Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Spain (September, 27, 2018) – This weekend’s Nissan GT Sport Cup European Final will feature 36 Sony PlayStation GT Sport virtual racers competing for the chance of a lifetime to win a trip to the 2018 NISMO Festival in Japan.
The fastest entrants in the GT Sport Manufacturers Cup selecting Nissan as their brand of choice will compete against 12 wildcard entrants at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya which will also host this weekend’s final round of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup.
GT Sport Motul Team RJN drivers Lucas Ordonez and Ricardo Sanchez will be on site to act as mentors for the PlayStation racers along with fellow Gran Turismo winner and Nissan Super GT GT500 racer, Jann Mardenborough who is filling in on track this weekend for the injured Ordonez.
Racers from Hungary, Germany, Finland, Spain, Portugal, France, Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, and the United Kingdom will not only get the chance to win a trip to the NISMO Festival but the winner will also get to visit the Tokyo headquarters for Polyphony Digital – the creators of Gran Turismo and GT Sport.
The NISMO Festival is Nissan’s annual fan celebration where the stars and cars of Nissan’s global motorsport activities from yesterday and today descend on Fuji International Speedway for demonstration races, autograph sessions, and other fan activities.
“The NISMO Festival is an incredible event. It is like a high-speed mobile museum with some of the coolest cars in Nissan history all on track at the same event,” Ordonez said.
“It is such a great event for the fans with so much to see and do. To get the chance to visit the festival is amazing, but to get to see where Gran Turismo is created at Polyphony Digital’s headquarters is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“The number of fans picking Nissan as their brand of choice in the FIA Manufacturers Cup has been incredible, and they have all been incredibly fast.
“Ricardo, Jann and I all started our careers playing Gran Turismo and winning GT Academy – our success has really kick-started the whole gamer-to-racer genre, and the level of competition now is incredibly fierce.”
The European winner will be joined on the trip by the leading Nissan racer in other regions around the world. Leading gamers also will have the chance to try Nissan machinery on track at Silverstone by topping the points table in each of the three monthly “seasons” of the FIA Manufacturer’s Cup.
This weekend’s virtual competition will be live streamed across multiple channels including NISMO.com, NISMO.tv on YouTube and the NISMO Facebook page plus <insert outlet details here for Sony PlayStation and WTF1>.
The final round of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup also will be live streamed this week on NISMO.com and NISMO.tv on YouTube.
While the virtual racers do battle on GT Sport in the paddock – on the other side of the pit wall, GT Sport Motul Team RJN will be looking to finish the season on a high with Alex Buncombe, Matt Parry and Jann Mardenborough aboard the No. 23 Nissan GT‑R NISMO GT3 and Struan Moore, Ricardo Sanchez and newcomer Colin Noble racing the No. 22 entry.
ENDS
Over NISMO
NISMO, de afkorting van NISsan MOtorsports, is het performance merk van Nissan en een van de bedrijfsonderdelen die de slogan ‘Innovation that excites’ tastbaar maakt. NISMO biedt producten met innovatieve techniek en hoge prestaties, die geschikt zijn voor alledaags gebruik. NISMO-modellen staan garant voor een geweldige rijervaring met van de racerij afgeleide aerodynamica en styling, met een verhoogde handlingkarakteristiek en onvergelijkbare scherpte.
In de racewereld strijdt NISMO mee op het hoogste niveau van de GT en sportscars, zoals in de Japanse Super GT Series, in de 24-uursrace van Le Mans als leverancier van motoren aan diverse teams en in de European Le Mans Series (ELMS).
Over Nissan in Europa
Nissan is een van de Aziatische merken die sterk aanwezig zijn in Europa. Het merk stelt meer dan 17.000 mensen te werk, verspreid over verschillende afdelingen voor design, research & development, productie, logistiek en sales & marketing. Vorig jaar rolden er in de Nissan-fabrieken in het Verenigd Koninkrijk, Spanje en Rusland meer dan 660.000 wagens van de band, waaronder bekroonde crossovers, bedrijfsvoertuigen en de Nissan LEAF, ‘s werelds populairste elektrische auto. Nissans visie op intelligente mobiliteit werd uitgewerkt om nieuwe producten en technologieën te sturen en deze 360-gradenbenadering van de toekomstige mobiliteit zal heel wat beslissingen bepalen rond de aandrijving van auto’s, de wijze waarop auto’s worden bestuurd en de manier waarop ze in de maatschappij worden geïntegreerd. Nissan is goed op weg om het meest verleidelijke Aziatische merk in Europa te worden.