Nissan’s winning season closes with victory in Bahrain

The final race of the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship delivered on its promise of keeping the action going until the very last lap. The Bahrain 6 Hours saw Oak Racing crowned as LM P2 champions and four-time LM P2 race winners, G-Drive Racing, take an overall podium finish and the LM P2 race win.

After a closely fought battle between the Powered by Nissan LM P2 teams, it was Oak Racing that came out on top, taking both the LM P2 driver’s and team’s championship titles and also the runner-up positions in each of those categories in Bahrain.

“It has been a fantastic season for us,” said Oak Racing Team Principal, Sebastien Phillippe. “After making a 1-2 at Le Mans our target this weekend was to win the championship. We are very happy that we have done this, taking a 1-2 in both the driver’s and team’s championships. I’m very proud of all of our partnerships, including Nissan.

“The start was pretty chaotic for everybody today,” he continued. “I was asking myself a lot of questions in the early stages of the race as our setups weren’t the best to make the tyres work well on the hot track. When night fell we were on the pace. The no. 24 Morgan-Nissan LM P2 had a great race and almost clinched victory. No. 35 was running well within its capacities to score the points necessary to win the title. And no. 45 finished in the first five. We couldn’t have dreamed of better!”

The LM P2 race win went to G-Drive Racing, whose impressive run to victory gave them third place in the race overall and their fourth win this year.

“The team did such a great job for us,” said Roman Rusinov. “We have been competitive all weekend. All the hard work we have invested this season has paid off and it’s great to finish third on the overall podium and to win our class. There are not many races where you get to go on the overall podium and the class podium."

Wolfgang Reip, like many GT Academy winners before him, was thrown into the deep end by making his LM P2 debut during a world championship event. His performance in the Greaves Zytek-Nissan impressed the listeners of Radio Le Mans so much that they gave him the ‘Spirit of the Race’ award. Along with Greaves regular Bjorn Wirdheim and GP2 racer Jon Lancaster, Wolfie finished the race in third position, earning his first LM P2 podium.

“Congratulations to Oak Racing who deserve that championship win after pushing hard all year,” said Nissan’s Director of Global Motorsport, Darren Cox. “It has been a real pleasure for us to watch the performances of our Nissan-powered teams throughout this year in both WEC and the European Le Mans Series. G-Drive Racing’s overall podium today was an incredible achievement and it is always good to see them win.”

Nissan Motorsport