Not the best opener but there’s only room for improvement as the Nismo/Gigawave 2010 GT1 spec Nissan GT-R retired early during round 1 of the 2009 FIA GT championships this Sunday. The car was doing great for the race, leading the 2010 GT1 spec Ford GT which is promising. Unfortunately on lap 28 of 65 the rear suspension suffered a problem and the car was withdrawn from the race. The Saleen of team K plus K Motorsports went on to win the opening race of the season.

It’s an unusual problem to have, the car has been going strong for 6,000 km’s without rear suspension trouble and to have it occur during the race is unfortunate. Team Nismo learnt a lot from the race however and are ready for the next round in Germany and the 24 Hours of Spa later in the year.

“We learnt a great many lessons over the weekend, and will tackle them with solutions when we return to the workshop so that we can make the car fully ready for the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, the biggest challenge of the year for us,”

– Yasuharu Kemei, team principal, Nissan Motorsport

The GT1 Nissan GT-R races again on the 21st of June 2009 at Oschersleben in Germany.

Link: FIA GT Championships related articles on GTRBlog
Link: FIA 2010 GT1 Spec Nissan GT-R Photo Gallery
Photos: (C) DPPI – Via FIA GT

NISSAN GT-R debuts in the FIA GT Championship
Silverstone, UK (3rd May, 2009)

The NISSAN Motorsport-entered NISSAN GT-R made its race debut at the first round of the 2009 FIA GT Championship held on 1st – 3rd May at Silverstone Circuit (Northamptonshire, UK, Length 5.140km). The #35 NISSAN GT-R driven by Michael Krumm (Germany) and Darren Turner (Great Britain) started from 11th on the grid but retired in lap 28, when running in 8th place, due to a rear suspension problem.

“The development has been going very well since the shakedown in December last year. In fact, before coming to Silverstone, our car has completed more than 6,000km through a number of pre-season tests without any major troubles. For sure, the race result is disappointing for the team, but we were successful in confirming the performance of the NISSAN GT-R in the race when our car was leading the Ford GT which is believed, like our car, to be built according to the next-generation 2010 FIA GT1 regulations. We learnt a great many lessons over the weekend, and will tackle them with solutions when we return to the workshop so that we can make the car fully ready for the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, the biggest challenge of the year for us,” said Yasuharu Kemei, the team principal of NISSAN Motorsport.

The next race for the #35 NISSAN GT-R will be the 3rd round of the FIA GT Championship at Oschersleben in Germany on 21st June.