The Sasol Nissan team of Duncan Vos and Gary Formato recently tested their 350Z race cars at Kyalami in preparation for the 2005 Production Car series – in which Nissan will take on the might of BMW, Alfa Romeo, Mercedes and Audi in Class A.The Sasol Nissan team of Duncan Vos and Gary Formato recently tested their 350Z race cars at Kyalami in preparation for the 2005 Production Car series – in which Nissan will take on the might of BMW, Alfa Romeo, Mercedes and Audi in Class A.content here
The Sasol Nissan team of Duncan Vos and Gary Formato recently tested their 350Z race cars at Kyalami in preparation for the 2005 Production Car series – in which Nissan will take on the might of BMW, Alfa Romeo, Mercedes and Audi in Class A.
The prospect of former Nissan touring car star Vos (car no 23) and former South African drivers’ champion Formato (car no 22) dicing for overall honours with Alfa Romeo 147 GTAs, BMW 330i models, Audi Quattros (possibly to be introduced by mid-year, sources say) and Mercedes-Benzes (there are rumours of C350s under development) should boost what is rapidly becoming South Africa’s premier saloon car formula and the main attraction of the Vodacom Power Tour.
“We are very happy to welcome Sasol to the Nissan family, and excited about our return to circuit racing as Sasol Nissan,” says the company’s head of marketing and sales, Roel de Vries.
“Our motor sport activities form a crucial part of our product plans, and we are confident that our return to the track will further underline our technological advancements and add to our achievements in motor racing,” he added.
“We’re very excited about racing the 350Z and once again being a part of the Production Car series, where we have enjoyed so many memorable successes in the past 15 years,” said Nissan Motorsport general manager Glyn Hall.
“Federal Mogul, our longstanding partners in motor sport, have renewed their commitment to our programme. They have been part of the team for the past nine years and we are delighted to venture into this new formula with them,” Hall added.
Nissan won the SA Touring Car Championship for four successive years between 1997 and 2000, before the series ended and the manufacturer turned to off-road racing, promptly winning that championship for the next four years.
“It is going to be a very technical challenge. All competitors will be using the Bridgestone Potenza control tyres and, with a system of penalty weight for race wins (60 kg for a win and minus 60 kg for a seventh position – a maximum variance of 120 kg), weight is going to play a major role and pure performance alone is not going to secure success,” Hall concluded.
