BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — James Davison drove his #33 Always Evolving/RePlay XD Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 to an impressive flag-to-flag victory at the Barber Motorsports Park circuit near Birmingham Saturday. It was Nissan’s first overall victory in the Pirelli World Challenge in just the sixth start for the new team. This was also Davison’s first win in the series.
“Just a perfect day for us, with pole position, then a tough race holding off (Nick) Catsburg in the Lamborghini for the win,” said Davison. “We had a number of restarts that bunched up the field but we were able to stay up front and bring it home for the win. I’m extremely pleased for the whole AE RePlay XD Nissan GT Academy team to get the first GT-R GT3 win in North America.”
In what was a remarkable display of driver consistency, Davison and Catsberg were never more than two seconds apart, dueling lap after lap for the 50-minute sprint. Davison’s final margin of victory was just 0.92 second.
Davison’s AE GT-R teammate Bryan Heitkotter started well back in the field, serving a penalty stemming from contact at the last PWC round in long Beach. Heitkotter finished 17th, fifth in the GTA classification.
The next round of the Pirelli World Challenge is Sunday, April 26 at 11:20 a.m. local/12:20 p.m. Eastern from Barber Motorsports Park. Live online streaming available at www.world-challengetv.com. Broadcast on CBS Sports Network will air Sunday May 3 at 2 p.m. Eastern/11 a.m. Pacific.
For more information on Nissan GT Academy North America, follow it on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GTAcademyNA. NISMO Performance page on Facebook is www.facebook.com/NISMO.us
Always Evolving team page is www.facebook.com/aeperformance. AIM Autosport is https://www.facebook.com/AIMautosport