Nissan is in action across the world this weekend with races taking place on three continents. Five of Nissan’s LM P1 drivers have had to fast track their Le Mans recovery to race this weekend in the Blancpain Endurance Series, GP3 Series and Super GT Championship. Round three of the Blancpain Endurance Series is a 1000km race into the night at Paul Ricard in France this Saturday. The #23 PRO class Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 features its regular line-up of Alex Buncombe (GB), Katsumasa Chiyo (JAP) and Wolfgang Reip (BEL). It was announced at Le Mans that Buncombe will again partner Todd Kelly in the ‘Enduro’ rounds of the V8 Supercar Championship later this year. The #22 PRO AM class GT-R will be raced by 2014 GT Academy winners, Ricardo Sanchez (MEX) and Gaetan Paletou (FRA), who will be joined by Nissan’s Russian LM P1 racer, Mark Shulzhitskiy. Shulzhitskiy will race for the first time in his home country next month (3/4 July) when he takes part in the Blancpain Sprint Series event at Moscow Raceway. He will be joined in the Nissan GT Academy Team RJN entry by American GT Academy winner, Nicolas Hammann. Jann Mardenborough is behind the wheel of the #2 Carlin GP3 car at the Red Bull Ring in Austria this weekend. He grabbed a podium finish at the opening round in Spain a few weeks ago so he will be hoping to return to the podium steps in Spielberg. Lucas Ordonez took his first Super GT victory in Thailand last year when he won in the GT300 class so he is looking for a...
After Saturday’s Blancpain Endurance Series Race at Paul Ricard this weekend, Nissan GT Academy Team RJN will head straight to Spa for the pre-Spa 24 Hours test day next Wednesday. Olivier Pla will join the team at Spa after being drafted in to bolster the team’s efforts for the 24-hour race, which takes place at the end of July. The PRO GT-R will keep its regular line-up while the PRO AM GT-R will be raced by Ricardo Sanchez, Gaetan Paletou, Olivier Pla and Florian Strauss. “Le Mans was a tough event for all of us but especially for the drivers,” said Darren Cox, NISMO’s Global Head of Brand, Marketing & Sales. “This weekend gives most of them the chance to get back to fighting at the front, as they are used to doing. Good results will provide a boost to the LM P1 team as they re-group and push on with the development of the Nissan GT-R LM NISMO. The drivers all showed true racing spirit last weekend and that spirit is what will carry us through the next few busy months.” Pla in for Spa GT3 was last modified: June 18th, 2015 by Paul...
Nissan’s much-anticipated Le Mans challenger, the Nissan GT-R LM NISMO, made its race debut at the Le Mans 24 Hours this weekend. Such is the scale of the challenge to enter the top endurance class, Nissan set a target of getting one of it’s three cars to the finish of the 24-hour race. The #22 Nissan GT-R LM NISMO of Harry Tincknell (GB), Michael Krumm (GER) and Alex Buncombe (GB) took the chequered flag at 15:00hrs on Sunday afternoon after battling against the odds to complete the greatest race in the world. For the first ten hours of the race the three GT-R LM NISMOs racked up the miles, all completing over 100 laps of the 13.629km Le Mans circuit in that time. The race was certainly not without drama for the #22 car, which had to contend with regular teething problems but also being hit by debris. The biggest ‘moment’ for that car came just nine hours into the race when Tincknell ran into a large piece of debris whilst hurtling towards Indianapolis Corner at 340kph. “We ran the entire race making sure we were mechanically sympathetic so we could rack up the miles and finish Le Mans,” said Tincknell. “I certainly didn’t expect to hit a massive lump of ‘something’ that was right in the middle of the racing line. The car was feeling good at that time too so it was a real shame to have to come in with damage and lose a chunk of time. We had struggled a bit in the early part of the race but I managed to immediately pick off...
The three Nissan GT-R LM NISMOs finished tonight’s qualifying practice sessions at Le Mans in 12th, 13th and 14th positions in LM P1. The #22 car was the top finisher in the hands of Harry Tincknell (GB), closely followed by Jann Mardenborough (GB) in the #23 car, which is the second full-time WEC entrant. The three cars completed over 2,000kms during qualifying at Le Mans, gathering precious data and improving with every lap. “We continue to make progress every time we go out on track,” said Nissan’s LM P1 Technical Director Ben Bowlby. “We’ve gone faster with each session, despite dealing with red flags, slow zones and changeable weather conditions. We got some good dry running in today though and this has helped us a lot. Remember that we are tuning the car for Le Mans and developing the car all at the same time. We’ve got to the end of qualifying with three cars in one piece and a tonne of data so I’m happy with that.” Harry Tincknell (pictured right) was on an even faster lap at the end of tonight’s final session but had to back off for yellow flags. The British racer was happy to report that many of yesterday’s problems have been solved. “Today was much better than yesterday,” he said. “I think I was five seconds faster today so we’re definitely doing something right. The boys were mega tonight as they changed the clutch for me in 30 minutes and in reality that should take an hour. “It’s good to be the fastest Nissan and I was up on that final run so...
If you ever wondered why we built what we did and why we do it like we do - Autocar Magazine has the answers for you. The British magazine spoke with Team Principal Ben Bowlby and Nissan’s Darren Cox about the GT-R LM NISMO this week at Le Mans. However, it is mounting an assault on the famous endurance race with a car that has flipped perceived wisdom, putting the engine in front of the driver and sending a prodigious amount of power to the front axle, and this has provoked reactions of astonishment, praise, amusement and even a touch of confusion. Check out the full story from Matt Burt by clicking here….. Autocar Mag - why front-wheel-drive was last modified: June 11th, 2015 by Paul...
All of the entrants for the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours took to the track for the first practice session at Le Mans this afternoon. Tsugio Matsuda (JAP), Harry Tincknell (GB) and Jann Mardenborough (GB) were first out in the three Nissan GT-R LM NISMOs, ready to make the most of the track time available during the four-hour session. The programme for practice focused on getting as much running as possible for all nine Nissan LM P1 drivers. The Nissan GT-R LM NISMO is still at an early stage of its development so the biggest gains can be found by providing the drivers with as much seat time as possible. The circuit was damp to start with but as it dried the times began to tumble. After his initial run in the GT-R LM NISMO, Jann Mardenborough commented: “We’re moving forward and making good progress,” said Mardenborough. “The car feels more and more sorted with each run and there are still a lot of things we can do to improve it, such as dropping the front ride height to work better with the aero tunnels.” Despite numerous snags during the practice session the #21, #22 and #23 cars completed 19, 16 and 19 laps respectively as they prepared for the first of Le Mans’ three qualifying sessions. The first session took place on Wednesday night and with rain forecast for the two further sessions on Thursday night, most of the teams headed out early tonight to put in banker laps. Jann Mardenborough’s lap time of 3:38.468 put him in 12th position as the leading Nissan GT-R LM NISMO. Added...
Gallery: NISMO Festival 2015