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SpeedSource Mazda Driver Pairings Confirmed

Tristan Nunez moves to No. 70 Mazda to team with Jonathan Bomarito…

Photo: SpeedSource/Mazda

Photo: SpeedSource/Mazda

The driver pairings for Mazda’s two-car factory TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Prototype class effort have been confirmed ahead of next month’s season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona. (En Français)

The SpeedSource squad will see a reshuffle in its lineup, with 19-year-old Tristan Nunez moving to the No. 70 Mazda SKYACTIV Prototype alongside new signing Jonathan Bomarito. SpeedSource team owner Sylvain Tremblay scales back his driving commitments to the four-round Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup races only.

Tom Long, who co-drove with Tremblay for the full season last year, meanwhile, has been paired with Joel Miller in the No. 07 entry, with Ben Devlin completing the lineup for the endurance races next year.

“Just like we have been working on the performance aspects of the car, we’re doing the same with our drivers,” Mazda Motorsports director John Doonan told Endurance-Info. “We have a good group of guys that work together well, and push each other, which is essential in endurance racing.”

As Doonan referenced, the pair of Multimatic-built, Lola-based P2 cars have continued development over the off-season, with the team coming off a positive test at Daytona last month that saw the turbo diesel-powered prototypes make significant gains.

Among the changes for 2015 include a revised cylinder head to cut down on overheating issues faced by the largely production-based 2.2-liter powerplant in its first year of prototype competition.

“We were thrilled with the big jump in performance at the Daytona test, and we will be judging ourselves on the rate of development and improvements within the team,” Doonan said. “I am confident we will be much closer to the front of the Prototype category this year than in 2014.”

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

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