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.
Nissan GT Academy North America 2011 winner Bryan Heitkotter will drive one of the team cars, while Australian open wheel and GT star James Davison will pilot the second car. Featuring logos from the GT Academy program, the two cars will be co-sponsored by Replay XD and NISMO.
Heitkotter, 34, won North America’s first gamer-to-racer GT Academy competition in 2011. In 2012 and 2013 while driving a Nissan 370Z NISMO for Doran Racing, Heitkotter earned three pole positions, two second qualifying spots, four top 10 finishes and a podium. In 2014, Bryan switched to a Nissan Altima for the CA Sports team. There, he earned three podiums and four top five finishes in the Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car (TC) category in six events. Most recently, behind the wheel of the Doran #41 370Z NISMO, Heitkotter and GT Academy teammate Nick McMillen finished sixth overall in the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Series (CTSCC) race at Daytona International Speedway in January 2015.
“I have been watching the Pirelli World Challenge gain momentum over the past couple years, and I’m absolutely thrilled to help represent Nissan in this highly competitive series,” said Heitkotter. “The GT-R has proven to be a spectacular racing car, and I can’t wait to see what we can all accomplish together.”
Davison, 28, was born in Melbourne, Australia and moved to the United States when he was 18 years of age to develop his skills in open wheel racing. His career highlights include a 2005 victory in Formula BMW at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a runner-up finish in the 2007 Star Mazda Championship, and second spot in the 2009 Indy Lights Championship. Davison ran up front during the 2014 Indianapolis 500 driving for Always Evolving KV Racing Technology, finishing the race in 16th position. In his limited time in sports cars he has always been at the front, driving for the TRG-Aston Martin team in IMSA competition. Davison has recorded five consecutive poles in IMSA including pole position at the 2015 Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway.
The first Pirelli World Challenge Race for 2015 will be at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas March 6-8. Television broadcast times have not yet been announced and the series will be webcast at World-ChallengeTV.com.
See more articles on Bryan Heitkotter and Pirelli World Challenge.
Brian is my favorite of the GTA drivers so far, he seems to have more to work through and overcome towards becoming a better driver imo. Which I’m rooting for since most people, especially 30 years are in a more similar situation imo.
Good for Bryan, not only is he a GTA winner, he is also a multi-time SCCA Solo national champ, and all around nice guy if you ever meet him. So glad that Nissan finally step up and put a US GTA winner to a good ride.
I had the opportunity to meat and talk to Bryan at COTA last year. What surprised me the most was how humble he was.
Swedish meatballs, that livery though!
The Pirelli World Challenge might actually be the coolest racing series going today, especially in the US. I love SuperGT and the current LeMans LMP1 super titanic battles (2015 is looking really good), but the Pirelli series features such a WIDE ARRAY of racing metal. Check out this link to see what I mean:
http://www.world-challenge.com/photos.html
If you are a fan of the automobile, then a PWC race should be on your list of events to attend. It is ridiculous.
Speaking of ridiculous, what in the heck happened to Gran Turismo?
Here’s an article with some of Bryan’s story from a couple of years ago. Worth a read:
http://www.polygon.com/features/2013/5/1/4283676/test-drive-gt-academy
I’ve had a soft spot for Bryan since he won GTA four years ago. To me he embodies the prototypical everyday gamer that GTA is about, who made it to the big time through sheer will and determination. Soft spoken, struggled through some of the challenges, but really won the event on the track, after never competing head to head on a track in his life. Came from behind to win as well. Congratulations Bryan, all the best!!!
Now GT-R is on its way to conquer the American Motorsport :D
Wow that’s great news. Best of luck for the season.
That livery is really great! My favorite color combo.
Awesome! Looking forward to Sonoma and the finale at Laguna Seca! And less than 2 weeks till the opener in Austin.