FEATURE: NISSAN’s NEW MAN IN THE SEAT

Nissan’s new MD Stephen Lester will have a big say in Nissan’s motorsport activities in Australia.

Nissan Australia’s new MD Stephen Lester came half-way around the world to witness Bathurst and had words of praise for Nissan Motorsport’s Rick and Todd Kelly, and their team.

Rick Kelly’s Nissan Altima on track at Bathurst – Photo: Rhys Vandersyde

AS THE cars rolled out for the traditional Bathurst 1000 top 10 Shootout, Stephen Lester watched from the Nissan Motorsport pit.

Six weeks into the job of Managing Director of Nissan Australia, he was at Bathurst to see how his company’s car performed.

One by one the cars rolled out to face The Mountain one-on-one. A year ago, Michael Caruso was the first man out in the Shootout and started the race from sixth. A year earlier James Moffat also rolled also out first, and started the race one place further up the grid. In 2013, Moffat was the third man out, and ended up seventh.

This year’s Shootout was made up of six Fords – that’s every Falcon in the field – and four Holdens.

There were no Nissans.

The best of the drivers in Bathurst Qualifying was Rick Kelly in 12th, 0.97s from Pole and missing the top 10 by a tenth of a second.

Things were not much better on Sunday. As the weather swirled then abated and the drivers went in and out of contention, no Nissan pilot actually led the race, and Caruso and Todd Kelly finished up in sixth and seventh, respectively.

In year five of Nissan’s V8 Supercars/Supercars program, the Altima drivers are placed in the back half of the points; Rick Kelly P14, Michael Caruso P16, Todd Kelly P20 and Simona De Silvestro 22. For the purposes of the Teams’ Championship the four cars are split into two pairs, the Kellys, and Caruso and De Silvestro, which are placed seventhand 10th in the points, respectively.

By comparison the Supercheap Auto Racing team splits the pairs of Nissans, in ninth place. SCAR is a one-car team; Chaz Mostert has scored all its points.

Nissan announced its entry into what was then V8 Supercars in February 2012. By any definition its tenure so far has not been very successful.

This is the environment into which Lester has stepped. Formerly with Infiniti Canada, he arrived in Australia in time to get his feet under the desk and quietly attend the Sandown 500. Bathurst was the first time he talked to the press.

He described his opening impression of Supercars as “really impressive.”

“My first experience was at Sandown and it’s good to see Bathurst in the daylight, finally. Supercars has an extremely loyal following, with the brands themselves and the cars and the drivers.”

That said, he is in an uncertain world. It was just over a year ago that Nissan Australia, with the backing of the international parent company, re-committed to Supercars. The four-car Altima team continues to run in the Supercars Championship and the three cars run by MW Motorsport have been the eye-catchers of the Dunlop Super2 series.

But that does not mean that anything is certain past the end of 2018,” says Lester.

“We are taking a look at all our overall sponsorship, moving forward. There are some fairly robust metrics that we use to evaluate it.

“I have that [motorsport] in my background. I get it, and I know all the work that Mitch and his team have to put in, to make it a success.

“I am into racing. I am getting up to speed on Supercars and I have racing experience. I obviously was involved in my former role with Infiniti, with the American Le Mans team and some of the activations that we did in Canada. That was super-strong.”

Nissan Motorsport during the Bathurst 1000 – Photo: Rhys Vandersyde

So that is a tick. But how big is known only to Nissan and, perhaps, the man himself…

But there is no getting past the fact that what was Kelly Racing has hardly set the Supercars world on fire and that is not a comment that Lester backs away from.

“We have not spent any time on-site, just what we have seen at Sandown and what we have seen here [at Bathurst], he says. “I have not had a chance to talk to the Kelly brothers yet.

“It is obviously a very professional operation, the team has good drivers and backup.”

But how do modest results marry with a continued commitment to the program?

“I would say that everything is on the table at the moment,”Lester admits.

“We are not closed to any possibilities around that. Would we like to be on the podium, or on the top of the podium, more often? Of course. So would everybody.

“But, so far as a group to work with, the Kellys have been absolute professionals. We are happy with that relationship and we look to build on that in the future. I hope that, with a strong partnership, results will come and that is how we have to look at it.”

One thing that looks to be in favour of continuity is the audience to which Supercars appeals. The numbers almost exactly match where Nissan wants to see vehicles, mainly crew cabs, utes and commercials, even if the Altima – which has never been a big seller anyway – will soon be leaving the marketplace.

Todd Kelly’s Nissan Altima on track at Mt Panorama – Photo: Rhys Vandersyde

This is where Mitch Wiley, Nissan’s Senior Marketing Manager – Sponsorship & Retail, steps into the conversation.

“To look at any measure of motorsport, compared to countries around the world, the highest-rating metric is Supercars,” he says. “So the global view does not really come into it. Supercars is the highest-attended, the highest-viewed on TV.”

