Nissans shined at the Pirelli World Challenge this weekend at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah, with eight podiums in three classes from Nissan Altima 3.5, 370Z and GT-R.
Two times, James Davison finished a strong second to winner Johnny O’Connell in the Cadillac that just received Balance of Performance concessions prior to the MMP rounds. Davison’s teammate, 2011 GT Academy winner Bryan Heitkotter, continued to impress in his rookie season, finishing third in race one Saturday and seventh in Sunday’s race.
The driving star of the weekend for Nissan, however, was Vesko Kozarov, who dominated and won the three Touring Car rounds in the Salt Lake City-based CA Sport-Skullcandy Nissan Altima 3.5 at the team’s hometown track. The three victories mark five straight wins and seven wins overall in TC for the season for Kozarov in the Altima.
As if three races in the Utah heat weren’t enough, Kozarov ran CA Sport’s 370Z in two GTS rounds, putting on an absolute racing clinic while grabbing second- and third-place finishes with a car that had not been campaigned all season. Though he didn’t get his wish for a win, he had the fastest race lap and gave notice to the rest of the GTS field that he is truly talented. Five podiums in five races is an accomplishment that takes tremendous stamina and competitive fire in addition to natural driving talent.
