MOTORSPORT: Godzilla finds love at The Mountain

This was a giant-killing performance. Surely a Nissan GT-R wasn't going to win the Bathurst 12-Hour when we saw what it was up against and with three drivers the regulations considered amateurs: a 27-year-old Japanese who barely 24 hours earlier had put the GT-R in the fence in a desperate dash for pole position and two European video gamers with little racing experience?

It was 23 years since a Nissan GT-R had won at Mt Panorama. That was its second straight success in the October 1000km race. Nissan was dominant in Australian touring car racing at that time with its all-wheel-drive, twin-turbocharged "Godzilla". So dominant that the GT-R was outlawed, paving way for the 5-litre category that became V8 Supercars.

After Godzilla's first victory in the Great Race (the 1000), in 1992, 'Gentleman' Jim Richards was so offended by the hostility of the fans towards the Japanese manufacturer's conquest against Holden and Ford that he famously called them "a pack of arseholes". The reception was a little better the second time, if not exactly enthusiastic. (Incidentally, that '92 GT-R recently changed hands for close to $1m and was displayed at The Mountain throughout the weekend).

Last night the reaction to Nissan's success was a very different story. Katsumasa Chiyo, Wolfgang Reip and Florian Strauss felt the warm embrace of a much more generous, sophisticated and sober crowd - those among a believable three-day attendance of 32,297 (said to be up 6,500 on last year) who had stuck it out to the end of a sweltering Sunday and applauded success on its merits.

The GT-R had technical credentials in this event, but at the end of the day the now two-wheel drive NISMO Nissan GT-R is based on a car you can walk into a dealership today and buy for about $175,000. You'd want to have twice as much or more in your wallet for any of the road versions of the makes and models that finished immediately behind it - in order, Audi R8, Aston Martin Vantage, Bentley Continental, Mercedes SLS, Ferrari 458 and Lamborghini Gallardo.

And the Nissan entry was solo. That, more than anything, made it the underdog.

It was an incredibly sweet success, especially after Chiyo's costly mistake 12 months earlier.

Nissan's Australian chief executive Richard Emery wasn't making any bold predictions last night about what the victory might do for the brand, and the GT-R in particular, in terms of sales. But he hoped that it engendered a sense of excitement about the brand, created "emotional attachment" and reinforced its commitment to motorsport.

"I hope it helps people see that Nissan is innovative... is prepared to try to be innovative," Emery said.

The genial, incredibly polite, super-professional and blindingly fast Chiyo may come to hold a place in the hearts of Australian motorsport fans, or at least those who were at The Mountain yesterday or saw his stunning last couple of laps on the Seven telecast -- like that the great Japanese boxer Fighting Harada who fought Lionel Rose and Johnny Famechon has with the broader Aussie public.

Chiyo had been trusted by the NISMO team and his co-drivers to drive the final stint despite his blemishes in the previous day's qualifying and last year's race.

A few laps from the finish the GT-R had been seventh and even after the final safety car intervention (the last of 20, five more than the 2013 record) was still third with a two-lap sprint to the finish.

Chiyo immediately rocketed past an Audi and a Bentley, was in the lead, opened a gap, kept his cool and took the chequered flag almost 2.5sec clear.

"I was not happy with the qualifying, was sorry for the team [who worked late into the night to repair the damaged rear] and I wanted to bring a good result to them," Chiyo said.

"Before the race P1 [first place] in our class [those considered amateur drive line-ups among the 28 GT3 cars] would have been enough, but this is unbelieavable. I couldn't imagine this.

"The team trusted me for the last stint and after the last safety car I thought, 'It is now or never'.

"I was not nervous. The car was strong. Wolfgang and Florian had saved the brakes, which was a big help at the end.

"The strategy was perfect. NISMO is a very strong team. They made no mistakes. The pitstops were quick, the team was  always reliable and my co-drivers were very consistent."

This was the biggest win of Chiyo's career - and first internationally.

And of Bathurst after the heartbreak a year earlier: "I love this place. The people are very kind. There are many GT-R, Nissan fans. They all say, 'Good luck', 'Push', 'Go Godzilla'."  

Florian Strauss had been holidaying in Thailand when he got a late call-up to replace the originally-named Alex Buncombe, who withdrew because his first child was overdue (and eventually arrived close to race day).

Strauss, who has only had an international racing licence little more than a year and, (like Reip) has come through Nissan's GT Academy that grooms video gamers for real track action, felt the victory vindicated his inclusion as the team could not have done any better had Buncombe been available.

"I'm just living the dream," Strauss said.

So too Reip, who has an extra year's experience under his belt and already had eight international podiums to his credit – although never a win. He hoped it would be a big step towards credibility for drivers like him and Strauss who have turned performance on PlayStation into racing careers.

"They [lots of other race drivers] still laugh at us, even though they use simulators a lot like we do," Reip said.

"This kind of thing [laughter] must stop… All I want really is credibility as a professional racing driver."

Like his Nissan colleagues, Reip found the Australian fans "very enthusiastic, very friendly".

Having conquered Mt Panorama, Reip remained in awe of the circuit. He rated it tougher even than the notorious Nurburgring Nordschleife — the much longer German track christened The Green Hell.

"The Nordschleife is wider and there is a metre of grass all around. Here the risk is much higher."

Yesterday Reip discovered that the higher the risk the higher the reward. And, unlike the early 1990s, the result was greatly acknowledged.

And, with it, for many so too were the endless comparisons of how the 12-Hour and V8 Supercar 'Super Test' in Sydney had fared forgotten, perhaps if only for a while.

What this Sunday at Bathurst had reinforced was that, rather than bicker about which is better, let's just appreciate how terrific it is to have two great races a year at The Mountain.

Read the full Bathurst 12 hour race wrap up here

More photos of Bathurst 12 Hour race