NISMO | MOTORSPORTS / FIA GT 2009

Nissan Motorsports is set to participate in Round 8 (the final round) of the FIA GT Championship, being held at Belguim's Zolder Circuit from Saturday, October 24th to the 25th. From the Nissan camp, the 2010 FIA GT1-spec NISSAN GT-R is the car being campaigned.

Starting in 2010, the new FIA GT1 World Championship is intended to provide a "combat" environment for the cars entered. Up until now, events in the championship where the car has participated include Silverstone (England), Oschersleben (Germany), and the 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium). The highlight of the current season for the team was the 24-hour event held at Spa in July. Although it was the first 24-hour endurance race for the NISSAN GT-R , after taking 3rd place, the team was able to demonstrate the car's high level of performance and reliability. After the 24-hour race, in an effort to raise their performance level in 2010, the team conducted three private tests while they were in England. And to further enhance the development for the completion of customer spec cars, will participate in the final race of the series at Zolder.

The Zolder circuit(4.006km/lap) is located in a forested region of Belgium north of Liege, and is known for its relatively large elevation changes. In the 1970s and until the early eighties the track hosted the F1 Grand Prix, one of the features of the circuit being the high-speed corners that come up from the start, and continue throughout the lap. This feature is thought to have a considerable and significant impact on the aerodynamic set-up and times generated at the track.

To maximize their participation in this type of environment, the R35 model NISSAN GT-R GT1 has been outfitted with the latest aerodynamic upgrades, such as one of the latest aerodynamic wing devices, appearing on the rear decklid. The Nissan team sees this race at Zolder as a good opportunity to evaluate and verify the car's performance. The two participating drivers are Michael Krumm (Germany) and Darren Turner (UK).

Headquartered in the U.K., Gigawave MotorSports is the manufacturer's partner in their FIA GT Championship participation, and after recently winning the GT1 class in the final round of the Le Mans Series, team morale is higher than ever. Free Practice and Official Qualifying are scheduled for Saturday the 24th, while the approximately two-hour race gets underway from 1:00pm (local time) on the following day.

			Driver Michael Krumm's comments "Our last test of the season under real race conditions is at Zolder. For me Zolder is a special place because it is the circuit where I first drove a race car, a Formula Ford 2000 about 20 years ago - so I have really good memories of this place and I'm very excited to go back there. It is a very challenging track with lots of hard braking corners mixed with high speed corners. At the same time there is not much run off area which means the drivers have to exercise maximum concentration at all times. All in all it's a very big challenge. We were able to improve the GT-R further since the Spa round and are now getting much closer to where we want the car to be for next year's FIA GT1 World Championship. Of course development will continue, but I believe we have a very good baseline now and it will be interesting to see how our car handles the very challenging Zolder circuit."

			Driver Darren Turner's comments "Our last trip to Belgium with the NISSAN GT-R gave us a podium finish at the Spa 24 Hours, which is an incredible result for a brand new car. Since that race we have tested three times and the development programme is bang on target. I've raced at Zolder before and I'm keen to get back there to see how the new aero package has improved the performance of the GT-R."

Gigawave MotorSports