Almost 20 years after they were forced out of the Australian Touring Car Championship for being too dominant, Nissan have made a stunning return to the sport, announcing they will contest the 2013 V8 Supercar series with Kelly Racing.
It was revealed yesterday that Kelly Racing will leave Holden when the Car of the Future initiative is introduced next year and become the factory Nissan team, although they are yet to announce what model they will race.
The Japanese manufacturer was a major player in the Australian motorsport landscape in the 1980s and early 90s, but with the arrival of the Skyline GT-R the Fred Gibson Motorsport team monstered their rivals, winning three consecutive championships between 1990 and 1992 with drivers Jim Richards and Mark Skaife.
Nissan became part of Bathurst infamy when they won the 1000 kilometre race in 1991 and 92, the second one secured in controversial circumstances when Skaife and Richards crashed in wet conditions, only for the race to be red flagged and the two declared winners because they led on the last completed lap.
Their success led to the rules being changed to the Holden versus Ford competition, which has been run for the past 19 years, but now they have been welcomed back with open arms.
Skaife was the last driver to win a driver’s championship with Nissan in 1992 and he is now the chairman of the V8 Supercars Commission. He was delighted to welcome the first of what he hopes are several manufacturers to the series.
“This opens up a whole new chapter for V8 Supercars,” he said.
“Nissan has clearly acknowledged V8 Supercars as a major component of their future plans within the Australian car market and motorsport internationally. V8 Supercars will deliver on their expectations.”
Kelly Racing don’t receive any factory support from Holden and they reportedly approached the manufacturer about replacing the Holden Racing Team as the official Holden Team and when they were rejected, they began looking at other options.
“Rick [Kelly] and I have had one clear goal that we have been striving for since we started Kelly Racing – that was to become a benchmark race-winning team with factory supp-ort,” co-owner and driver Todd Kelly said.
“The timing with Car of the Future has enabled us to engage a manufacturer and achieve that.
“We couldn’t be happier to be a factory Nissan team and factory Nissan drivers.”
While they have been absent from Australian racing for some time, Nissan have been much more prominent on the world motorsport scene. Last year they took out the FIA GT1 World Championship and Japanese SuperGT Championship and achieved a 1-2 finish in the LMP2 class at the Le Mans 24 Hour.
Nissan Australia CEO Dan Thompson believes his company has the potential to rival the two Australian manufacturers and, in return, help the sale of its road cars.
“Nissan believes that, alongside Ford and Holden, we possess the most convincing motorsport DNA and track history in Australia, making a V8 Supercars debut in 2013 an obvious initiative,” he said.
“We are targeting number one importer status in Australia and already making progress towards that as one of the country’s fastest growing brands. V8 Supercars will boost that momentum.”
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