After setting the volume production car record at the Nürburgring with the new GT-R Nismo, Nissan announced that its halo sports car will return to the Green Hell with the goal to win one of the toughest endurance races in the world, the Nürburgring 24 Hours.
For the June 21-22 event, Nissan and Nismo have assembled a varied group of racers for its first official assault on the event in recent years. Leading the charge will be a two-car entry from Nissan GT Academy Team RJN, which will be run in conjunction with Nismo Factory engineers from Japan, and a further GT-R entered by Schulze Motorsport.
The No.80 Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3, numbered to celebrate Nissan’s 80th year, will be driven by GT Academy Germany Judge and former Formula One driver Nick Heidfeld, joined by the most recent GT Academy Germany winner, Florian Strauss, for which the Nurburgring 24 Hours will be only the fourth international race of his career. Nick and Florian will be joined by another GT Academy graduate, Lucas Ordonez, and Alex Buncombe.
The No.30 Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3, whose number is a tribute to 30 years of Nismo, will be driven by Nissan Super GT racers, Michael Krumm and Kazuki Hoshino, who will be joined by Nismo Global Exchange Driver Katsumasa Chiyo and ‘Ring regular Tetsuya Tanaka. The No.30 GT-R will be engineered predominately by a team from Nismo who will travel from Japan for this event.
Finally, the third car will be entered by Schulze Motorsport and will be raced by the creator of Gran Turismo, Kazanori Yamauchi and the 2009 winner of GT Academy, Jordan Tresson.
By Dan Mihalascu
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