DUBAI — Winning the Blancpain Endurance Series Pro-Am titles wasn't the end of Nissan's on track success this weekend as the Japanese manufacturer collected silverware for first place finishes at the home of GT Academy, Silverstone, and in the USA where G-Drive Racing took another LM P2 class win in round five of the FIA World Endurance Championship. Nissan GT Academy Team RJN entered a Nissan 370Z into the Britcar 1,000km for Ashley Oldfield (2012 GT Academy South Africa winner), Salman Al-Khater (2012 GT Academy Middle East winner) and GT Academy Head Judge for South Africa, Tomas Scheckter. This race is their prize for winning GT Academy and like the other Nismo Athletes before them it is the first big test of the new driver's skills. They didn't disappoint as they took a very confident class win in the 1,000km, six-hour race. This result also gave them the outright production win and eighth place in the overall result. “I feel so happy,” said Salman. “It was a great race and it was the first endurance race I have done and I really enjoyed it, especially because of all the time you get in the car. To be on the top step in our first race after the driver development program feels really good. Thanks to Nissan, to GT Academy and to the team. It has been a great day.” “I'm really happy that we could get the victory in our graduation race,” added Ashley. Salman and Ashley's mentor, Tomas Scheckter, was proud of his teammates and pleased to see how much they had developed since winning GT Academy in March. G-Drive Racing put the disappointment of its Le Mans exclusion far behind it when the No.26 Oreca Nissan stormed to a dominant LM P2 win at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas. This win is its second in a row as it took the victory at the last round in Brazil just three weeks ago. The Pecom Racing team came home second, sealing the 1-2 for Nissan and taking the lead in the LM P2 Teams title race. It was a tough afternoon for Oak Racing who took sixth, seventh and eighth place, after challenging for the lead but scoring valuable points nonetheless. The next round of the FIA World Endurance Championship takes place at Fuji Speedway in Japan on Oct. 19, 20. This event will also see the revolutionary Nissan ZEOD RC in action, making its public on track debut in a series of demonstration runs. — SG
