Nissan to withdraw from Supercars

“Nissan has decided to exit the Supercars Championship in order to concentrate on the interests and needs of our current and future customers,” explained Stephen Lester, Nissan Australia’s managing director.“I’d like to thank Todd and Rick Kelly, Michael Caruso, Simona de Silvestro and everyone at Nissan Motorsport for all of their hard work in the time that Nissan Australia has been involved in Supercars. “I’d also like to thank Nissan Motorsport fans, we truly appreciate your support and will continue to work hard to achieve the best possible results over the course of the season.”

The announcement, which came only a couple of days before Ford revealed they would be re-joining the series as a factory team in 2019, sees Nissan join Mercedes-Benz and Volvo in ending their participation in Supercars after a brief period, although to Nissan’s credit, they stuck with it longer than most. Nissan joined Supercars in 2013, being the first manufacturer to get on board after the series’ ‘Car of the Future’ regulations were announced. Rick and Todd Kelly’s team was rebranded as ‘Nissan Motorsport’ and four cars were entered what the carmaker described as a considerable investment, both on and off track.

The original deal with Kelly Racing was to 2016, but Nissan extended that contract by another two years after a series of encouraging results, including race wins at Winton in 2013, Darwin in 2016, a runner-up result at the 2014 Bathurst 1000, several other podium finishes and a best championship result (to date) of ninth for Rick Kelly in 2015. Last year was a tougher one for the team, without a win or podium for the entire season, but 2018 – at time of writing – has been more positive, with Rick Kelly scoring two podium finishes at Phillip Island. Kelly Racing has confirmed they’ll continue to run Nissan Altimas as a privateer outfit next year, but have made no announcement on whether the four-car lineup will remain, nor the manufacturer they’ll switch to for 2020 and beyond.