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[h=2]IMSA: Mazda RT24-P DPi making progress in testing[/h] Marshall Pruett / Image by Mazda

Mazda continues to make progress with the on-track development of its new RT24-P Daytona Prototype international that will compete in IMSA's WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2017.
The shapely DPi, built in partnership with Riley/Multimatic, turned laps at a rainy Road Atlanta on Tuesday and had planned to stay for a second day of running, but declining weather forced the SpeedSource-led program to load the RT24-P into the trailer earlier than expected.


The two-car program has concentrated on testing with one RT24-P so far, and is expected to remain with a single chassis through next month's official IMSA test at Daytona International Speedway. The second RT24-P will likely appear for the Roar Before the 24 test at Daytona in early January.
Drivers Tom Long, Jonathan Bomarito, Tristan Nunez and Joel Miller have logged miles from North Carolina to Georgia, and with the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona on the horizon, the Mazda team will get a chance to face off with the other new DPi entries from Cadillac and Nissan at Daytona in the coming weeks once private testing concludes.
"The base of what Riley and Multimatic has done, so far in our testing, has been extremely positive," said Mazda Motorsports boss John Doonan. "The feedback from our drivers has been absolutely fantastic."
According to Doonan, the wet-dry running at Road Atlanta helped SpeedSource to isolate a potential issue before it became a bigger problem.
"We did test in North Carolina for a day, we have tested here at Road Atlanta, and had little nagging things [that happen] anytime you launch a new race car – some gearbox cooling items that we've identified and addressed," he said.
Although lap times were not made available, the pace of the new RT24-P at Road Atlanta – site of the 2016 season finale on Oct. 1 – is said to be markedly faster than the Mazda Prototype it has replaced.
"In doing a layover of data, one particular set comparing to where we were at Petit Le Mans, the car is significantly better than where we were roughly two months ago," Doonan added.
Up next for Mazda in the RT24-P's development is the benchmarking of the 2017-spec MZ-2.0T four-cylinder engine it will use next year.
"Our [testing] engine package, at the moment, is not the same spec of what we will run in 2017," Doonan said. "There are a few minor additions on the engine package, but so far, everything has allowed us to run in anger for the several days we have run.
"Next week is required dyno testing for us at IMSA, and then we will be back on track at Daytona the 13th and 14th for two days there, with additional days at Daytona scheduled after [for] private testing."