Harry Tincknell admitted it was always going to be a tough task for Mazda Team Joest to have a reliable Rolex 24 at Daytona, but he was hoping to see the #55 car he shared with Jonathan Bomarito and Spencer Pigot finish the race.
The Briton was therefore disappointed to see the car pull off the track in the seventeenth hour in flames, but despite this, Tincknell says Mazda can be proud of what they achieved during the Daytona weekend, with a top ten start and strong pace when they were able to get some decent time on track.
Tincknell feels the data the team gathered will benefit them in the long run, but Daytona showed the RT24-P has good potential, and he is excited to see what they can do with it throughout the remainder of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.
“Obviously we would have loved to have finished the 24 hours but overall I think we can be very proud of the job we have done at Daytona this week,” said Tincknell.
“Last season, the car was 3.5 seconds off the pace, now with all the upgrades we are comfortably running in the top 8 on a circuit that probably doesn’t suit the characteristics of our car as much as some of the upcoming races on the calendar.
“We knew it was going to be a very tough ask to be reliable with only three months preparation and we have gathered a lot of extremely useful data that the Mazda Team Joest guys will be able to analyse.
“We know the weak points of the car that we need to improve but we also know that we have a car that is competitive and can win races this season.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the whole event and Jonathan, Spencer and I worked really well together. With such a hard working team and a car that has a great base to improve on, I’m very excited about what’s to come in 2018.”
