Davison charges to fourth in Long Beach

LONG BEACH, Calif. – Always Evolving/AIM Autosport Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 driver James Davison pulled out a stunning drive to fourth place on the streets of Long Beach today in the latest Pirelli World Challenge round.

After only qualifying 11th fastest, Davison made a charging start to be seventh after the opening lap. He again made the most of restarts after the first yellow flag and made further progress to move to fifth place.

In race strewn with incident and accidents, Davison drove a clean race to eventually finish fourth on the unforgiving street circuit that isn't ideally suited to the GT-R.

Davison’s teammate, former GT Academy winner Bryan Heitkotter, was one of the drivers to “bitten” by the unforgiving Long Beach concrete walls – nosing his GT-R into the turn one tire wall and bringing his race to an early end.

“Going into today’s race I knew making good starts and restarts were going to be critical, and that’s what we did,” said Davison. “We maximized the strength of the GT-R in a straight line, and I was very aggressive under brakes into turn one and passed a couple of cars down the inside and outside. I’m very pleased for the team. We really punched above our weight on a tight street circuit.”

Davison, Heitkotter and the team will now head to Barber Motorsport Park in Alabama next weekend – the venue where both drivers stood on the top step of the podium last year.

“We all make mistakes, and Bryan will be back racing at Barber this week, and I’m sure he’ll be very motivated to make amends,” Davison said. “Last year at Barber, it was wet in qualifying and the GT-R was very strong. I started first and finished first – having track position was a big asset. Having some more rain this week wouldn’t hurt us at all.”

Upcoming NISMO Calendar

April 23-24
Blancpain GT Endurance, Monza, Italy
Pirelli World Challenge, Barber Motorsports Park, Alabama, USA

May 3-4
Super GT, Fuji Speedway, Japan

May 7-8
FIA WEC, Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
Blancpain GT Sprint, Brands Hatch, England
V8 Supercar, Barbagallo Raceway, Western Australia, Australia

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Contact

Jane Johnstone
Marketing Communications Director
Global Motorsport Communications
Nissan/NISMO
Phone: +44 7979 710646
Email: jane.johnstone@nissan.co.uk

Paul Ryan
Marketing and PR Manager
Phone: +1 678 644 0404
Email: paul@nismosupport.com