It was the first time for me at the Nurburgring Nordschleife with a GT3 race car after we competed there last year with the road going Nissan GTR. This is the first year for this car in Europe and the first 24 hour race for the GT3 car. So for us this was also an important test for future developments not only for the race car but also for the future GTR Nismo version as the Nurburgring is an important test track for many years now.
It will be an exciting couple of months ahead, starting with the Nurburgring 24h race next weekend. I will be racing the Nismo GT-R GT3 car with the Schulze Motorsport Team this year. As we raced a road car Nissan GTR version last year, it will be the first time for me in a GT3 car at the Ring. We are looking very much forward to challenge and finish the race, as the car is not 24h tested yet and it will be a big challenge. My teammates are the Schulze brothers and Yamauchi san. They already successfully drove the car at a VLN race at the Ring.
A tough weekend for us in Fuji as we only managed to finish in P12. Temperatures were higher than we anticipated hence we struggled a bit more than expected. The result doesn't represent our performance really as in QF my teammate Yasuda managed a 1:32'70 which is the best time our car has ever achieved. But even by being only 0.8 seconds off from the fastest time, it was only good enough for P13. This shows how competitive the Japanese Super GT Championship really is.
The weekend started perfect on Saturday with rain falling and us being able to qualify in P3. Our shot at Pole in Q2 was thwarted by the cancellation due to heavy rain. So starting third was perfect for Okayama but when I took the start in dry conditions on Sunday, things didn't exactly go as planned.
That we would struggle more in dry conditions is no secret to us, but after the start I was dropping back to P10 pretty quickly, as the warm up of the tires turned out to be quite slower than the competition.
Today was the official launch of Nissan's race activities for 2013. There has been lots of exciting news indeed. With the biggest news being the Le Mans project for 2014 in Garage 56. For myself, I will join the Kondo Racing team, the #24 Nissan GTR equipped with Yokohama tires for the Japanese Super GT Championship. My teammate will be Hironobu Yasuda who has already 3 years experience in this car.
It has been a busy year already with flying to Japan and Spain for the launch of the Juke Nismo. The car has really come out not only cool, but it's great fun to drive. I was involved in some evaluation testing of the Juke Nismo last year and was surprised by its well defined balance that allows you to push the car around at the limit like a Nissan GTR! I hope it will be well received in Europe.
That was fun work for me and not the only thing this year that already started positive. Kimiko's start of the season at the Australian Open by reaching the 3rd Round was much more than we expected.
At the JAF Fuji GP Motoyama and myself both finished in P4 in our races, so unfortunately we didn't make it to the podium. My race was washed away by heavy rain and red flagged after 8 laps. That's a shame as we were on the way to a podium for sure. In fact I was already next to P3 when the yellow flags came out at that exact moment! Well luck was not too much with us this year, nevertheless it was a really exciting season.
Great fun it was to lap around Nissan Oppama's Test track in Japan together with Usain Bolt in the Nissan GTR. Usually I'm a bit worried sitting next to someone, as I'm not the world's best passenger, but I have to say it was rather impressive the way Usain Bolt drove. Obviously it was not the first time he drove in the GTR, as he has one back home in Jamaica. Anyway his driving style was very smooth and controlled, so his braking, cornering and corner exits were very harmonious.
All weekend we struggled for pace unfortunately and so we ended up in P7 on the grid to start with. This time I took the start, in order to try and change our luck a little bit. I had a good getaway and could make up a place before having to give up a couple of position shortly after. It took me a few laps to get the tire pressures up, and once the car was running fine, I was able to bring to car up to P5.
After Motoyama's super qualify lap we started the race from P4 which was a good position and the best we could realistically achieve. We were able to move up the order in the first half of the race and took over the lead by half time also due to some trouble of other cars. Unfortunately then Motoyama got hit by a GT300 car which damaged the wheel and forced us to pit for an unscheduled stop.
It was a tough weekend for us in Sugo. After qualifying on the front row in P2, Motoyama had a great start and was attempting to take the lead, when he got hit by another spinning car and our race was over before we made it even around turn 1. It is especially painful, as our Nissan GTR was running extremely well in warm up and we seemed to have had the perfect tires and setup for the race. But as there are no if's and when's in racing, we went home with no points this time.
It was my first time at the GFOS this year and I had the honor of attacking the hill climb in the Nissan GTR GT1 car and the Nismo LEAF RC (full electric car). When I climbed back into the GT1 car, it was incredible how at home it felt, and many nice memories of last years championship came back to me. But this hill climb is different to anything I have ever seen before. A narrow and beautiful road up the hill, no escape roads, and so narrow that its already a challenge to just stay on it without even thinking of going fast.
We had a bad weekend in Malaysia in the Super GT with only finishing a disappointing P8 after qualifying third in our Nissan GTR. We struggled with the race pace and its clear that we have to raise our game now in order to keep in points reach with the Championship leaders. Luckily we have some testing coming up in Suzuka next month before we continue with R4 in Sugo. On the night after the race Motoyama and me took a night flight directly to Paris to start our exciting week in Le Mans in the Nissan DeltaWing
After having only about 100 days to prepare for the Le Mans 24h in the Nissan DeltaWing we had a great debut at the famous La Sarthe circuit. We ran without trouble the whole day and could complete loads of laps. Not only does it look very good regarding our targeted fuel consumption numbers, also one of my main worries has been cleared. Would the car be stable and easy to drive through the super fast Porsche corners? The answer is a clear yes to that. You can see the car's behavior in this video well actually Official ACO Pre-Le Mans Testing
The first two races of the season went not as good as we hoped for, but with a 4th place in Okayama and 3rd in Fuji last week, we still can be content as at least we scored valuable points in order to stay in the Championship race. There are many reasons for our results, but one thing that was consistent was the bad weather. I'm obviously not trying to blame the weather for not winning, in contrary we managed the fastest time in Fuji in the wet.
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