Cars

Pirelli World Challenge series rookie Bryan Heitkotter is on quite a hot streak, notching his third straight GTA class win Sunday at the 2.46-mile Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Canada.

We’re now well into the endurance racing season and one of the most challenging is upon us again with the 2015 Nürburgring 24 hours.

Nissan’s Jann Mardenborough had a successful start to his GP3 season last weekend with a podium finish at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, ahead of Sunday’s Formula One race. The young British racer headed straight to Spain after returning from Nissan’s LM P1 Test in the U.S. last week and immediately made good on his promise to be a regular podium finisher in 2015.

There’s more great news for GT Academy, as Nissan has announced that another graduate of the program, Mark Shulzhitskiy, will be competing for the overall win at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans behind the wheel of the company’s GT-R LM.

The following was written by Nicolas Hammann, 2014 United States GT Academy Champion, as he offers an inside look at the Nissan Driver Development Program which he joined after winning this past season of the competition. More to come soon as his racing season gets underway!

Once again, April has come round and that means that the European motorsports season has started in earnest. Fresh from their successes at the Dubai 24 Hours, the latest crop of GT Academy winners are making their first steps in a variety of championships – joined by more experienced NISMO Athletes as they start a racing career.

This guest contribution is by Nick McMillen, 2013 United States GT Academy Champion. This is the account of his journey as one of the newest Nismo Athletes. Stay tuned for future articles from our racing driver contributor coming soon as he experiences and progresses through his professional career.

In just a few weeks’ time two more winners of the Nissan PlayStation GT Academy will start their dream job, racing a Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 in the Blancpain Endurance Series.

Nissan is doing pretty much everything outside-the-box for their assault on the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year: they’re competing with a front-engined, front-wheel-drive LMP1 car (with wider tires in the front than the back, no less) that’s going to be piloted by two drivers who began their racing careers in Gran Turismo, Jann Mardenborough and Lucas Ordoñez.

Nissan Motorsports announced today a partnership with Always Evolving (AE) to campaign two GT Academy-NISMO Nissan GT-R GT3 racing cars for the 2015 Pirelli World Challenge season.

Top Gear recently published an interview with Kazunori Yamauchi after speaking with him at the reveal of the Alpine Vision GT in Paris.

This guest contribution is by Nick McMillen, 2013 United States GT Academy Champion. This is the account of his journey as one of the newest Nismo Athletes. Stay tuned for future articles from our racing driver contributor coming soon as he experiences and progresses through his professional career.

GP3 race winner Jann Mardenborough was revealed as one of the drivers of Nissan’s LM P1 racing car at the Chicago Motor Show today. At the same time in Yokohama, Japan, it was announced that fellow GT Academy winner, Lucas Ordoñez, had also been selected to race the Nissan GT-R LM NISMO, along with NISMO racer Michael Krumm.

The 2014 Bathurst 12 Hours didn’t end so well for the GT Academy team. After a strong qualifying performance, a colossal accident for Katsumasa Chiyo at Skyline in the third hour ended their race.

2013 GT Academy Germany champion Florian Strauss will replace Alex Buncombe in the NISMO Athlete Global Team at the 2015 Bathurst 12 Hour. Buncombe had been confirmed to drive the #35 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, alongside fellow NISMO Athletes Katsumasa Chiyo and Wolfgang Reip.