Expect to See a Lot of Nissan GT-Rs Racing This Year

You can expect to see Nissan vehicles competing worldwide in various motorsports this year.

Headlining the Japanese automaker’s racing plans this year is Nissan’s Super GT GT500 campaign. Nissan and NISMO will field four newly developed Nissan GT-R NISMO GT500 race cars this year, hoping to reclaim the GT500 championship title. The automaker won the Super GT GT500 championship two years in a row in 2014 and 2015, but missed out on a third consecutive title last year after leading the championship until the last event.

Nissan will also support various customer racing programs. Expect to see the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 in Super GT, Super Taikyu and other championships. The automaker will also continue to support the Bob Neville-managed Team RJN NISSAN in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup in the Pro Class. Nissan race cars will also be competing in the Super GT GT300 class and the Super Taikyu Series ST-X.

For GT3 racing, Nissan and NISMO will be developing a newly evolved race car with an eye towards 2018.

SEE ALSO: 2017 Nissan GT-R Review

Expect to see Nissan engines powering race cars in other series, with the GT3-spec-based VR38 engine used in Daytona Prototype international (DPi) cars. Nissan and NISMO will also supply a V6 turbocharged 3.0-liter engine to ByKolles Racing Team, competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship LM P1 class. Lastly, NISMO will continue to provide VK50 engines and technical assistance to teams competing in the LM P3 class of European Le Man Series, Michelin Le Mans Cup and Asian Le Mans Series.

In Australia, Nissan will continue to compete in the Supercars Championship with Rick and Todd Kelly alongside Michael Caruso and new driver Simona de Silvestro with the Nissan Altima.

“We will be competing in this year’s SUPER GT GT500 class with a new model based upon the 2017 spec GT-R NISMO,” said Takao Katagiri, CEO and president of NISMO. “We have a firm determination to retake the series championship and, with this in mind, we have reevaluated our cars, drivers, organization and so on in order to ensure we are more prepared than ever. Our team structure consists of four seriously competitive teams that will all be aiming for the title. We will be pouring our souls into this season so we hope to continue to receive the passionate support that we have received from our fans thus far.”

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