Nissan Motorsport Australia’s two new look cars
The long awaited race for the V8 Supercar Title involving the “Car of the Future”, featuring new cars on the grid alongside traditional rivals Ford and Holden has hit it straps today with Nissan launching a four-car team to compete in the 2013 V8 Supercar Championship.
The factory Nissan outfit being run by Kelly brothers Todd and Rick will enter four cars into this year’s championship, two driven by team owners Todd and Rick Kelly featuring the familiar black and white “Jack Daniel’s” sponsorship, while the third and fourth cars will be driven by Michael Caruso and James Moffat with Moffat bringing with him from Dick Johnson Motorsport the backing of Norton who have been with him for several years going back to his days in the V8 development series.
Norton Nissan Altima
In a week full of V8 Supercar team launches this new team and car are a key launch and unveil, alongside Thursday’s launch of the new-look Red Bull Racing Australia and yesterday’s VF Commodore launch by the Holden Racing Team.
Nissan Motorsport unveiled their new cars and colours at the Melbourne Showgrounds this morning, marking a new chapter for Nissan after exiting Australia’s premier category following the 1992 season when regulations changed and the sport moved to current V8 Supercar format.
Having won 28 Touring Car Championship races, 23 pole positions, two Bathurst 1000’s and three Touring Car Championships Nissan in Australia is no stranger to success. Whether or not this new breed can replicate that phenomenal success seen in the early 90’s with Mark Skaife and Jim Richards under Gibson Motorsport is yet to be seen.
The Kelly brothers will certainly be giving it everything they have, with a new purpose built state of the art facility in Melbourne to build the cars and the team, they’ve now got four contenders on the grid.
This is shaping up to be one heck of a season.
Norton Nissan Altima – Michael Caruso and James Moffat
Michael Caruso will drive car #36 – Norton Nissan Altima, James Moffat takes the sponsor’s branding and runs in car #360 another Norton Nissan Altima, while the main team is spearheaded by Todd Kelly in the #7 Jack Daniel’s Nissan Altima and brother Rick Kelly will be behind the wheel of the #15 Jack Daniel’s Nissan Altima.
The first track run for all four cars will be at the V8 Supercars pre-season test day this Saturday at Sydney Motorsport Park (Eastern Creek)
