Nissan races for 24 hours

Nissan made a successful comeback at a turbulent Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race event this year. Campaigning one car with Signatech Racing (the #26 car pictured here) and powering the class-winning Greaves Motorsport entry (#47, in white), Nissan managed a one-two finish in the Le Mans Prototype II class.

A third Nissan-powered LMP2 entry, the #48 Matmut Oreca, retired after 16 hours when David Hallyday went off track.

The Signatech car, driven by Franck Mailleux, Soheil Ayari and GT Academy winner Lucas Ordonez, led the LMP2 group with fastest in qualifying. Mailleux managed 3:43.49 for pole position in-class, ahead of the Nissan-powered Zytek car campaigned by UK outfit Greaves Motorsport.

Qualifying driver for Greaves, Olivier Lombard's best lap was almost 1.5sec slower but good enough to place the team ahead of the Honda Performance Development car driven by the 'white Stig', Ben Collins.

At the end of 24 hours' racing the Nissan-powered cars finished eighth and ninth overall, among a field of 56 starters but with only 28 cars completing the event. Notable DNFs included two of Audi's three-car campaign in the LMP1 category, with Allan McNish and Mike Rockenfeller lucky to walk away after spectacular altercations involving Ferrari 458-driving GT entrants.

Several cars, including the Signatech entry, suffered punctures throughout the race. Rain towards the end of the 24 hours also added drama, sending the Greaves car into gravel in the hands of Brit driver Tom Kimber-Smith.

"The on-off rain made it pretty tricky," said KImber-Smith. "I went out with a dark visor so I couldn't see the clouds coming and then going into Turn One I locked the rears... Fortunately we had such a strong lead so I was able to pit for intermediate tyres and not lose position. We stuck to our own game plan; we knew that if we went steady we would be up there at the end of the race."

Nissan has agreed to a two-year engine supply deal with Signatech of the naturally aspirated 4.5-litre V8 for racing purposes. Originally developed for the Japanese Super GT Series, the VK45DE engine is tuned for 331kW/580Nm to serve the Automobile Club l'Ouest's LMP2 regulations.

The Nismo-tuned engine is also part of a customer program for privateer teams, currently taken up by Matmut and Greaves. Like Signatech, Matmut uses an Oreca chassis while Greaves runs a Zytek-built car.

The Le Mans 24 hour event will count as part of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. This year's season started at Sebring for the 12 Hour event, where Signatech managed to win in-class. The team also had a successful outing at the following Spa 1000km race.

Next round is the six-hour race at Imola, followed by events at Silverstone and Road Atlanta for the Petit Le Mans in October.

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