By alley - Sep 20, 2017, 2:10 PM ET

Doonan thrilled with 'flawless' first Mazda Joest test

Mazda Motorsports director John Doonan was moved to see the roots of a conversation that started in January with Joest Racing come to fruition on Tuesday in Hockenheim.

Following a pair of bold decisions to part with SpeedSource Race Engineering and park Mazda's IMSA WeatherTech Championship DPi program for the remainder of 2017, Doonan watched with pride as the new Mazda Team Joest outfit

hit the track for the first time

. One word was used to describe the experience.

"Flawless," Doonan told RACER from the Frankfurt airport. "We ran between five and six hours straight, just turning laps with Jonathan Bomarito, Tristan Nunez and Rene Rast. The team performed flawlessly. There's a reason there's all those trophies in Joest's office... You see all their achievements on paper, but when you experience it firsthand, it really sinks in how special they are."

IMSA has been generous in the extended timeline allowed for locking down homologation with its DPi manufacturers. Joest will be expected to use all of the upcoming tests during the months ahead to evaluate the chassis, drivetrain and aerodynamics before lobbying the series to make the wholesale changes needed to make Mazda's RT24-P competitive.

For Doonan, the first on-track exercise with Joest also served as a relief; the improvement process has officially commenced.

"It was really a sense of 'finally!,' he added. "There will be more tests coming, and for our first day at the track together, it was more than I could have asked for. There's already been a lot of work going on behind the scenes by Multimatic and AER, and it's great to see the train has left the station and all of Mazda's partners are working together in the same direction. It was awesome and I expect it will continue that way as we all write this new chapter together. This is what we were hoping for, and have gotten."