Nissan: Nissan and Nismo begin Super GT championship defense

YOKOHAMA, JAPAN NISMO has triumphed in four of the past five Super GT GT500 championship battles and now Nissan has its sights set on repeating its winning ways when the 2016 championship kicks off this weekend in Okayama, Japan.

Last year’s championship victory by Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli was their second consecutive title win and Quintarelli’s fourth in total (he won with Masataka Yanagida in 2011 and 2012).

The GT-R has now claimed the Super GT GT500 crown on five occasions but 2016 was the first in Super GT GT300 for the GT-R. Nissan previously claimed the GT300 title in 2008 and 2010 with the Nissan Fairlady Z Z33.

Prior to the commencement of the Super GT era in 2005, Nissan took seven top class titles starting from 1993 along with four GT2/GT300 crowns.

Nissan’s 2016 Super GT GT500 line-up will feature:

1 – NISMO – Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli
Team Principal: Yutaka Suzuki
MOTUL AUTECH GT-R / Michelin

12 – TEAM IMPUL – Hironobu Yasuda / João Paulo de Oliveira
Team Principal: Kazuyoshi Hoshino
Calsonic IMPUL GT-R / Bridgestone

24 – KONDO RACING – Daiki Sasaki / Masataka Yanagida
Team Principal: Masahiko Kondo
Forum Engineering ADVAN GT-R / Yokohama

46 – MOLA – Satoshi Motoyama / Katsumasa Chiyo
Team Principal: Toshiomi Oeki
S Road CRAFTSPORTS GT-R  / Michelin

In GT300 former GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough will race full-time in Japan with NDDP Racing alongside two-time GT300 champion, Kazuki Hoshino.

Sunday’s opening round of the championship will be fought over 82 laps (300km) starting at 2:20pm local time. In last year’s opening round of the championship Hironobu Yasuda and JP de Oliveira were the top Nissan performers in third place with Hoshino and Lucas Ordóñez scoring fourth position in GT300.

 

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Contact
Jane Johnstone
Marketing Communications Director
Global Motorsport Communications
Nissan/NISMO
Phone: +44 7979 710646
Email: jane.johnstone@nissan.co.uk

Paul Ryan
Marketing and PR Manager
Phone: +1 678 644 0404
Email: paul@nismosupport.com