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News
2023.01.27
Nissan announces its 2023 SUPER GT team line-up! No changes in the GT500 class team members. The IMPUL team will go for a second-straight title with drivers Hiramine and Baguette.

Nissan announces its 2023 SUPER GT team line-up! No changes in the GT500 class team members. The IMPUL team will go for a second-straight title with drivers Hiramine and Baguette. の画像

 On January 27th, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and Nissan Motorsports & Customizing Co., Ltd. (NMC) announced the make-up of the Nissan camp teams that will compete in the 2023 SUPER GT season.

 In the GT500 class, again this year there will be four teams using the Nissan Z GT500. As for the drivers for each team, thanks in part to the great performances they showed last season, beginning with the TEAM IMPUL driver pair of Kazuki Hiramine and Bertrand Baguette that won the Drivers title in 2022, all four teams will eventually be fielding the same drivers as last year.
 As is their right as winners of the 2022 title, TEAM IMPUL will sport the No. 1 race number, and taking the position as Team Principal this year will be former GT300 champion Kazuki Hoshino, who served as technical advisor last season and successfully took over responsibilities as the substitute Team Principal in the second half of the season. Meanwhile, the previous Team Principal, Kazuyoshi Hoshino, will move to the position of overall Director. Also, holding the position of Nissan Teams Executive Director will once again be Motohiro Matsumura.

 As for the GT300 class “GT3 Program,” three teams will be competing using the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, with the official customer teams including GAINER, which will field two cars (No. 10 and No. 11), and the KONDO RACING team.
 The drivers for the three cars of these customer teams will include, for the GAINER car No. 10, Riki Okusa, who competed for the title right down to the last round of the GT300 series despite being a SUPER GT rookie. And he will team with Hironobu Yasuda, who competed as the ace driver in car No. 11 last season. Driving car No. 11 will be Ryuichiro Tomita, who served as the ace driver for car No. 10 last year, and he will team with Keishi Ishikawa.
 The KONDO RACING team that won its second GT300 title last year only announced one of its drivers this time, who will be Joao Paulo de Oliveira, while the second driver remains undecided at present.
 Although they weren’t part of the announcement this time, there are also believed to be several other privateer teams that will be racing with GT-R NISMO GT3 cars.

 In addition to the GT500 and GT300 class machines, a release was presented at the announcement meeting concerning the GT4 Project that begins this season, and in it, CEO Takao Katagiri of NMC, the company responsible for development of the Nissan Z, included the following message to the Nissan fans.
"The Z, while it continues to fascinate with its exhilarating performance and beauty, has been active for many years in motorsports in the U.S. and Japan. In addition to the SUPER GT GT500 class, in which the Z took first and second in the championship last year, the Z will start a new challenge in the GT4 category this year. The Z symbolizes Nissan's spirit of challenge and excitement. We will also continue to strongly support the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, which won the championship title in SUPER GT's GT300 class last year. As always, we'll do our very best to meet the fans' expectations, and we thank you for your ongoing support, both in SUPER GT and for our new challenge in GT4 with the Z."

 

 

GT500
No.
Team
Team principal
Driver
Tires
1 TEAM IMPUL Kazuyoshi Hoshino (Director)
Kazuki Hoshino (Team principal)
Kazuki Hiramine (JPN)
Bertrand Baguette (BEL)
Bridgestone
3 NDDP RACING Jiro Shimada Katsumasa Chiyo (JPN)
Mitsunori Takaboshi (JPN)
Michelin
23 NISMO Takeshi Nakajima Tsugio Matsuda (JPN)
Ronnie Quintarelli (ITA)
Michelin
24 KONDO RACING Masahiko Kondo Daiki Sasaki (JPN)
Kohei Hirate (JPN)
Yokohama
Nissan Teams Executive Director Motohiro Matsumura

 

GT300
No.
Team
Team principal
Driver
Tires
10 GAINER Yorikatsu Tsujiko Hironobu Yasuda (JPN)
Riki Okusa (JPN)
Dunlop
11 GAINER Kazumi Fujii Ryuichiro Tomita (JPN)
Keishi Ishikawa (JPN)
Yusuke Shiotsu (JPN)
Dunlop
56 KONDO RACING Masahiko Kondo Joao Paulo de Oliveira (BRA)
To be announced
Yokohama

 

 

Announcement by Nissan and NMC of the 2023 SUPER GT and GT4 programs and participating teams (news release)
 https://www.nismo.co.jp/en/news_list/2023/motorsports_news/23002.html

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