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.
According to recent comments made by Nissan Global Motorsports director Darren Cox, the company is looking to expand its footprint in America. Strong rumors suggest Andretti Racing is working to compete in the Pirelli World Challenge with the GT-R NISMO GT3 car this year, and LMP2 competition is being considered as well.
“Our approach going forward will be to focus on what we do with our American GT Academy graduates. If that means they should be in LMP2, then that’s where we’ll put them in the U.S.,” Darren said.
The LMP2 driver is expected to be announced sometime within the next two months, with the ultimate goal of including an American GT Academy driver in Nissan’s LMP1 program for the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship.
Darren confirmed the company is evaluating their current stable of drivers based upon their ability and not necessarily their marketability. “So if they’re not good enough, they don’t get in. But our aim is to give them every chance.”
See more articles on Darren Cox and Nissan.
This is awesome. Sort of…
This is awesome! I certainly hope that Nissan starts raking in the trophies! Go Academy winners!
That’s awesome!
I hope the Academy program extends further into Latin America, as there is some great talent there. This is truly an incredible and unprecedented program, keep going!