Mazda re-signs ex-Dodge driver Jonathan Bomarito for USC

The 32-year-old American, who missed out on the GT Le Mans title after being split from regular team-mate Kuno Wittmer at the Petit Le Mans finale, will be one of four full-time drivers in the two SKYTACTIV-D turbodiesel Lola-Mazda B12/80 P2 prototypes run by the Speedsource team next season.

The deal for Bomarito to rejoin Mazda, for which he competed in the GT ranks of the Grand-Am series in 2009 to '13, was agreed before Chrysler pulled the plug on its Dodge Viper GT Le Mans assault in the GT Le Mans class.

Bomarito said: "I feel as though I'm coming home to be back with Mazda: it excites me to see what the future holds with SpeedSource and Mazda in the Prototype class.

"This programme has been about development, and I'm honoured to come on board to add to this collaboration and watch it continue to grow."

Mazda North America motorsport boss John Doohan explained that the deal was agreed two months ago but that an announcement was put off courtesy of Bomarito's challenge for the USC GTLM title.

"Jonathan will be a great addition to the team as we continue our engineering development of the Mazda Prototype," he said.

SpeedSource boss Slyvain Tremblay will step down from a full-time driving to concentrate on his team management role, although he will compete in the enduros.

Mazda has retained Tristan Nunez, Joel Miller and Tom Long for next season, with Ben Devlin again joining the line-up for the long-races.

Bomarito made a one-off appearance for Mazda aboard its RX-8 GT tubeframe racer at the 2009 Daytona 24 Hours before claiming a class victory with SpeedSource in the same event at the start of his three-year stint as a full-time Mazda driver.