SEPANG, Malaysia – The KCMG team kicked off its Blancpain GT Series Asia season with strong performance in the opening round of the championship at Sepang last weekend.
The team debuted the 2018-spec Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 in the series with entries in both the Pro/Am class (Tsugio Matsuda/Yukinori Taniguchi) and the Silver/Silver class (Edoardo Liberati/Florian Strauss).
Highlights of the weekend included NISMO Super GT star Matsuda qualifying an impressive third fastest for Sunday's race after topping the times in Friday's second practice session.
The No. 18 entry finished 13th and seventh overall in the two races – the opening race result hindered by an off-track excursion by Taniguchi who spun off while avoiding another spun car. The results gave them sixth and fourth place finishes in class.
"Overall, it was a good weekend with Taniguchi-san despite the small hitches that we encountered," said Matsuda. "The Blancpain GT Asia debut of the Nissan GT-R was trouble-free, and this gave us a preview of the car's potential. I'm now looking forward to the next race in Thailand and the goal there is to dominate the field."
Former Bathurst 12 Hour and GT Academy winner Strauss had two strong results with Liberati in the Silver/Silver class. The duo finished fourth in the class in both races – finishing fifth overall on Saturday and ninth on Sunday.
"Our results at Sepang were a good start for the season, and our objective is to improve further and hopefully, deliver more points to help win the championship for the team," said Strauss.
Both Blancpain GT Series Asia races were live-streamed on NISMO.tv. Saturday's race can be seen on our YouTube channel here. Sunday's race can viewed here.
📸 We've for all the pics from the @BlancpainGTA action at @sepangcircuit for the #OMGTR @KCMotorgroup team. Take a look at: https://t.co/oKPBdEi5Um#NISMOnation pic.twitter.com/MSfWfCR3OB
— Nissan NISMO (@NISMO) April 16, 2018
NISMO Calendar
April 21-22
Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup, Monza, Italy
Virgin Australia Supercars Championship, Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia
April 28-29
Road Atlanta Historics, Nissan Featured Marque. Atlanta, GA, USA
Contact
Anna Teslik
Global Motorsport Marketing and Communications Manager
Phone: +33 7 7614 7286
ATeslik@nissan-europe.com
Paul Ryan
Global Motorsport Marketing and Communications Manager
Phone: +1 678 644 0404
paul@nismosupport.com
For more information about Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.'s products, services and our commitment to sustainable mobility, visit Nissan-Global.com. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn, and view our latest videos on YouTube.
Get more information about Nissan motorsports on NISMO.com.