Nissan Reveals Customer Racing Plans in GT3, GT4

Photo: Nissan

Nissan has announced its customer racing plans for the upcoming season, revealing stable GT3 and GT4 commitments in its home market of Japan but a reduction in its presence in SRO America.

On top of its four-car GT500 effort, as announced last month, the Yokohama-based marque will continue to be represented in SUPER GT by a quartet of GT-R NISMO GT3s and a single Z built to JAF-GT300 rules (pictured top).

Official partner teams Kondo Racing and Helm Motorsports have both seen changes to their driver lineups following the promotion of Daiki Sasaki, who raced Kondo’s No. 56 GT-R last season, to the Nissan GT500 stable.

Joao Paulo de Oliveira is joined aboard the No. 56 car this year by fellow former GT500 racer Kohei Hirate, who moves across from Helm.

The No. 62 Helm car will be driven by brothers Yuya and Reiji Hiraki, with Reiji returning to full-time competition after spending 2024 as the team’s third driver.

NILZZ Racing and Runup Sports will continue to run GT-Rs on a pure customer basis.

Takayuki Aoki is joined by gentleman racer Atsushi Tanaka in the No. 360 Tomei car, while the No. 48 NILZZ machine has no drivers confirmed yet.

Gainer’s self-built Z will be shared this year by Ryuichiro Tomita and youngster Kazuki Oki, who replaces Keishi Ishikawa in the team.

Nissan’s presence in the top ST-X class of Super Taikyu grows to two cars, with the Team HandWork Challenge squad returning after making a one-off outing in last year’s penultimate round at Okayama alongside GTNET MotorSports.

Sasaki will race the No. 30 B-Max Racing-run HandWork car together with ex-Honda driver Iori Kimura and another driver to be named.

In GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS, 5ZIGEN will again field a GT-R in the Silver-Am class, while GTNET and Tomei will both continue their campaigns in Japan Cup.

Flying Lizard Sole Nissan GT4 Customer in North America

Nissan’s presence in SRO America has been slimmed down to a single team, Flying Lizard Motorsports, which will field one example each of the Z NISMO GT4 in Pirelli GT4 America and GT America.

Rodrigo Baptista and Damir Hot will share the No. 5 car in Pirelli GT4 America, while Hot will campaign the No. 55 car in GT America solo.

It means that Blackdog Racing and TechSport Racing are no longer affiliated with Nissan, with TechSport having been the first customer team to run the Z GT4 in North America in 2023, also scoring the car’s first victory last year.

In Super Taikyu, three examples of the Z NISMO GT4 will participate in the ST-X class, with Team ZeroOne maintaining a two-car presence alongside a single car effort from Nissan GT500 outfit Team Impul.

Of note, Jules Kazuki Treluyer, son of 24 Hours of Le Mans winner and SUPER GT champion Benoit, joins the Impul lineup alongside Oki, GT500 racer Kazuki Hiramine and Takashi Matsumoto, plus Bertrand Baguette for the Fuji 24 Hours.