Nissan Motorsport packs up Supercars support

Nissan Australia has announced it will cease factory competition in top-echelon Supercars racing at the end of 2018

Nissan Motorsport joined V8 Supercars for the 2013 season with factory support of Kelly Racing which ended its illustrious relationship with Holden Motorsport.

Kelly Racing endured unprecedented and scathing fan criticism at the time for siding with one of the most globally successful motorsport outfits over the local manufacturer.

Team boss Todd Kelly says it’s been a wild ride with the Japanese marque over six years.
“We are very grateful to Nissan for the opportunity and support over these years,” he says today.

“We’ve got an extremely capable group of people and one of the best facilities in the country in terms of design and production. The next phase will be an exciting one.”

“To all our valued fans out there, it’s been a hell of a ride designing a Nissan Altima race car and road car based engine for competition in this category. We’re very proud of what we’ve been able to achieve with it, we’ve now got a car that’s very quick and it’ll be these cars we continue to race again next year,” Kelly says on Nissan Motorsport’s Facebook page.

Nissan Australia managing director Stephen Lester says in a statement the brand will change tack after “talking to the Kellys for some time”.

“Nissan has decided to exit the Supercars Championship in order to concentrate on the interests and needs of our current and future customers,” he says.

“I’d like to thank Todd and Rick Kelly, Michael Caruso, Simona de Silvestro and everyone at Nissan Motorsport for all of their hard work in the time that Nissan Australia has been involved in Supercars,” Lester continues.

“I’d also like to thank Nissan Motorsport fans, we truly appreciate your support and will continue to work hard to achieve the best possible results over the course of the season,” he adds.

The announcement comes after the Altima was quietly pulled from Nissan dealerships last year in what former Nissan director Richard Emery described as a “fallow period”.

Nissan Motorsport also competed in the Bathurst 12 Hour endurance race several times, and scored a race win in its first years of Supercars competition, 2013 – however 2017 saw zero podiums or top 10 finishes.

Nissan last exited the Australian Touring Car Championship at the end of the 1992 season with Gibson Motorsport when the racing format changed from Group A regulations to V8 Supercars in 1993.