Motorsports

Nissan has shuffled its driver line-ups ahead of this month’s Spa 24 Hours. In the No.35 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 squad – already strengthened by the addition of two-time Super GT GT500 Champion, Masataka Yanagida –  Mark Shulzhitskiy replaces his Russian counterpart Stanislav Aksenov and joins Katsumasa Chiyo and Miguel Faisca.

The FIA Online Championship coming to Gran Turismo next year certainly will be pushing the world’s governing body of motorsport into the future, as the organization sanctions and stewards an entirely virtual racing event for the first time in its 110-year history.

Race Coverage

Race Coverage

As you’ve probably heard by now, the original GT Academy star will be taking center stage at one of the world’s most prominent racing events – the 24 Hours of Le Mans – and he’ll be doing it in grand style, behind the wheel of the radical Nissan ZEOD hybrid-electric race 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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtCmK_gugpE

Images courtesy of GP3Series.com.

Nissan GT Academy U.S. champions Bryan Heitkotter and Steve Doherty will team up behind the wheel of a Nissan Altima for the remainder of the 2014 Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge (CTSCC) racing season in the No. 34 Street Touring (ST) class CA Sport/Skullcandy machine. This weekend, the duo will take on an always crowded field at the Monterey Grand Prix at historic Laguna Seca Raceway in California.

Nissan today announced that it is bringing back the Nissan GT-R to the Nordschleife with an assault on the 2014 Nurburgring 24 Hours. The event, held on 21-22 June, is one of the toughest endurance races in the world, providing the ultimate test of man and machine as they compete on the daunting Nurburgring Nordschleife.

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. Look out for future articles from our racing driver contributor coming soon as he experiences and progresses through his professional career.

With both the Pro-Am driver and team championship titles captured in 2013, the Nissan GT Academy Team RJN will mount their defence of the Blancpain Endurance Series at Monza this weekend.

The second race of the United SportsCar Championship is the first race for Jann Mardenborough in the US. And he really has his work cut out for him as a rookie at the notoriously bumpy and difficult Florida circuit.

Wolfgang Reip steps into the Le Mans 24 Hours for the first time, in one of the most non-typical debuts yet seen for the world famous race – in the hybrid electric Nissan ZEOD RC. Nissan is entering the car in the “Garage 56” category, which is a special entry slot by Le Mans organizers reserved for experimental or innovative racing concepts. He’ll share driving duties with team mate and colleague Lucas Ordoñez, who will be contesting his fourth straight Le Mans.

Jann Mardenborgough is set to get his first taste of racing in North America this March. He has joined the Nissan powered Muscle Milk Pickett Racing team for round two of the Tudor United SportsCar Championship (and Patrón North American Endurance Cup). The 2011 British GT Academy winner is teaming up with longtime Pickett drivers Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr who have pushed the squad to championship success over the past two years in the bygone American Le Mans Series.

Jann Mardenborough is closing in on the ultimate target for most any aspiring racing driver, he now has a clear path under his feet that leads straight to an F1 racing seat for the first time.