Nissan NISMO is looking forward to the 2015 motorsport season, with a very promising set of results last weekend throughout many categories.
In the Pirelli World Challenge, Nissan North America had a win with James Davison in the #33 Always Evolving Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 in race one at Barber Motorsports Park, but was unfortunately disqualified later. Despite this disappointing outcome, the car performed strongly throughout the weekend and so the team is looking forward to more success with it over the season.
However, a highpoint came in race two on Sunday when Bryan Heitkotter, 2011 GT Academy USA winner, took the GTA class win in his GT-R. Next round will take place at Mosport in Canada in three weeks’ time.
James Davison won race 1 at Barber Motorsports Park but was later disqualified (Credit: Nissan NISMO)
“It was a good weekend for our team and I’m very pleased with the progress our programme has made in a short period of time,” said Erik Davis, owner of Always Evolving. “The team has worked tirelessly and we are starting to see the results of those efforts. Bryan and James had great drives and I’m thrilled to be bringing positive results to Nissan and NISMO here in the U.S. in this incredibly competitive series. We still have a lot of work to do, however, in order to get the outcome we expect.”
Over in Germany, the ADAC GT Masters season started at Oschersleben, and German GT Academy winners Florian Strauss and Marc Gassner won their class in race one in the #23 MRS GT Racing Nissan GT-R. In race two, this team had a penalty, but the sister car, the #22 of Dominic Jost and Florian Scholze won, making it two wins for Nissan.
“The start was a very exciting experience for me because it was my first-ever GT3 race and to do the start straight away was good,” commented Marc Gassner, 2014 GT Academy Germany winner. “It also went fairly well and I tried to stay out of trouble as much as I could. I saw the Audi spin into the barriers in front of me but I was able to avoid it. From then on I tried to find my rhythm and put in consistent lap times. Unfortunately, I got hit by an Audi and was forced wide into the grass, but I managed to bring the car back to the pits in one piece. Florian (Strauss) did a great job and we were really happy with the results of the first race.”
Team LNT finished the Silverstone 24 Hours race 2nd in class in their Ginetta-Nissan (Credit: Nissan NISMO)
Olympian Sir Chris Hoy has the target of racing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and last weekend he took a big step towards this goal, by entering the Dunlop 24 Hour Race at Silverstone. In the Team LNT Ginetta-Nissan, the team of five drivers finished 2nd, a remarkable result, considering this is the car’s second ever race.
Sir Chris Hoy: “We thought we may be disappointed with second in class, but the way it finished at the end – to salvage a podium finish after all the disappointments, complications and bad luck – it was a huge team effort, and to see the way the guys rallied to get the car back out to take the flag gave me goose bumps. To come into the pit lane and see everyone – not just Team LNT – cheering at what the lads did was really cool.”
The team is looking ahead to its next race, the European Le Mans Series 4 Hours of Imola, on May 17.
The #24 finished just shy of the top 10 at the Nürburgring (Credit: Thomas Hildebrand)
Finally, the second round of this year’s VLN series took place at the Nürburgring Nordschleife on Saturday. Alex Buncombe, Michael Krumm, Kazuki Hoshino and Lucas Ordóñez raced the #24 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 and finished 15th overall, 11th in class.
The team is now preparing for the toughest challenge of the season, the 24 hour race at the terrifying German circuit, on May 16.
Nissan NISMO is looking forward to a busy season of motorsport, where strong results for the Japanese manufacturer are expected in many categories across the world.
