NISMO takes the Constructors Title

written by Jens Bachfeld, Editor-in-Chief

After a mediocre 2000 season, with vice-titles in the driver- and constructor-championships behind the victorious Mugen-NSXs, Nissan came back with only three of the previous four Skylines for the seven races of the 2001 champ-ionship. After disappointing 11th and 15th championship-positions in 2000, Team Hasemi had left the Skyline-Ensemble during the winter-break to try its luck in a GT300 Silvia for 2001.

NISMO remained with two cars in the championship. The No.22 Xanavi Hiroto GT-R was driven by the German Michael Krumm and Tetsuya Tanaka, who came for Ex-Formula-One-driver Ukyo Katayama. The No. 23 Pennzoil Zexel GT-R kept the driver-couple of former Formula-One-driver Erik Comas from France and Tetsuya Tanaka, who were drivers champions in 1998 and vice-champions in 2000. The duo of Kazuyoshi Hoshino and Satoshi Motoyama, 3rd of the drivers championship in 2000, stayed with Team Impul’s No.12 Calsonic Skyline, although Hoshino was substi-tuted by Naoki Hattori for the first three races of the season.

All three cars were updated versions of the BNR34 of the 2000 JGTC Season, which is 4600mm long and 1885mm wide (100mm more than the standard GT-R). Similar to the production R34 GT-Rs, the JGTC Race-car is powered by the twin-turbocharged RB26DETT. Thanks to a larger stroke and in effect a larger displacement of 2708cc, this powerplant pumps out 460hp at 6000rpm and 700Nm of torque at 4400rpm in race-spec. Power is delivered to the rear-wheels only, via an XTRAC 6-speed sequential gearbox. Omitting the all-wheel-drive of the production GT-Rs makes for a better weight distribution and saves ballast overall. As a result, the NISMO GT-R weights in at only 1100kg. 335/40R18 tires front and rear make up for the loss of all-wheel traction.

The season was opened with a race at the Circuit of Aida. Not a good track for the Skylines, as it seemed. Best of the Nissans, the No. 22 Xanavi Hiroto GT-R finished in 4th, behind three dominant Mugen-NSXs. Even further back, the No. 23 Pennzoil Zexel and No.12 Calsonic Skylines finished in embarrassing 13th and 15th positions, respectively.

The results of Round 2 at Fuji Speedway looked much more promising, with the NISMO Skylines finishing in places three and four. First and second came the EssoUltraflo and au Cerumo Supras, which had dominated the Qualifying already.

Almost disastrous were the Skylines’ results of Round 3 at Sportsland Sugo. The track simply did not fit the car’s layout. Best of the bunch, the No.12 Calsonic Skyline finished in 7th position, the No. 23 Pennzoil Skyline came in 10th and the No. 23 Xanavi Hiroto did not see the finish-line at all.

At this point in time, the Nissans were so far behind, nobody would have bet a penny on them winning any of the championships. But next on the schedule was a little break for the championship in favour of a promo-tional Special Stage at the Formula-One Circuit of Sepang near Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur. From 2002 on, races will be held here as part of the JGTC Season. Which is good for the Skylines, since NISMO took positions three and four in the race, and the No.12 Calsonic Skyline came in 8th position. Overall, this was the best weekend of the whole season so far.

And Nissan was not to stop its efforts, yet. More testing was done in preparation for Round 4 at Fuji Speedway. In contrast to the 114 lap All Japan Fuji GT Race of Round 2, which was held at the same circuit, the Round 4 Japan Special GT Cup is only 57 laps long. And the short distance seemed to favour the Nissans, which gained the 2nd starting position. In the end, we saw a NISMO double-victory, with the No. 22 Xanavi Hiroto GT-R ahead of the No. 23 Pennzoil Zexel GT-R. The No. 12 Calsonic Skyline came in 7th position, to round off an almost perfect weekend for Nissan. Thanks to this victory, Krumm and Tanaka (No. 22) took the lead in the driver’s championship, but also had to carry an extra weight of 60kg.

In the past, Twin Ring Motegi, the venue of Round 5, had suited the Skylines quite well. Not so this time. With 11th and 15th starting positions for the NISMOs and a 5th place on the grid for Team Impul, especially the factory cars set off for the race from anything but an optimal starting position. And they could not gain much during the course of the race. In the end, the No.23 Pennzoil Zexel Skyline did not finish the race at all and the No. 22 Xanavi Hiroto still had nine cars ahead of it. Fortunately, one of those was the No. 12 Calsonic Skyline, which, in 3rd place, drove to its first podium finish of the running season.

Still, with only two races to go, the NISMOs had experienced a major setback for their (Driver and Team) championship ambitions. New leaders of the driver’s championship ranking were Hironori Takeuchi and Yuji Tachikawa in the No. 38 au Cerumo Supra.

But it seems the 2001 JGTC Season was no good place for championship leaders. In Round 6 at Suzuka Circuit, the No. 38 au Cerumo Supra took 6th position only. Unfortunately, the No. 22 Xanavi Hiroto Skyline could not gain ground on it, because it finished a mere 8th. The overall victory went to Honda, which had two NSXs on positions one and two, followed by the Pennzoil Zexel GT-R.

In effect, the competitors were so close in the championship rankings, that everything was still possible when the series went to the last Round at CP Miné Circuit. And indeed, it worked out - at least on the Constructors side. With all three Skylines in the top six-positions, Nissan could finally secure the Constructors Championship, three points ahead of the Mugen-Dome NSXs and 13 ahead of the Cerumo Supras. On the other hand, Hironori Takeuchi and Yuji Tachikawa of the No. 38 au Cerumo Supra took the Drivers Championship. Just for the records: The Race was won by No. 30 SOK McLaren GTR, followed by the No. 23 Pennzoil Zexel GT-R.

Overall, 2001 was a very exciting season with many surprises. Not only did it seem that Nissan had already lost the championship by the middle of the season, but it also sets one thinking that a highly specialised series like the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship can be won by drivers that were victorious not even once during the season, as has happened with the Supra drivers (the regulations have been changed since). Still, congratulations to these drivers, for being the most constant points collectors throughout the whole season. NISMO finished 4th and 5th and Team Impul took 11th position of the driver’s ranking.

Hopefully, the 2002 season will see NISMO in the condition it had during the second half of 2001…And oh, Nissan; I would not mind seeing a little more victories of yours, either.

© JB car pages
Presented by www.jbskyline.net