Nissan, Nismo announce global motorsport program for 2017

With sights set on reclaiming the GT500 championship title, Nissan/Nismo will field four newly developed Nissan GT-R Nismo GT500 entries in 2017.
Having won the Super GT GT500 Championship two years in a row in 2014 and 2015, but missing out on a third consecutive title in 2016, Nismo will be back at the track with the driver pairing of Tsugio Matsuda and Ronnie Quintarelli in Nissan’s ace car no. 23.
Fresh from the GT300 class, Jann Mardenborough, a GT Academy graduate, will step up to GT500, making his GT500 debut with Team Impul together with teammate Hironobu Yasuda.
For the first time in seven years, João Paulo de Oliveira will return to Kondo Racing, and will team up with Daiki Sasaki. Mola will continue with the same strong driver combination from last year, with veteran Satoshi Motoyama challenging the series alongside young gun Katsumasa Chiyo.
Toshikazu Tanaka, corporate vice president of Nismo, remains as Nissan’s team executive director.
Nissan’s new GT500 racer, which incorporates the design of the standard 2017 Nissan GT-R Nismo, was developed in compliance with the 2017 Super GT technical regulations and inherits the competitive and hard-charging spirit of previous incarnations of the Nissan GT-R Nismo GT500.
Revealed last November, the car has undergone testing in Japan as well as in Sepang, Malaysia. The updates will be made just before the opening round and are expected to result in an even stronger, more competitive GT-R that will build upon the previous championship winning car’s legacy of dominance within the history of motorsports.

Source: Arab News