MOTORSPORT: Holden in but Nissan still waiting

GM Holden’s decision to stay in Supercars announced yesterday will play no role in whether Nissan decides to stay in or quit Australia's top motorsport category.

That’s the message from Nissan Australia managing director Richard Emery, who told motoring.com.au he is still waiting on global motorsport policy decisions out of headquarters in Japan that will in turn shape the future of the local program.

“Holden doesn’t care what we are doing or what our timing is and we don’t care what they are doing or what their timing is,” Emery said.

Nissan Australia has backed the four-car Kelly family-owned Nissan Motorsport squad in Supercars since 2013 and it is understood it wants to continue in the category.

If it does get the green light Nissan will join Holden as the only ongoing factory presence in Supercars beyond 2016. Volvo pulls out at the end of 2016 and Ford departed the category at the end of 2015.

Nissan Australia has also dabbled in GT3 racing and this year purchased the factory GT-R racer that contested the Bathurst 12 Hour last February.

Timing of a renewal decision has been pushed back month after month this year as the debate about the future of Nissan’s global motorsport plans continues in Japan.

There is still no sign of a resolution but Emery says crunchtime is looming.

“It is yet to be determined whether we continue and in what nature or what category we continue in,” he confirmed.

“But it is getting to a finality … and it can’t go on forever because we have to bring it to a finality at some point in time and we are making it very difficult irrespective of which decision we make in terms of being fair to our partners and our motorsport partners.

“We need to solve it in the next month otherwise it will become very difficult for us to either unravel what we have got or to continue with what we have got.

“We are finding ourselves under pressure, but we also want to make sure we give all of the stakeholders all of the information they require so when we do make our decision it’s made with full knowledge, full co-operation and full understanding.”

The local program, racing Altimas with V8 engines, is globally unique within Nissan, which primarily concentrates on promoting the GT-R as its road-racing weapon of choice globally.

That is a complicating factor, but not an insurmountable one Emery said.

“All the key decision-makers and stakeholders in the Nissan decision have all the information they need about the Australian program and the pros and cons and the various elements we could choose to be part of.

“Where the missing link is – and it’s out of my control and it’s out of Nissan Australia’s control and the Australian motorsport industry as such – what’s Nissan going to do on a global scale in motorsport?

“It’s about them determining what is their motorsport platform going to look like for the next three to five years.

“We know what we can do and we know what our options are, but what we don’t know is if that aligns what the company is going to do globally and what the company expects globally.”

Emery said motorsport definitely had a place in Nissan's marketing platform in Australia and he wanted that to continue.

“I just can’t predict what form that will take,” he admitted.