CRG-I Do Borrow Nissan Altima and Sarah Cattaneo Finish 5th in Season Debut

A real solid result against some top competition at the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge at Daytona yesterday.  The car itself has a long history in sportscar racing and is originally the Skullcandy Altima that raced all over the country for the past few years.

The CRG-I Do Borrow effort switched from a Honda Civic last year to this Altima and have been doing quite well.  Ahead of Cattaneo's 5th place finish were three Porsche Caymans and the winning JCW Mini.  In fact, the Altima turned the fastest lap of the race at 103.6 mph but didn't have the consistency to put it on the podium this time.  Looking forward to more solid finishes out of this effort in '17 at the rest of the IMSA schedule.

If anyone can provide a link to this team's webpage or even Facebook page it would be appreciated as I can't find anything but the individual driver's personal pages...

BMW Endurance Challenge at Daytona '17 results...

Nissan Entry at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona

Yup...not exactly a common thing these days but there is a Nissan powered entry at the 24 Hours of Daytona this coming weekend.

The #37 of SMP Racing running in the top "Prototype" class against the Panoz Deltawing and the new Ford GTs is running a naturally aspirated Nissan VK45DE V8.  While it finished third in the speed tests at Daytona in early January, no result of that nature should be expected.  The SMP team will have to play a cautious game of wait and see, hoping for breakdowns of the "virgin" Ford GTs and experimental Deltawing to have any shot at a podium.  Truth is that while this team and exact car have run exceptionally well in Europe (also known as Russian Bears Motorsport) in the LMP2 class there, it is not designed for the unique characteristics of Daytona like the Daytona Prototype cars are.

Still, it will be good to have someone to root for other than your typical NASCAR drivers slumming it up in endurance racing.

Facebook page:  SMP Racing
Twitter page:  SMP Twitter
SMP HomePage (though not working for me at moment): SMP HomePage

Four Nissans in Today's IMSA CTSCC at Daytona...

Good to see Nissan fielding a solid number of cars at this year's opening event at Daytona.  With the race occurring early this afternoon the 2014 Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge season gets underway.

There appear to be two, two car teams for this year.  In the top end GS class we have the Doran Racing/Tim Bell Racing 370Z effort while in the ST (street tuner) class we have the Skullcandy Nissan Altima team which has added a second car for the '14 season.

Qualifying for today's event took place on Thursday and saw some solid results for the Nissans.

In GS the Tim Bell driven #28 370Z qualified 11th of 26 while Brad Jaeger put the #14 Z in the 15th position.  Given they only had two or three laps of qualifying, I'm not sure how much this says.  Additionally, every other car in the GS class is a V8 (except for a lone Subaru STi) the Zs will have their work cut out for them keeping up on the oval stretches of the Daytona circuit which is likely the track that least suits them of any on the schedule.

Down in the ST class, the Skullcandy team put its #33 Altima into the 4th position (of 35) off the line behind the hands of Bryan Heitkotter, the 2011 Nissan Playstation Academy winner and by now well diversified driver.  The #34 Altima of Johnny Canavas didn't fare quite so well but qualified 25th.  The race will be broadcast on Fox Sports 2 at 6PM Eastern today...so if you get that channel...tune in and look for some fast (hopefully!) Nissans.

Doran Racing to Field Two 370Zs in 2014 CTSCC

After running a single car effort the past couple years in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, Doran Racing is moving to a two car effort this year.

Performing well at the Daytona Speedway "Roar Before the 24" testing session recently the two GS class 370Zs finished well inside the top half of the field and were the fastest cars present on the "road course" section of Daytona which should be similar to the tracks they will be running all year long vs. the oval portion where the larger engined vehicles excelled.

The 2014 racing season is about to begin with the first race in the series coming up just before the 24 Hours of Daytona and Nissan should be present in numerous locations, I'll try and follow along!

Doran Racing website...
Doran Racing announces two car effort...

Skullcandy Nissan Returning in '14 to the IMSA Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge

The black clad Skullcandy Nissan Altima's will be returning to the race circuit in 2014 after a solid effort in '13.  Its two car team finished 11th and 20th overall for the year out of 39 teams with one race win and a number of top ten finishes within the ST class.  It also looks like they have added a 370Z to their racing stable and will compete in the next rung up, GS class, in the IMSA CTSCC, having shown a fully race ready Z at SEMA '13 a couple months back.

