Jonathan Bomarito will join the SpeedSource Mazda team for 2015 in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, which serves as his return to the team that he drove for from 2010 through 2012.
The American was well in line to secure the GT Le Mans class championship with SRT Motorsports this year in one of the Dodge Viper SRT GTS-Rs. But he and full-season co-driver Kuno Wittmer were split up at the final race and Wittmer won the title; then the program was pulled on the Monday after the season finale at Petit Le Mans.
Bomarito will be in the No. 70 Mazda SKYACTIV-D prototype. Exact driver pairings are to be determined but are expected to feature the team’s 2014 drivers (Tom Long, Sylvain Tremblay, Tristan Nunez, Joel Miller, Ben Devlin, Tristan Vautier).
“I feel as though I’m coming home to be back with Mazda,” Bomarito said in a release. “It excites me to see what the future holds with SpeedSource and Mazda in the prototype class. This program has been about development, and I’m honored to come on board to add to this collaboration and watch it continue to grow. It’s a great feeling to be back in the No. 70 car with Sylvain Tremblay. It all started for us when we won the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona in 2010. I can’t think of a better way to kick off the 2015 race season.”
Three riders remain locked in a tight battle with 17 points separating the leader Cooper Webb from third-place Chase Sexton and these are only a few Supercross numbers to consider entering Seattle.Chase Sexton made a statement in Detroit with his second win of 2023. – Feld Motor Sports
Webb and Tomac won the last four championships with two apiece in alternating years, but they were not one another’s primary rival for most of those seasons. On the average, however, the past four years show an incredible similarity with average points earned of 21.0 for Webb and 21.3 for Tomac. With five wins so far this season, Tomac (23 wins) leads Webb (19) in victories but Webb (43) edges Tomac (41) in podium finishes during this span.
Tomac has won two of the last three Seattle races and those two wins in this stadium are topped only by James Stewart. Fittingly, if Tomac gets a third win this week, he will tie Stewart for second on the all-time wins’ list. Tomac tied Ricky Carmichael for third with 48 wins at Oakland and took sole possession of that spot with his Daytona win.
Sexton still has a lot to say and after winning last week in Detroit, he is speaking up. The Supercross numbers are against him entering Seattle, however, because a points’ deficit this large after Round 10 has been erased only once. In 1983 David Bailey was 47 points behind Bob Hannah, and like Sexton he was also in third place. Bailey took the points’ lead with one race remaining.
The seven points Sexton was penalized last week for jumping in a red cross flag section in Detroit could prove extremely costly.
In fact, it has been a series of mistakes that has cost Sexton the most. In the last two weeks, he lost 10 points with a 10th-place finish to go with his penalty. Erase those, and all three riders hold their fate in their hands.
Plessinger’s heartbreak in Detroit is still fresh, but the upside of his run is that was his best of the season and could turn his fortunes around. Prior to that race, he led only seven laps in three mains. He was up front for 20 laps in Detroit with five of those being the fastest on the track.
Last week’s win by Hunter Lawrence tied him with his brother Jett Lawrence for 17th on the all-time wins’ list. With the focus shifting to 250 West for the next two rounds, Jett has a great opportunity to pull back ahead. The real test will be at the first East / West Showdown in East Rutherford, New Jersey on April 22.
Last Five Seattle Winners
450s 2022: Eli Tomac
2019: Marvin Musquin
2018: Eli Tomac
2017: Marvin Musquin
2014: Ryan Villopoto