Mazda moved a step closer to that elusive first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory after Jonathan Bomarito stormed to pole position at Road America today.

The Mazda men have looked like potential race winners on a number of occasions this year only to fall short.

With Bomarito on pole by a massive margin of 1.152 seconds today – tomorrow again looms as an opportunity for the squad to charge into victory lane for the first time.

Bomarito’s time was also nearly two seconds faster than last year’s pole time.

“The whole team’s doing a great job this weekend. We rolled of the trailer really fast, with great balance, which is a tribute to Speed Source Engineering and all their guys,” Bomarito said.

“It has been a lot of work to get to this point, but tomorrow is what it’s all about. It’s gonna be a hard fight.

It’s tough like always, we’re just gonna do our thing, get a good start and kind of manage from there. Hopefully it goes as well as the rest of the weekend. We’re excited, everybody has their head down just super focused.”

Tristan Nunez will share the No.55 with Bomarito tomorrow while the second Mazda will start fourth with Tom Long handling qualifying in the car he is sharing with Joel Miller.

“This place is pretty special to me and my family,” Mazda boss John Doonhan said.

“But we’re here to win races and that’s what tomorrow’s about. Today’s great, we’ll celebrate a little tonite, but the focus is on tomorrow.

“We’ve put it on pole but we haven’t told the rest of the story, we have to write the final chapter and that’s what tomorrow is going to be about.

“I told the boys we’re going to run up front and we’re going to keep it there. And that’s what this team has done throughout the last four years, and that’s what we’re going to do tomorrow.”

Christian Fittipaldi was second fastest in qualifying for Action Express Racing ahead of Ricky Taylor – both armed with Corvette Daytona Prototypes.

The Prototype qualifying session was disrupted by an off-track excursion by Michael Shank Racing’s John Pew. After the red flag Bomarito put the the pole beyond reach with a lap of 1:54.507.

The PC class pole went to local racer James French who toppled Jose Gutierrez and Misha Goikhberg to score the top spot.

.@roadamerica celebrations for @MazdaRacing. Will tomorrow finally be their day with an @IMSA victory? pic.twitter.com/Ld6djS2VFR

— Michelin Alley (@MichelinAlley) August 6, 2016

This is the third pole this season for Mazda and the No. 55 team. First pole for @JBomarito since Road America 2013 in the Viper.

— Mazda Racing (@MazdaRacing) August 6, 2016

.@JBomarito makes a strong statement with his @TOTALUSA Pole Award-winning lap ? #CTRRS pic.twitter.com/S5ZF8VPOdZ

— IMSA (@IMSA) August 6, 2016

//results.imsa.com/Results/16_2016/14_Road%20America/01_IMSA%20WeatherTech%20SportsCar%20Championship/201608061450_Qualifying/03_Results.PDF