One thing that makes life potentially simpler for the Aussie Nissan arm is what they went through in 2016. A long and, presumably, exhausting presentation was made to Nissan Global, a process made all the more lengthy by personnel changes overseas. Even with a similar change here – former MD Richard Emery left the company mid-year – Wiley is confident that the journey will stand them in good stead this time around.

“The benefit of coming out of what we did last year last year now is, we know the process,” he explains. “We have spent the last three years building up how the relationships work.

“Our ROI [Return on Investment] modelling round this is really complex, but very practical. Our program is so objective it makes those negotiations a lot easier.

“We have been working with Mike Carcamo [Ed: NISMO’s Global Motorsport Director] since we re-signed for the two years anyway. We just continue to work with them and understand where we fit in the global motorsport program.”

Of course one of the options is that, like GM and others, Nissan has a highly-developed V6 turbocharged engine in its inventory, even if it would take some work to fit into Supercars. Is that a possibility?

“All those options are being discussed,” Lester straight bats. “It’s just not something that is going to be rushed into.”

And one of the options might be that an Infiniti sedan, or a coupe, could fit an updated footprint for future Supercars. Again, straight back to the bowler…

“I think it is too early for us to speculate about what exactly we might go to. Nissan is such a global automotive brand and a very successful one around the world. There are a lot of opportunities open to us. We will make those decision as the time comes to bear and as we get more clarity as to what our options are.”

So, is Infiniti an option?

“I can’t speak for my Infiniti colleagues. So far, at the present time, this is not in discussion. We are in the relatively early stages of this process that it would be unfair to direct the speculation one way or the other.”

And when does the decision-making process need to be in play? After all, Holden’s decision to update the Commodore ZB with a V6 was made more than a year ago and it will not be developed in time for the start of next season. Any V6-powered… Maxima/Infiniti/Altima would need a similar timeline, surely?

“I would hate to speculate on when we might make a decision,” he says. “We need to do a complete evaluation of the program, and talk to [Nissan] Global about where we are, in the ladder to the global operation, and make a decision based on that, that is going to be the best thing for our market here.

“No decision has been made yet, either way. I think we will go through our due diligence in a thorough and pragmatic way, and if that means making a decision that is perceived as ‘last minute’, I am confident that whatever that decision will be will be based on good, pragmatic, solid facts – foundation and analysis versus any short-term thinking.”

To add to the process’s complexity, the car and engine are far from the only decisions that have to be made.

“There are three partners in this,” says Lester, “ourselves, the Kelly brothers and Supercars. Really a fourth [partner] is the global relationship with Nissan, who we have to make this relationship in concert with.

“We have to come to the table as a group. I would say that the partnership is not going to be ready without senior sign-off at Global, whether we sign-off or don’t sign-off.

Just to add to the options Supercars now offers potential investors a seat at SuperUtes. No one is thinking that any racing Navara would be ready any time before Adelaide 2019 but it is not a silly idea for what even Lester agrees is becoming known as “an SUV and pickup – ute! – company.”

Nissan’s GT-R GT3 during the Bathurst 12 Hour – Photo: Rhys Vandersyde

And that is not all. Nissan has a pair of GT-R GT3 racecars among its inventory and a lot of people would like to see them on the track – particular at the Bathurst 12 Hour.

“We are seeing a lot of investment around GT3 and GT4 as well, says Wiley.

“We have not seen something to the scale of the LMP1 program, but Mike and his team are working on what the future of motorsport is. That is what the process is and we catch up with him on a regular basis. Once a year he gets a presentation from us; he knows what is going on here. He is very involved with the investment here and where it sits.

“The GT3 program lends itself to the GT-R,” says Wiley. “It’s a supercar and it fits in that market. It is still performing very well.

“You look at the GT Academy program and you look at what Matt has done, with his limited experience, and that is, I think, representative of how strong the car is.

“We don’t have anything to talk about but we are definitely working through it. We are looking hard at the timing.

Uniquely, Nissan also has its GT Academy, a production line project that turns gamers into racing drivers, with some success. Jann Mardenborough has become something of a pinup boys for the program, which is run in conjunction with gaming giant Sony. What there?

“We are still working with Sony on what the makeup of the GT Academy is,” says Wiley. “That is something that we are working on. We are really impressed with Matt and we think that he has had a great second year. We are working with him around his future but right now, there is no decision.”

There’s a lot to be done and decisions about what arenas Nissan stays in, in Australia, are not going to be announced any time soon.

If it counts for anything, Lester is definitely enthusiastic about motor racing, and his first look at Supercars has underlined that enthusiasm. It will be some time before it will be known if that counts for anything in Nissan’s global motorsport decisions but Lester may just be the man to lift the program.

After all, the college at which he studied Sports Management in St Catherines, Ontario – 25km from the US border – was called Brock University…

By PHIL BRANAGAN

Article originally published in Issue 1721 of Auto Action.

For Auto Action’s latest feature, pick up the latest issue of the magazine, on sale now. Also make sure you follow us on social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or our weekly email newsletter for all the latest updates between issues.