After three straight wins in the WeatherTech Sportscar Championship, Mazda Team Joest is entering the final two races of the season within grasp of second-place in the manufacture’s title, and with a bit of help from others, a potential championship.
A possible manufacturers’ championship was once a moonshot for a team that three races ago, was still looking for its first win some two and a half years after the start of its DPi programme.
For Mazda to secure the manufacturers’ title, it will need two things to happen; firstly, they have to secure wins at Laguna Seca and at Petit Le Mans; without wins at both of those events, Mazda cannot win the manufacture’s title. Provided they win those two races, Mazda needs the best-placed Acura to be behind the best-placed Cadillac and Nissan in one race as well as behind either the best-placed Cadillac or Nissan in the other.
Mazda’s chances at claiming second in the manufacturers’ championship, however, are far better than their odds at taking the title. They are currently six points behind Cadillac, who have been sliding farther out of contention since Long Beach. Still, though, considering where Mazda was when they left Detroit, it’s remarkable for them to still be in the conversation this late in the season.
Mazda didn’t know this at the time, but after leaving Belle Isle, their season would take a dramatic turn.
“After leaving Detroit, which was a really tough weekend for us, I drove back to Chicago and really asked myself ‘what do we have to do to win one of these things?’” John Doonan, Mazda’s North American Director of Motorsports said to DSC.
Mazda headed into Watkins Glen tied with Nissan for last in the manufacture’s championship. They were 21 points off Cadillac, who were leading at the time, and they were still looking for their first win — 884 days after launching the programme.
“I thought a lot about it and I sent a note to the team, just talking about how it’s all about how we rebound coming out of a weekend like that,” Doonan said, talking about the team’s struggles in Detroit. “Our guys are all the same, we want to win races, we want to be on the podium.”
After leaving Detroit, which was a really tough weekend for us, I drove back to Chicago and really asked myself ‘what do we have to do to win one of these things?’
Mazda always knew there was race-winning pace in the RT-24P. That was evident by their lap-record shattering pace at the Rolex 24 and the promise they showed at tracks like Mid-Ohio. Doonan told DSC that the team has found their RT-24P to be particularly effective at circuits like Mid-Ohio, Watkins Glen, and Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.
“We all knew that the cars would be strong at the natural terrain circuits. We proved that at Mid-Ohio. The cars have been competitive everywhere, but the natural terrain circuits we really felt like we had a good shot.” Doonan explained.
Watkins Glen turned out to be an eye-opening experience for Doonan and the trio of partners; Multimatic, Joest, and AER, who make up the Mazda programme. When it came to on-track time at Watkins Glen, though, the team was stunned, and at times bemused, by the pace advantage, it had over its rivals.
“In the early part of the race… we did not expect to be that strong. We knew we would be good, but no way did we think we would be that strong,” Doonan said. Sitting atop the pit stand and looking for the reason the two Mazda RT-24Ps had broken away from the pack, Doonan queued up his radio on the team intercom.
“I asked on our team intercom, ‘man, what is everyone else doing?’ It felt like people were holding back, maybe they thought, ‘hey it’s Mazda, it’s a long race, they have had reliability issues before’ but the cars just came alive.”
While the win at Watkins Glen was a great accomplishment for Mazda, Doonan was careful to ensure that the team remained humble.
“I said to the team after that [Watkins Glen] that we can show up to CTMP with our heads up, but not our chests puffed out, because this is a highly competitive championship and everyone is going to come loaded for bear.”
Another win at CTMP and a win at Road America, that Doonan admitted the team did not believe they could win following a Balance of Performance change to their cars, left the team on “cloud nine”, as Doonan put it. He added that there is an extra spring in the steps of the crew, but that they are also ensuring they continue to operate “with confidence and the same attention to detail that they always had.”
Multimatic, which is the chassis partner for the team, its LMP2 product the base for the Mazda RT-24P, has been instrumental in the team’s recent success according to Doonan. He explained that the team has always prepared the cars with the same attention to detail and passion, but the strides made by Multimatic have been critical in giving the team a better base to work with.
We’re preparing to go to these last couple of races with the same intensity and the same level of preparation that we have all along
“Multimatic has absolutely transformed these race cars and given us an absolutely fantastic platform for success,” Doonan told DSC.
Multimatic has also provided their own dedicated team of engineers at the race track. Meanwhile, in between races Mazda’s drivers will frequently spend time in the simulator at Multimatic’s Ontario, Canada headquarters to prepare both car and driver for the upcoming race.
Mazda will need some help from opposing marques in the final two races to secure the title, but the chances of a championship, no matter how unlikely, is not affecting how Mazda prepares for the final stretch of the season.
“We’re preparing to go to these last couple of races with the same intensity and the same level of preparation that we have all along,” concluded Doonan. “Everyone has gotten a taste of what we always hoped for, and everyone remains hungry to win the last couple.”
