely raised their game. Slowly but surely, all the pieces are coming together."

On the driver front, Doonan is positive its ongoing reliance on Mazda-affiliated drivers, including those who've come up through its open-wheel and sports car training ladders, will pay dividends when the program returns next year.

"We believe that the Mazda Road To 24 [and the] Mazda Road To Indy has gifted us a talented group of drivers that can put us up front," he added. Changes within the existing driver ranks, however, are still a possibility.

Introducing the RT24-Ps to a team like Joest that has vast, cutting-edge technology resources, not to mention decades of proven results working with manufacturers, can only expedite Mazda's aggressive DPi goals

"We have a very loyal fanbase," Doonan added. "Now it's time to deliver for our fans. That's what my expectation is for the Mazda employees, and Mazda dealers throughout the world. And that's what we're going to go out and do."