Mazda RT24-P Is Unstoppable, Unofficially Breaks Lap Record At Daytona

Mazda has set a new, yet unofficial, lap record for the Daytona Prototype international field in the qualifying session hosted on Sunday, at the Roar Before the 24.

With Olivier Pla in the driver’s seat, the Arctic White RT24-P completed the course in 1:33.324. This puts it ahead of the 1:33.865 time officially set by his teammate, Oliver Jarvis, in the #77 racer in the qualifying round of the 2019 Rolex 24. Jonathan Bomarito came a few tenths of a second behind in the #55 RT24-P, qualifying in fifth position with 1:33.660.

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“We were anticipating that we would be a little bit quicker this year than last year, and the direction from the team was very clear – drive as fast as you can”, said Pla. “The team has spent quite a bit of time developing the car for the endurance races, and we were working on our race setup all weekend, but we were always pushing as much as possible. It is a great thing to have set the unofficial record and to be fastest today, it’s great for Mazda, for our sponsor Idemitsu and everybody on the team, but our focus is on the 24 Hours at the end of the month.”

Mazda will return to Daytona for the Rolex 24 race that takes place on January 22-26. Subsequently, they could return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans as well, according to the company’s North America exec, Masahiro Moro, who admitted that they’re indeed considering it, yet an official decision is still pending.