A series of early-race setbacks prevented the Mazda Prototype team from showing its full potential in this past Saturday’s Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring, but one factor the team didn’t have to worry about was the performance of its Mazda MZ-2.0-T engines, as designed, built and serviced by AER..
“For the second race in a row our engines performed flawlessly,” noted Mike White, AER’s North American Programs Manager. “That’s an important statistic because the 36 total racing hours from Daytona and Sebring represent just over half of all the race hours in the 12 races on the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech schedule. It demonstrates the positive results of all the work everyone at AER put in over the off-season refining the Mazda MZ-2.0-T. Everyone here at AER can be justifiably proud as we turn our focus to ensuring that our partners at Mazda and SpeedSource will continue to have great engine performance for the team’s pair of Mazda RT24-P DPi chasses for the remaining ten races on the schedule.”
Despite the setbacks – which included crashes, brake failure, broken suspension parts and a (non-engine-related) coolant leak – the # 55 Soul Red Mazda RT24-P, with drivers Jonathan Bomarito, Spencer Pigot and Tristan Nunez, soldiered on to finish fifth in class. The team car, the No. 70 Mazda, with Joel Miller, Tom Long and Marino Franchitti driving, overcame a crash early in the race, made repairs and returned, only to find a cracked suspension piece that put them out of the race. The No. 70 team finished 8th in the Prototype class.
“It’s the first finish for the brand new Mazda RT24-P, and it’s nice to be able to come across the line with a top-five finish after truly a challenging week,” said John Doonan, Mazda Motorsports’ director.
The next race on the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship schedule is April 8 at the Grand Prix of Long Beach.