The factory based series often runs on the same weekend as the high end TUDOR United SportsCar Championship (formerly the Rolex series).  The 2014 season will be 12 races long, up from 10 in '13 with the first event coming on 1/24/14 at Daytona prior to the 24 Hours of Daytona TUDOR event.

Skullcandy Nissan 2014 Plans...

Would You Sell One Testicle For A 370Z?

Hmmm...I dunno...I'm done having kids (two kids are plenty!) but it still feels right to keep my god (small g) given body intact.  The guy in the story below is trading his testicle to medical research for $35K which he is using to get a 370Z.  That's not even a top end 370Z...

Man donates testicle to buy 370Z...

That said...I might be willing to part with an extra organ or two in exchange for a copious amount of cash or a really nice Nissan.  So let's play the organ for Nissan game shall we?




Kidneys:  I'd trade a kidney for a nice Nissan Titan.  The Titan is a bit outdated of a vehicle and a bit of a gas hog.  Then again, a kidney isn't that big of a loss.  So I'd have to pee more often and my ability to filter stuff would be a bit compromised...meh...I can adjust.  Seriously....I think I'd donate a kidney today if it got me a vehicle to tow my race vehicle with.

Lungs:  Hmm, this one is a bit tougher.  Without a lung I assume my ability to perform physical actions would be compromised.  Plus I feel as if I'd end up leaning to one side or the other as the absence of a lung would mean a pretty big weight imbalance wouldn't it?  That said, I could use to lose a few pounds and getting into actual decent shape would help mitigate the loss of the lung.  I say a lung is what I'd trade for a 370Z which is a real nice sports car but not something ridiculously valuable.

Testicle: Now we get into some serious stuff...though the loss of a testicle doesn't present any obvious outwardly visible signs I just feel like it would change how I would walk around...a little less swagger in my step so to speak.  A loss of manhood, even just 1/2 of it requires a big return and a mere stock 370Z just wouldn't cut it.  Something classic, something race, something with a great deal of value, if not monetarily then historically.  A fully restored Datsun BRE 510 from the Baja perhaps??

Eye:  This would be near the top of my value list for dual organs.  The others mean losing something but being short of breath or having to pee more often is more of an inconvenience than an actual LOSS of something.  Losing an eye however...now that's big.  Depth perception is gone, range of vision is cut in half...plus you have to decide to go the Stuart Scott route or look like the Governor from the Walking Dead...neither is a good look.  I'll need something truly special and one off.  I'm going with the 1992 24 Hours of Daytona winner R91CP which thoroughly destroyed the field finishing nine laps up on the closest competitor and finished more laps in the 24 Hours of Daytona than anyone ever before or since.

That's my list and I'm sticking to it...anyone know a good surgeon??

Good Start For Nissan Motorsports in 2013

There are no Nissans that I know of running in the 24 Hours of Daytona which is a shame given how well Nissans have done in recent endurance events around the world but there were three Nissans running in the Continental Tire BMW Performance 200.

The Continental Tire series as part of the Grand Am organization focuses on more of your typical street cars versus the prototypes and higher end machinery seen in top level Grand Am races.  Mustangs, Civics, Porsches, Camaros, Aston Martins, BMWs, etc.  Within the Continental Tire series there are two classes, the GS and the ST.  The ST being the tad slower more "stock" race vehicles.

The ST class this year sees two Nissans from the Skullcandy Nissan team out of Utah.  Using 3.5 liter Altima coupes the two black cars performed better that could have ever been hoped yesterday.  The Skullcandy #33 Altima won the event taking the ST class win, besting its prior best result in the series of 8th in '12.  The win by the #33 was backed up by a ninth place finish by the #34 Skullcandy Altima in the ST class.  The winning #33 finished 25th overall in the event out of 69 entries.

On a secondary note there was also a Nissan in the GS class as well.  The #14 370Z of Doran racing finished 15th in class and overall.  This Z team also ran in '12 and has always been fast but subject to bad luck and a few gremlins.  A 15th place finish out of the gate in '13 however is a solid result.

While having a Nissan perform in the 24 Hours of Daytona would be a great thing to see, a win and a ninth in the ST class and a 15th in the GS class is not a bad way to start.