- THE ADR-DELTA TEAM POWERED TO ITS SECOND VICTORY IN A ROW IN SHANGHAI THIS WEEKEND IN THE FINAL ROUND OF THE FIA WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP, ROUNDING OFF ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL SEASON FOR THE NISMO-TUNED NISSAN VK45DE V8 ENGINE
- JOINING THE ADR DRIVERS ON THE PODIUM WERE OAK RACING WHO TOOK THIRD PLACE IN THEIR MORGAN-NISSAN LMP2 CAR
October 29, 2012.- The first year of the FIA World Endurance Championship has produced many victories and pole positions for the Powered by Nissan teams. Partner team Signatech Nissan has had an untypically difficult season. The French team proved it had the pace for the podium in Bahrain a few weeks ago but today had to settle for fifth place after a valiant six-hour battle by Jordan Tresson, Franck Mailleux and Olivier Lombard. The FIA WEC has been a baptism of fire for GT Academy winner Jordan Tresson who moved from GT racing to the LMP2 class at the start of this year.
2012 has been another good year for GT Academy, for the graduates and of course the new 2012 winners. Lucas Ordonez raced with Martin Brundle at Le Mans and learned a great deal about being a professional racing driver from him. He was then tasked with racing Nissan DeltaWIng at Petit Le Mans and along with Gunnar Jeannette did a brilliant job, racing the pioneering car to a fifth place overall finish in the 1000-mile race.
The newest graduate Jann Mardenborough had a very steep learning curve this year when he raced the Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 in it’s development season. He set tongues wagging up and down the pitlane with his lap times and soon cut through the hype with a superb British GT victory at Brands Hatch. Championship victory was snatched away at the last moment by a suspension problem but both Jann and the new car have made their mark and will be a force to be reckoned with in the coming seasons.
In August four new GT Academy competitions reached their climax. The programmes for Europe, Germany, Russia and USA have selected four new and exciting talents. These four drivers are now deep into Nissan’s Driver Development Programme that will prepare them for the GT Academy prize drive in January’s Dubai 24 Hours.
The ‘off season’ doesn’t really exist anymore. Nissan carries on full throttle training its new drivers for 2013 and putting plans into place for a new season of racing.
“Overall 2012 has been a good season for Nissan as an engine supplier in LMP2 with multiple wins to add to our tally,” said Darren Cox, Nissan’s Director of Global Motorsports. “We are very happy to work with all of the Powered by Nissan teams and congratulate them on their hard work this year. Our partner teams, Signatech and Greaves, have not reached the strong level of previous years so will have to regroup over the winter.
“Outside of LMP2 we exceeded our own expectations with the Nissan DeltaWing programme, the Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 is becoming a great GT3 car and Jann Mardenborough has been a surprise to many. His talent is no surprise to us as we saw it when he came through GT Academy. We look forward now to 2013 and what will hopefully be another great year in our history.”
More information:
http://delta-motorsport.com/adr-delta/
Text and photograph by: Nissan.
