Joest Racing has teamed up with Mazda to compete in the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, running the RT24-P Prototypes under the Mazda Team Joest banner.
The new partnership replaces SpeedSource, bringing an end to Mazda's current IMSA protoype programme with immediate effect.
So far this season the two Mazda cars have finished on the podium three times and are sixth and seventh in the standings thus far. However they have struggled against the Cadillac and Nissan entries.
In order to best prepare for the new season and to close the performance gap to their rivals, Mazda and Joest will use the next few months to run an extensive testing and evaluation program, to determine where improvements can be made, with much of that working taking place at Joest's European headquarters.
John Doonan, director of motorsports for Mazda North America, thanked SpeedSource for their hard work and success, whilst also ushering in a "once in a lifetime opportunity," to partner Joest Racing.
"I want to thank our long-time partners at SpeedSource Race Engineering and owner, Sylvain Tremblay," said Doonan.
"We accomplished a great deal with their organisation at all levels of the sport for more than two decades. They are a perfect example of a team that has grown through our Mazda system: from grassroots club racing, to Rolex 24 race-winning efforts in GT and then on to the Prototype program."
He added: "This is an important moment in Mazda Motorsports history as we align our brand’s top-level sports car racing program with one of the best sports car teams of all time.
"What Mr. Joest, Ralf Jüttner and the entire Joest Racing organisation have accomplished is not likely to ever be matched. We are very excited to work with them to put Mazda in victory lane and to strive for more championship trophies, adding to the substantial Mazda and Joest Racing legacies in the years ahead."
The new driver line-up has yet to be confirmed, but the news statement confirmed that the team's current line-up of Jonathan Bomarito/Tristan Nunez and Joel Miller/Tom Long, would "participate in the testing and development".
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