Motorsports

Bathurst bit back almost immediately though, as Chiyo scraped the wall at the Cutting and had to limp back to the pits with some unsightly rear end damage. The team is confident of getting it all straightened up for the start of the race, which will be taken by Wolfgang Reip.

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gx_E23VpQQ

Nissan has confirmed that 2012 GT Academy European champion Wolfgang Reip will be driving the factory team’s #35 GT-R NISMO GT3 in the upcoming Bathurst 12 Hours, to be held February 6th-8th. He’ll be joined by fellow NISMO athletes Alex Buncombe and Katsumasa Chiyo.

Two American GT Academy champions are teaming up this week to compete at the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge’s opening race at Daytona. 2011 champion Bryan Heitkotter and 2013 champion Nick McMillen will be driving the #41 Nissan 370Z for the Doran Racing team.

Although European GT Academy champions have typically had the most opportunities at the highest levels of sports car racing over the past few years, Nissan hasn’t forgotten about their ever-increasing stable of champions in the United States.

The following was written by Nicolas Hammann, the 2014 GT Academy North American champion, as he offers an inside look at the Nissan Driver Development Program which he joined after winning this past season of the competition.

Facts & Guides

Nissan is making waves in the endurance racing world this year with a new car to compete in the top LMP1 category at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and you’ll be able to drive it in Gran Turismo.

Bronze

The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb – the most famous and challenging hill climb race in the world – has just announced that Gran Turismo will be the “Platinum Sponsor” for the 2015 event, and will even be part of the race’s official name.

2011 GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough will take advantage of the increasing motorsport co-operation between Nissan and Renault on 3 November when he tests a Formula Renault 3.5 racing car at the Motorland Circuit in Spain.  23 year-old Mardenborough will drive the single-seater at the invitation of Renault Sport Technologies.

This weekend the final European Le Mans Series event takes place at Estoril in Portugal and Nissan will be there to celebrate 30 years of NISMO with the fans of Le Mans racing.  This event also sees the LM P2 debut of 2013 GT Academy Europe winner and local man, Miguel Faisca.

GT Academy champion Lucas Ordoñez scored his first Super GT victory in the series’ latest round at Thailand’s Chang International Circuit last weekend. Lucas and his teammate Kazuki Hoshino held off highly experienced driver Jorg Müller in the Studie BMW Z4 GT3 car.

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.

Nissan’s Alex Buncombe put on a world-class performance at the Nurburgring in Germany today, after jetting in from Australia where he did a great job in his first V8 Supercars race last weekend. The British racer has been mentor to all of the GT Academy winners since 2008 and at today’s season-closing Blancpain Endurance Series race it was clear to see why they all learn so much from him.

Nissan will begin the search for an American star to join its new LM P1 Le Mans 24 Hour and FIA World Endurance Championship team, giving a former gamer the opportunity to graduate to the highest levels of the sport.

2012 GT Academy U.S. champion Steven Doherty scored a first-in-class victory in the final race of the Pirelli World Challenge while behind the wheel of his #94 Skullcandy Team Nissan TC Altima.