NISSAN: WE’LL MEET KELLYS

Nissan will listen to Kelly Racing about extending the life of the Altima’s – Photo: Supplied

NISSAN AUSTRALIA will listen to any approach Kelly Racing makes about extending the life of the Altima in Supercars.

By BRUCE NEWTON

That’s the good news.

The not-so-good news is that Nissan Oz managing director Stephen Lester is adamant the company won’t spend any money on reskinning the Altima or make a sponsorship return to the category.

Nissan ended its backing of the Kellys’ four-car Altima squad after a six-year run at the end of last year.

“Our plans do not include re-entering or re-investing in motor racing in the V8 format at the present time,” Lester told Auto Action.

However, he was willing to take a meeting with the team on the Altima’s future in Supercars.

“We keep the doors and the lines of communication open with the Kellys,” Lester said. “They’ve been professionals to the nth degree throughout the whole process and I’d like to think they’d reciprocate those comments and feelings.

“We’ll work with the Kellys to the extent it makes commercial sense, but the reality is we are not getting back into car racing.”

Team co-owners Todd and Rick Kelly and general manager Nick Ryan have publicly discussed racing the Altima again in 2020 rather than going through the expense of swapping to a Ford Mustang or Holden Commodore.

The multi-million dollar investment in the VK56DE V8 engine is a strong motivator to keep racing the Nissan.

Kelly Racing has expressed the idea of potentially updating the body shape to the new-generation Altima sold in the USA or another Nissan large car, the Maxima.
The L33 Altima was discontinued in Australia in 2017.

However, the team is waiting on detailed information about significant technical changes to the 2020 Supercars package – including an aerodynamic downforce reduction – before deciding which way to proceed.

“I haven’t put much, if any, thought into modification and what that roadmap looks like,” Lester admitted. “We’d have to wait and see what that proposal would look like and then go down that road with them about next steps.

“I haven’t been approached, or it hasn’t got to my level, or I am just not in tune enough to reading the stories in and around V8 Supercars at the moment, but nothing has been brought forward.”

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