Cosgrove: No Set Timeline for Customer Mazda DPis

Photo: Mazda Motorsports

No set timeline has been established on the possible allocation of customer Mazda RT24-Ps, according to Mazda Motorsports director Nelson Cosgrove, who has confirmed that additional chassis are in the build process.

The Japanese manufacturer, under the previous North American motorsports leadership of John Doonan, has been open to customer DPi teams for 2020, although none have yet to formally commit.

Sportscar365 revealed last month that Dyson Racing is working on a Mazda DPi program that would see Chris Dyson and Guy Smith reunited in top-level IMSA prototype racing.

It now appears that deal could be run by Spirit of Daytona racing, but under the Dyson banner that would debut mid-season.

Speaking to Sportscar365 during the Roar Before the Rolex 24, Mazda’s Cosgrove, who joined the company in mid-November,  said he hasn’t yet been in dialogue with potential customers but is open to the possibility. 

“If we were to do something… I know from a planning perspective, it would be a bit difficult to really determine what the earliest [would be],” he said.

“Not having talked to these guys, I don’t know if they’re looking for running the endurance races or what they want to do. We’ll find out.

“It would be something we’d have to address in the next few weeks. I think we’re open to it.”

Cosgrove indicated that Mazda’s original plan, according to its North American CEO Masahiro Moro, was not to make customer cars available and instead run the program as a full factory effort only.

That philosophy is understood to have changed last year, once the package became a proven race-winner in WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition.

While confirming additional cars in build at Multimatic, Cosgrove wouldn’t say whether they would be used as replacements for the factory Mazda DPis or be made available to customers.

“There’s some cars being assembled right now,” he said. “We bought some new chassis and we’re bringing those online. I don’t really have a plan right now of how those would be deployed.

“These are the cars we’ll have going into [the Rolex 24]. Theoretically, if nothing goes wrong, these will be the same cars that will race at Sebring.”

Cosgrove said the apparent level of interest from customers has shown that the DPi class is “healthy” thanks in part to other manufacturers that have taken a more customer-first approach.

“I think you look at the way the Cadillac program has been run over the years has been very strong and it’s primarily been a customer program,” he said.

“It’s a different way of looking at things and I need to spend a little bit more time working on that.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John