The Mazda RT24-P race cars demonstrated a major leap forward in competitiveness at the Daytona International Speedway, but unfortunately both retired before the finish of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the first round of the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Rene Rast led the first practice in the #77 Castrol/ModSpace Mazda RT24-P that he shared with Tristan Nunez and Oliver Jarvis, while Jonathan Bomarito qualified in ninth position in the Prototype class in the #55 Mazda RT24-P that he shared with Harry Tincknell and Spencer Pigot.

Underlining the progress made by Mazda Team Joest, Bomarito's qualifying time was 3.3 seconds faster than the best qualifying time of the RT24-P in 2017.

Both Mazda Team Joest cars moved forward into the top 10 of the field by the race's second hour, but then a variety of issues including multiple tyre punctures and electrical issues slowed their progress.

The crew responded by resolving every issue, and the drivers responded by running a competitive race pace through the day and into the night - and through a brief rainstorm that fell in the race's sixth hour.

However, just before 8:00am, an exhaust failure caused the retirement of the #55 Mazda RT24-P, driven at the time by Bomarito. Shortly after that, the team elected to retire the #77 Castrol/ModSpace Mazda RT24-P, driven at the time by Nunez, after repeated electrical issues led to the failure of the car's power steering.