Mazda Motorsports director John Doonan is riding a sustained high after Tuesday’s surprise change of direction for the brand’s IMSA Prototype project. The signing of Joest Racing, which serves as its most ambitious move to date, has led to an influx of congratulatory messages.
“The response has been overwhelming and overwhelmingly positive,” Doonan told RACER. “Internally, from our leadership, our partners, our dealers, from Europe and Japan, it has been a blue-sky response. And the traffic on social media and coverage on websites has all been beyond our wildest dreams.”
Doonan also explained the manufacturer’s news release strategy, which kept the team change and early end to its 2017 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship campaign under wraps until the last moment.
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“There was also the element of surprise, which was intentional,” he said. “In order to respect the current partners, future partners, and the timing involved internally with finance and marketing, we held onto the news until the last minute to make the maximum statement. For those who had to keep it confidential to protect everybody, it was phenomenal.
“The reaction felt a lot like winning the pole position. You feel good, you celebrate for a few minutes, but then you focus on the important part, which is the race. And the process doesn’t stop. The news is out, and now we’ll have to work harder than we ever have to make this a success. I’m off to Germany this weekend to continue developing this project with our partners at Joest, and it will be like that for everyone until we go racing again next January.”
As expected, news of the Mazda Team Joest alliance has kept Doonan and his motorsports team busy on the phone and responding to emails from those who would like to work for the program once its new base in Atlanta, Georgia, is established.
Joest’s German squad will comprise most of the staff that will oversee the effort, but Doonan expects some familiar faces from North American racing to land with the team.
“Definite interest from technicians, mechanics, engineers, those who’ve been team managers and crew chiefs, and that’s been awesome,” he said. “We always want to be part of a winning operation, so it’s exciting to have a lot of talented people wanting to be part of Mazda Team Joest. And that’s why it’s great to have Ralf Juttner leading Joest because they’ve assembled a dream team over the years and many will be involved in our program. Clearly, it’s flattering that people want to be part of this, and we’re going to work with the best men and women to go over the wall for us, on the timing stand, and throughout the operation.”
Without going into specifics, Doonan acknowledged he’s received inquiries from open-wheel and sports car drivers young and old, all with an interest in driving for Mazda Team Joest. He also reiterated Jonathan Bomarito, Tom Long, Joel Miller and Tristan Nunez – the existing group of full-time Mazda drivers who’ve been with the Prototype program since its inception – will form its primary testing and development team.
Once the testing process is at an advanced stage, Mazda will confirm its compete lineup of full-timers and part-time endurance drivers for 2018.
“I’ve heard from a lot of drivers, and the best way I can frame this is we owe this to ourselves to begin testing and planning for the future with the core of our team,” he said. “Bomarito, Long, Miller, Nunez; they’ll all be part of the testing program. In a lot of ways, in recent years, back to the diesel days, I’ve apologized to the drivers because we didn’t always give them the tools to showcase their talent.
“And they showed they could fight and get pole positions and lead laps, but I want to give them the best chance to have the best tools at their disposal with this testing plan for Mazda Team Joest and concentrate only on that process for now. I’ve thanked all the drivers who’ve reached out, and I’ve also shared with them that we have to work through a process, and if we have needs, we’ll reach out to them.”
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