Muscle Milk Pickett Racing (MMPR) drivers Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf will be joined by drivers from Nissan’s stable of racers for the Rolex 24 at Daytona after the team were named as the manufacturer’s official partner team in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.
Having won back-to-back titles in the American Le Mans Series running in the P1 category MMPR will run a P2-spec Oreca 03-Nissan in the TUDOR Championship, competing in the premier class of the new championship which starts with the Rolex 24 on January 25-26.
Nissan were a dominant force in American sports car racing during the final years of the 1980s and early ones of the 90s, with Geoff Brabham driving a Nissan to the drivers’ championship in four successive seasons, with the entire team taking 33 IMSA racing wins and three manufacturer’s titles over the same four seasons.
As MMPR start the season, aspiring to those heights they will have help from Alex Brundle as part of the Nismo Global Driver Exchange that will bring Nissan drivers from around the world into the team over the course of the season.
“We’re extremely pleased to become one of Nissan’s partner teams and to have them as part of the Muscle Milk Pickett Racing family,” said team owner Greg Pickett. “Nissan are proven race winners throughout the world and together we want to build a strong relationship that will help us continue the success that we’ve both come to enjoy. We’re excited to not only have our prototype be powered by Nissan but to also be involved with them at a deeper level.”
In joining Graf and Luhr, himself a regular part of Nissan’s world racing exploits having won the FIA GT1 World Championship in 2011 in a Nissan GT-R alongside Michael Krumm, Brundle follows in the footsteps of his father – Martin – who won the Rolex 24 for Jaguar in 1988.
The younger Brundle has become established as one of the fastest drivers in Europe behind the wheel of a P2 car, competing the FIA World Endurance Championship in OAK Racing’s Morgan-Nissan in 2013 taking six podium finishes to finish second in the class points together with his co-drivers.
“I am excited to go over to Daytona and race in the Rolex 24. The chance to fight for overall victory with Muscle Milk Pickett Racing and Nissan is a fantastic next step in my career,” said Brundle. “I am delighted to be finally getting the chance to compete at an event I have aspired to contest. I would like to say thanks to Darren Cox of Nissan and Pickett Racing for giving me that opportunity. Muscle Milk have a tremendous record in American sports car racing so to have the chance to join such a prestigious American team is excellent. I’m looking forward to making the most of it.”
Muscle Milk Pickett Racing’s Nissan engine challenger his the Daytona International Speedway track this weekend in the Roar Before the 24 test session.
