EARLY NIGHT FOR GT-R BUT THE NISSAN 370Zs FIGHT ON
• Early race contact blights Dubai 24 Hours for Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3
• Both Nissan 370Zs still going strong into the night in Dubai
As the 2012 Dunlop Dubai 24 Hours continues on through the night, the two Nissan 370Zs are still going strong. The ‘Gamers’ car, raced by the four GT Academy winners is currently running in fifth place in the SP2 class in the hands of Jordan Tresson. The No.100 car ran as high as second place before a throttle problem delayed it in the pits but all is well now and the gamers are fighting back.
2011 GT Academy winner, Jann Mardenborough, was behind the wheel when the gremlins struck.
“Early on in my stint I had to come in as the brake pedal went to the floor,” commented Jann. “I pitted for the fix but then after about an hour I suddenly had no throttle. It turns out that the air filter had broken and damaged the throttle wire so we got the car back and made the repairs. It was an eventful first stint for me but this is the real deal. I had a great time out there. I kept out of trouble, had some fun overtaking, my times were good and most of all I enjoyed it a lot! I’m looking forward to the rest of the race now.”
The ‘Challengers’ Nissan 370Z is also running well with Tetsuya Tanaka, Humaid Al Masaood and Richard Meaden doing a great job.
The sad news of the night though is that the Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 has now officially retired from the Dubai 24 Hours after early race contact caused a series of problems that ultimately ended the race for the new car.
“This race is always difficult when it comes to backmarkers and unfortunately a Lamborghini driver misjudged his braking and made contact,” explained Michael Krumm, who had made a great start from third place on the grid.
“In the end we fell victim to the knock on effect of the initial contact,” said JRM’s James Rumsey. “We brought the car in to check the suspension for damage and changed the tyres as a precaution. We then had to pit again as the steering had become offset. When Michael (Krumm) was running he was fast and when Alex (Buncombe) got in for his stint he was quick too. Alex reported a vibration at the end of his run and it turned out the front splitter mounting was damaged and there was also some damage to a radiator. We took our time to fix these issues but ultimately we decided to retire the car when we started to have cooling issues due to the earlier radiator damage.”
“It has been a weird chain of events,” continued Rumsey. “It’s a shame that we couldn’t complete the race but we have recently had a good 24-hour test in Spain so this won’t put the programme back at all. We qualified in a very comfortable third place so I am confident we are developing a good racing car.”
“The pace of the GT3 car was much better than I expected it to be,” said Krumm. “It is a very fast car and it handles very well. All four of us enjoyed driving it as it is a real GT-R! This car has great potential and I think we are not far at all from where we need to be.”
ENDS