John Doonan Tag

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer DAYTONA — After years of unreliability that made Mazda an afterthought, the Japanese brand brought their lead RT24-P across the finish line in second place in the 2020 Rolex 24 at Daytona. The No. 77 Mazda Team Joest DPi started on pole position and led 190 of 833 laps with Oliver Jarvis, Olivier Pla and Tristan Nunez sharing driving duties. However, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season opener escaped the Multimatic-based prototype by just over a minute. Their opening pace could not be replicated late inRead More

By IMSA Wire Service The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) announced today that John Doonan has been named the next president of the sanctioning body effective January 1, 2020 with his first day on the job scheduled for Monday, Oct. 21. Doonan was previously the director of motorsports for Mazda North America Operations where he developed the overall strategy and managed Mazda’s motorsports programs in North America. “John is a fantastic choice to become our next president, to build upon the momentum of our just-completed 50th anniversary season and takeRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio– Mazda Team Joest had their podium finish as an entity at the 2018 Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and the team managed to get two cars on the podium at this year at Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Mid-Ohio. However, despite the second and third place finishes, the team is frustrated by their lack of stepping on the top step of the podium. “We’ve been fast every weekend, started on the front row three of the four weekends,Read More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer After a year and a half together with Team Joest, Mazda has secured pole position for the 57th Rolex 24 at Daytona. Oliver Jarvis backed up the No. 77’s RT24-P’s performance from the Roar Before the 24 and set a new track record with a fastest lap of 1 minute, 33.685 seconds to average 136.792 mph around the 3.56 mile roval. This broke a 26-year-old record set back in 1993 by P.J. Jones in a Dan Gurney’s All American Racers Toyota. “I think the goal forRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The celebration in the Mazda Team Joest pits following the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans in October almost resembled a victory. There were cheers, hugs, high fives and fist bumps all around as the pair of Mazda RT24-P Daytona Prototype international (DPi) cars landed on the podium for the first time thanks to savvy race strategy on the part of the team as other top contender came up a lap short – or less – on fuel.Read More

By Road to Indy PALMETTO, Fla. – The Mazda Road to Indy USF2000 $200K Scholarship Shootout will return to the Valley of the Sun as the Bondurant Racing School near Phoenix, Ariz., will again host the third annual event on December 8/9. At stake for the 20 champions of junior open-wheel series from around the globe is a $200,000 scholarship from Mazda to enter the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship in 2019 – the first step on the world-renowned driver development ladder system. This year’s field is likely to comprise driversRead More

By Road to Indy PORTLAND, Ore. – There was a bittersweet element to last night’s Mazda Road to Indy Championship Celebration as over 200 members of the racing community, including drivers, families, teams and sponsors, gathered for their traditional end-of-season banquet. Following a cocktail reception on a glorious summer’s evening overlooking the Columbia River and with Mt. Hood looming in the distance, over $2.6M was distributed in the Mount St. Helens Ballroom at the Red Lion On The River, Jantzen Beach, just a mile or so away from Portland InternationalRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It was an action-packed two hours and 40 minutes of racing at Road America in Sunday’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase with all the drama and plot twists of a summer blockbuster. Especially in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Prototype class, the strategic battle came right down to the end as the No. 54 CORE autosport team of Colin Braun and Jon Bennett emerged victorious for the second time in a row, while the Ford Chip Ganassi train kept a rollin’ inRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A year ago at this time, the sports car racing world was buzzing with the recently announced news that Mazda would be teaming up with Joest Racing for the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship to be run under the Mazda Team Joest banner. It was a big deal. Joest Racing is one of the most storied teams in sports car racing history, and it had most recently fielded the extremely successful Audi LMP1 program in the FIA World Endurance Championship. As partRead More

The middle rung of the Mazda Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires open-wheel driver development ladder, the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires, will gain a significant upgrade in 2018 with the introduction of the brand-new Tatuus PM-18. The prototype car was unveiled today during the annual Performance Racing Industry Show at the Indianapolis Convention Center by Dan Andersen, Owner/CEO of Andersen Promotions, John Doonan, Director of Motorsports for Mazda North American Operations, and Chris Pantani, Director of Event Marketing and Motorsports for Cooper Tires. The PM-18 representsRead More