Nissan has confirmed to enter the 2013 V8 Supercars, launching a 15 million dollar attack on Ford and Holden in the Australian championship.
“This is the biggest change in Australian motorsport in 20 years. It’s huge,” said Mark Skaife, initiator of the Car of the Future regulations in the V8 Supercars that have made it possible for Nissan to enter the championship, to the Daily Telegraph.
Team Kelly Racing is going to lead a four-car team with a yet to be announced Nissan model that has not reached the showrooms yet.
“We plan to use our presence in the series to strengthen our passenger car credentials in Australia,” said CEO and Managing Director of Nissan Australia Dan Thompson.
The driver line-up has been confirmed with team owners Rick and Todd Kelly driving two of the cars and Greg Murphy and Karl Reindler in the other two Nissans.
“I couldn’t be more excited with the opportunity Nissan has offered Todd, myself and the entire team at Kelly Racing to become their official factory team,” said Rick Kelly.
Nissan last took part in the Australian championship in the early nineties, dominating with the four-wheel-driven GTR.
“This needs to be looked at both on and off-track. On-track, V8 Supercars has told Nissan that we will make the same commitment to them as Ford and Holden. We’ll build their prototype and get it homologated and ready for racing under the Car of the Future regulations. But they cannot dominate like they did with the Godzilla car. We want them to be competitive and challenging to win races, but they cannot dominate,” said Skaife.
The announcement was made in Melbourne today 11 am local time.
