Tincknell: “Dream Start” for Increased Multimatic Mazda Role

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Harry Tincknell believes that Saturday’s 1-2 sweep in the WeatherTech 240 at Daytona has been a “dream start” to Multimatic’s increased role with the Mazda DPi program.

Tincknell and Jonathan Bomarito claimed a commanding victory in IMSA’s return to racing, with the No. 55 Mazda RT24-P enjoying a flawless run in the second round of the WeatherTech Championship season.

While it marked Mazda’s fourth victory in DPi competition, it was the first under the full operation of Multimatic, led by team principal Charlie Cadieux, who along with Stephen Charsley have worked during the coronavirus pandemic to assemble a multi-national crew following the expiration of Team Joest’s contract earlier this year.

“It was the first race with Multimatic running this program full-time out of Mooresville [N.C.],” Tincknell explained.

“They’ve been running with a skeleton crew for the last two or three months, setting up the workshop, new trucks new, pit stand everything like that. So to come here and get a 1-2 is absolutely massive for them. 

“We had the car all weekend, just narrowly missed out on pole but we knew we had good race pace. 

“Jonathan did a fantastic job and honestly by the time I got in, all I had to do is bring it home cleanly; he’d done all the work for me. It’s fantastic.

“It was literally a dream start for everyone at Multimatic and Mazda Motorsports.”

The win for Tincknell, his third in IMSA competition, comes on the heels of a multi-year contract extension with the Canadian-based company.

“It’s really special,” he said. “Only last week it was announced that I’m going to stay with Multimatic for the long term so to bring home the first win with JB is absolutely an incredible feeling.

“You have to give massive credit to Team Joest as well and the way that the program came along, especially last year with three wins in a row and really fighting for for victories at the end of the season at Petit [Le Mans] and the first round this year at the Rolex [24].

“The second [place] for the 77 there really proved that all the winter testing are reliability and everything that’s gone in with Multimatic and AER has completely transformed the program from where we first started.

“Certainly of course if there’s a change then there’s going to be questions raised and people were going to be looking a little bit closer, especially at the start.

“The 1-2 [finish] just vindicates all the hard work that people like Stephen Charsley have been beavering away back at Mooresville as best they can with the restrictions that have been going on in the last couple of months.”

Bomarito: “Pretty Close” to Starting Race on Slicks

While having opted to start the race on wet-weather Michelin tires like the majority of DPi competitors, Bomarito believes the decision could have potentially gone either way.

Both the No. 31 Action Express Racing and No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.Rs ended up making one fewer stop as a result of taking the green flag on slicks, while battling a drying track, but ultimately didn’t have the outright pace to fight the Mazda DPis.

“[The team] was asking me [pre-race] and I was like, ‘You guys are crazy. I’ll make the decision. We’re going to go on rains for sure,'” Bomarito said.

“I know a few cars did start race on slicks. It was pretty close to being able to do that.

“I think it put them in a tough fuel strategy window, so I think rains from a staying-on-the-track drivability standpoint and staying-in-the-right-fuel-window was the right decision ultimately and it was it was sketchy conditions.

“Any time you have a drying changing condition track… Every single corner every lap until it was completely dry was a different racetrack every time you got there.

“It was hard to stay on top of the track and continue to push through because you just had a blind leap of faith a lot of times predicting how much the track’s actually drying.”

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