Mazda to hit Road America on a roll
Tristan Nunez waited a quarter of his life for his next victory.
A real victory. On the racetrack. Not on the computer, where a professional could beat up on nameless, faceless iRacing competition as a way to stay sharp and to remind himself that yes, he could still win.
A real victory. With champagne and confetti and the big trophy.
Nunez got it – he and co-driver Oliver Jarvis – 31⁄2 weeks ago at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, their first victory in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship’s premier Daytona Prototype International class.
But you know what? It won’t be remembered as Nunez’ first win since 2013. It’ll be remembered as Mazda’s second in DPi. Such is the nature of his sport.
Now ask Nunez if he cares.
“It’s endurance racing, so it’s not just me and the car,” said Nunez, a 23-yearold from Boca Raton, Florida. “It’s who I’m sharing the car with, my teammate, Ollie Jarvis, and I have two teammates in the other car, too, that I would take a bullet for and they’d take a bullet for me. We’re like brothers out there.
“Yeah, then it comes down to my career. Mazda took a chance on me when I was 17 years old. There’s hundreds of drivers out there that they could pick from. But they took a chance on a 17year-old kid that just graduated high school and put me in a car. … They took a chance on me and I worked my butt off and they were patient with me and helped me learn.
“I’ve got to be loyal to that. I have no problems working through the hard times. … I keep saying that it was the worth the wait. It really was.”
We’ll take that as a “no.” Nunez and Jarvis, in the No. 77 Mazda Team Joest prototype, and Jonathan Bomarito and Harry Tincknell in the No. 55 all will chase their second victory of the season – and a third straight Mazda 1-2 finish – this weekend at Road America in Elkhart Lake.
The IMSA Road Race Showcase is scheduled for 1:35 p.m. Sunday and runs for 2 hours 40 minutes.
“I’m still on the high from it,” Nunez said of the back-to-back 1-2 finishes. “It’s still going to be there for a while.”
Nunez is the only driver to be part of the entire six-year Mazda IMSA prototype program.
He was initially hired to race the developmental Mazda6 diesel in 2013 and scored a total of five class wins in Grand-Am and the American Le Mans Series before the series merged in 2014 to create what is now IMSA.
Nunez scored his first podium finish with in the Mazda prototype two years later and managed his first runner-up finish in the 2018 season finale. Then in the Six Hours of the Glen in June in Watkins Glen, New York, Nunez watched as the car shared by Bomarito, Tincknell and Olivier Pla led his across the line for Mazda’s first prototype win and a 1-2 finish, to boot.
“I almost forgot what it felt like,” Nunez said Tuesday. “Which is good. I think because of that the victory was that much more sweet.
“We had a meeting before Watkins Glen, before the race, and we told each other, it doesn’t matter which car wins, as long as a Mazda wins. That’s what we need for all of us. And sure enough, it didn’t matter. … I had tears running down my face, just as if I’d won the race myself.”
Seven days later, those emotions that had laid dormant for six years poured out again.
“That’s what you do it for, that kind of feeling,” Nunez said.
“It’s easy (emotionally) to go out there and get used to winning races and do that. But it’s way harder to go out there and struggle for years and not get the results. … And then to finally finish it off, nothing compares.”
Unless maybe … another victory. In a midseason adjustment in balance of performance, IMSA has added weight to most of the prototypes heading into Road America, and Mazda also was hit with a turbo boost adjustment that will take away some horsepower.
Nunez isn’t particularly worried. He’s been through worse.
“They always say once you get the first one, they keep coming,” Nunez said. “I do believe that.
“With the momentum we have now, coming into this weekend, I think the results are going to continue.”