MELBOURNE, Australia (20 December 2013) – Nissan Motorsport V8 Supercars driver James Moffat will make his international motor racing debut next month in the 2014 Dubai 24 Hour at the Dubai Autodrome in the United Arab Emirates.
Moffat, the driver of the #360 Norton Nissan Altima in the V8 Supercars Championship, will compete in a Nissan 370Z Nismo for the championship-winning Nissan GT Academy Team RJN in the endurance event, to be held 9-11 January 2014.
The drive will represent the first time that an Australian Nissan driver has been used in the Nismo Global Driver Exchange program, which opens the door for the company’s roster of race drivers to compete in different events across the world.
Moffat’s Dubai chance will be followed by his Nissan Motorsport V8 team-mate Rick Kelly’s drive in the 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour, where Kelly will drive a Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3. The 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour will be held on 7-9 February 2014.
Moffat will be joined in the #126 370Z ‘international’ entry by former F1 driver Karun Chandhok, FIA World Endurance Championship driver Tor Graves, Middle Eastern GT Academy winner Salman Al Khater and South African GT Academy winner Ashley Oldfield.
The team’s #123 car will see Lucas Ordonez, Miguel Faisca, Florian Strauss, Nick McMillen and Stansislav Aksenov behind the wheel.
The two Nissan 370Z Nismo machines will compete against a total field of over 80 entered race cars.
Moffat has been chosen to race in the prestigious Dubai 24 Hour event after a breakout season in the V8 Supercars Championship that saw him take his maiden V8 Supercars Championship race win, driving his #360 Norton Nissan Altima to victory at Winton Motor Raceway in August.
James Moffat – Nissan Motorsport / Norton driver
“It’s great to be involved with the Nissan GT Academy Team RJN for the Dubai 24 Hours,” said James Moffat.
“We’ve been fortunate to race our regular V8 Supercars in different parts of the world, but this will be a totally new and different experience for me in the 370Z Nismo.
“I’ve also never raced in a 24 Hour event before, so that will be a new challenge – adapting to a new car, around a foreign track and racing in the dark!
“I’m looking forward to being a part of the Nismo Global Driver Exchange program, and we’ll be aiming to finish as high as we can in Dubai.”
Darren Cox – Nissan Global Motorsports Director:
“Every year the Dubai 24 Hours provides a great test of our newest GT Academy graduates,” said Darren Cox.
“This year in Dubai we are using the Nismo Global Driver Exchange program to get together some Nissan drivers from around the world.
“Australian James Moffat has impressed me this year in the competitive V8 Supercars Championship, not only with his win, but his speed and application across the season. I am very pleased that we can now offer him this chance on the world stage.”
Where Next for GT Academy?
Nissan and PlayStation’s award-winning driver discovery and development programme, GT Academy, will spread further across the globe in 2014.
The Nissan PlayStation GT Academy has been discovering new talent since 2008. Gamers living in Europe, Russia, the USA, the Middle East and South Africa have an annual opportunity to become the next Lucas Ordonez or Jann Mardenborough. Now a wider group of gamers will get a shot at one of the biggest opportunities in motorsport.
Nissan has entered a line-up of 10 drivers for the Dubai 24 Hours, all of which are different nationalities. Nissan GT Academy Team RJN will run two Nissan 370Z Nismos in the race that has been the traditional ‘prize drive’ for winners of GT Academy.
The Class of 2013
The four newest GT Academy winners and their mentor, 2008 winner Lucas Ordonez, will race the first of the 370Z Nismos. In 2013 GT Academy ran competitions in Europe, Germany, Russia and the USA. The four winners were selected during the rigorous Race Camp finals, held at Silverstone in September.
- Miguel Faisca, 24, is the winner of GT Academy Europe. The Portuguese racer was studying Mechanical Engineering when he beat almost a million gamers to the prize in September 2013.
- Florian Strauss, a 29 year-old Berliner, was a car rental manager when he won GT Academy Germany.
- GT Academy USA winner, Nick McMillen, is a 20 year-old ex-Volkswagen Salesman from Salem in Oregon.
- Stansislav Aksenov is the 22 year-old winner of GT Academy Russia who is hoping to following in the footsteps of 2012 Russian winner Mark Shulzhitskiy who recently made his LM P2 debut.
- Lucas Ordonez needs no introduction. The first winner of GT Academy has gone on to take two podium finishes at Le Mans and claimed the Blancpain Endurance Series Pro-Am driver’s title just a couple of months ago.
An international line-up
The line-up of the first 370Z Nismo demonstrates the spread of GT Academy across the globe. The line up in the second car will ask the question ‘where next for GT Academy?’
- Karun Chandhok is India’s best-known racing driver. A successful career in single-seaters took him all the way to Formula One before he made the switch to sportscars.
- James Moffat is already a winner for Nissan in Australia where he races a Nissan Altima in the V8 Supercars Championship. Lucas Ordonez and Michael Krumm tested his car earlier this year so now it’s James’ turn to switch seats.
- Tor Graves hails from Thailand and races a Nissan-powered LM P2 car in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
- Salman Al Khater is the 29 year-old winner of the first GT Academy Middle East. He has already won an international endurance race as, along with Ashley Oldfield and Tomas Scheckter, he took a class win in this year’s Britcar 1000kms at Silverstone.
- Ashley Oldfield is the first winner of GT Academy South Africa. The 29 year old raced to victory at the Britcar 1000kms at Silverstone this year.
“GT Academy is getting huge international interest,” said Cox.
“We know that there are gamers outside of the traditional GT Academy territories that want a shot at winning so in 2014 we will announce where GT Academy will go next. Nissan is an international company with global ambitions and it’s exciting that GT Academy reflects that.”
Follow ‘Moff’
You can keep up-to-date with James Moffat’s racing via his official Twitter account at http://twitter.com/J_Moffat