Nissan will investigate the possibility of contesting the newly announced Asia Pacific 36 Series which combines 12 Hour GT3 events at Sepang, Hampton Downs and Bathurst.
Set to begin next year, the series will coincide with the launch of a brand new event in the form of the Hampton Downs 12 Hour, held at the revamped Tony Quinn owned New Zealand circuit.
The event, scheduled for October, will kick off the series before a visit to Malaysia’s Sepang 12 Hours in December, followed by the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour in February.
Having supported the Bathurst 12 Hour with a factory program since 2014, Nissan Australia boss Richard Emery is keen to look into the possibility of a program for its GT-R GT3.
Nissan Australia deployed its own GT-R GT3 for Michael Caruso and Matt Simmons to contest Australian GT events at New Zealand’s Hampton Downs and Highlands Park last year.
The car has remained dormant since this year’s Bathurst 12 Hour.
“I think just how the whole global GT program is managed, it (the series) would be a conversation,” said Emery.
“Obviously the Blancpain program, you’ve got a program in Japan which NISMO run.
“You’ve got the Blancpain program that Bob Neville and RJN run, and of course we’ve used both those teams to help us run our program for the Bathurst 12 Hour.
“I think there’s probably going to be a conversation about what’s the best way to do it, because I control Australia/New Zealand. That’s two of the rounds.
“So I’ll perhaps have to talk to my Malaysian friends about is there some way of doing this in some sort of way.
“That also depends on whether the company wants to stretch their Blancpain program into the Asian extension. That’s something I’ll have to have a conversation about.”
Nissan is yet to commit to a Bathurst 12 Hour assault in 2018 having run a two-car factory effort this year.
However, Emery says the emergence of the new Asia Pacific 36 Series proposes a new opportunity for the brand to consider when evaluating future Bathurst 12 Hour bids.
“Well certainly for this region, it means rather than us making an isolated decision about the 12 Hour, but maybe there’s a corporate view to have a more broad question about how you’d run those three races together,” he added.
“The company has not shown any interest in Sepang in the past because obviously the markets in Asia don’t necessarily have a motorsport budget or a motorsport program.
“That’s not to say we wouldn’t use our Bathurst experience or team structure that we put together for Bathurst for the last two or three years and extend that across the three races with our cars.”
Discussion about this post