Davison nets top five finish, Heitkotter 20th after contact penalty at Long Beach Pirelli World Challenge

LONG BEACH, Calif. – The tight, 1.97-mile, 11-turn Long Beach street course is known for tight racing and its fair share of car-to-car contact, and the 2015 Pirelli World Challenge round five was no exception. This year's 50-minute sprint through the city featured more time under caution than green flag racing.

James Davison made a brilliant pass on the first of six full course cautions, moving from 15th spot up to sixth to earn the Invisible Glass Clean Pass of the Race award.  The Australian, now living in St. Petersburg, Florida, was able to work his #33 Always Evolving ReplayXD/Nissan NISMO GT-R GT3 around the Acura of Ryan Eversley to cap off a strong drive and capture fifth place during the limited green flag racing at Long Beach.

"Our best chances to move forward today were on restarts," said Davison. "I timed the first one perfectly, passed four cars on the jump and then went double or nothing down the inside into turn one and passed another four. It was a great result for the team to score our first top five."

Bryan Heitkotter started his #05 AE/GT Academy Nissan NISMO GT-R GT3 in 13th position overall and third fastest in the GTA class. The 2011 GT Academy U.S. champ was and running 12th overall on the first restart when the Bentley immediately in front of him hesitated coming out of the corner. Heitkotter contacted the Bentley from behind, causing a spin and earning the 34-year old Fresno native a drive through penalty later in the race. Heitkotter finished the race in 20th position, 10th in GTA.

The Long Beach race will be rebroadcast on CBS Sorts Network on Sunday, April 26 at 3:30 p.m. Eastern/12:30 p.m. Pacific.

Thankfully, both Davison and Heitkotter's cars finished the race intact, as the series quickly moves east from the California coast to Birmingham, Alabama in just four days. The Pirelli World Challenge visits Barber Motorsports Park for rounds six and seven on April 25 and 26. Live online streaming of both Barber races will be available at www.world-challengetv.com. Delayed broadcast on CBS Sports Network will be Sunday, May 3 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern/11:00 a.m. Pacific.

For more information on Nissan GT Academy North America, follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GTAcademyNA. NISMO Performance page on Facebook is www.facebook.com/NISMO.us

Always Evolving team page is www.facebook.com/aeperformance. AIM Autosport is https://www.facebook.com/AIMautosport

Visit the NISMO performance parts and accessories site at http://www.nissanusa.com/nismo/

NISMO on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/NISMO.US

Nissan GT Academy North America is at https://www.facebook.com/GTAcademyNA

# # #

Contact

Steve Yaeger
Corporate Communications
Nissan North America, Inc.
615-725-4443
Steve.yaeger@nissan-usa.com