Team to manage World Challenge on-track racing program for Nissan Motorsports and Always Evolving.

By: Chris Jameson / RaceCanada
March 1, 2015

With the announcement just last week that Woodbridge, Ontario based AIM Autosport would be managing car preparation and on track support for Nissan Motorsports and Always Evolving in the 2015 Pirelli World Challenge Championships, it answered a few question we had been mulling over here at RaceCanada. Ever since the news came out that AIM, the 2014 North American Endurance Cup championship team's drivers were headed elsewhere we wondered what would become of this "little team that could". We had our speculations, but boy, it was getting pretty late in the game for anything to happen in 2015.

And one thought always struck us – after seven quite successful years with race wins in Rolex GRAND-AM prototypes plus GT Championships in GRAND-AM and IMSA's North American Endurance Cup, why did it seem the great little team had to struggle each year to get on track.

Well as some of us know, getting that next race deal for small independent teams is really hard work and nothing is ever assured. One must always be planning ahead and that is exactly what AIM's Team Principal Ian Willis did.

Even as the team was en route to winning the 2014 NAEC GT championship with Ferrari, and with some pretty strong indications that the partnership would continue on – and possibly include the Le Mans 24 on the 2015 schedule, Willis was putting out feelers "just in case" as early as August. There was some initial interest which might have kept them in the IMSA TUDOR Championship but there was also some interest from manufacturers and drivers in the Pirelli World Challenge series. One thing that was very clear in Willis' mind however was that the team was interested in a manufacturer-supported partnership and not as a "customer" entry.

We fast forward a few months now and we find out that the 2014 NAEC champion driver pairing of Bill Sweedler and Townsend Bell made a deal with another team. This leaves AIM to pursue (more freely) some of the irons in the fire. One with Always Evolving is looking pretty good (although at the time with a marque other than Nissan) to run in World Challenge but that takes a left turn when a major US-based team announces it is interested in running the program and would now centre around the Nissan GT-R. It is now getting late – in fact we are in 2015 and teams are gearing up for the first race of the season in late January. Willis made his way to Daytona to see what could be done. Contingency plans were being drawn up to keep everyone working until deals could be made to run in 2016.

But just as we pointed out earlier, nothing is assured in motorsports and nothing is final until the checkers fly. And that brings us to last week's announcement.

With proposals that go back six months, plenty of discussions, then learning the program has gone to another team, in a split second it all changed and with about a month to go before the first race of the season, the program fell back into AIM's lap. In a matter of what must have seemed like a few short hours, detailed budgets had to be re-worked, approvals sought and then arrange to have cars delivered, prepped, tested and ready to race. In a month? Easy!

So today we headed out to the AIM Autosport shop in Woodbridge, Ontario, just a few minutes north of the city to take a look at the new Nissan GT-R GT3s (the first FIA GT3 spec GT-Rs in North America) and have a chat with Ian Willis about the 2015 program. 

RC: From a technical & engineering standpoint, what challenges do you face in the switch from Ferrari to Nissan?

IW: The main difference is vehicle dynamics: Ferrari is mid engine with low center of gravity, Nissan is front engine with higher center of gravity. The Nissan has a more forward weight distribution but it does have the same size tire front and rear. The way each car makes its lap speed will be different so we will have to focus on the strengths of the Nissan which we believe is long straights and high speed corners. I am expecting the street circuits to be a challenge for us though.

RC: What role will NISMO play in assisting with this effort and are you adding any Nissan-specific people to the staff, on either the crew or engineering side?

IW: NISMO designs the cars and they provide the technical support to the program through JRM in England and NISMO directly provides all track support in Asia. JRM builds the cars and although they used to campaign them as well they now just support customer teams throughout UK and Europe. JRM will provide an engineer at each race for the season to assist us in learning the cars and for the first event at COTA they are also sending a technician to help the crew. In addition, for COTA, the GT Academy will provide Wolfgang Reip to assist our drivers in learning the specific driving technics particular to this car

RC: You've been in the unfortunate situation of having deals come together late over the last couple of season's, which has meant not only working on different cars, but also working with different drivers. How long does it normally take for the drivers to develop a good working relationship driver and engineer?

IW: That depends on the first date... Seriously though, it does take a couple of races to build that confidence in each other. Typically there would be some pre-season testing to start and build that relationship before the first race. As you point out the late start hurts us in this regard as we will only meet Bryan for the first time at COTA. At least we know James from his open wheel days as well as competing against him in GRAND-AM prototype and IMSA GT classes.

RC: Having this program come together so late and being based in Canada with the opening races in the US, logistically what kind of challenges do you face?

IW: The impossible is easy - it is miracles that we find hard to do! Regardless of location the main challenge is just the extremely tight time frame to have everything ready. As it is a different car we have to get spares ordered and shipped, make new setup equipment and as we are going from endurance racing to sprint racing, adapt our pit support equipment. An example of a typical tight time frame challenge we had to overcome was the cars are too tall to fit in the upper deck of our trailer so we had to modify the rear trailer frame so they would fit in. With lead time we could purchase a new or used trailer that would work, here we simply do not have the time. This is a manufacturer supported program and the team presentation has to reflect the high standards of Nissan. All these items beyond just simply preparing the cars is what takes time.

RC: Not sure if AIM is the right contact to ask, but we're seeing a lot of teams moving to the PWC, what is so attractive about that series right now?

IW: In my opinion it always boils down to one simple formula, Cost to Compete = Value of Winning
It looks like Pirelli World Challenge vision has the right balance to make it attractive for drivers, manufacturers and teams.

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One thing you will notice in the pictures, both cars are still being wrapped but at least the mechanical prep is done – a pretty good trick considering that one of the cars didn't even arrive until early this week. As for the wrap, Willis – who had just two hours sleep on a couch in the office the night before our meeting, noted that the final graphics had not come through for one of the cars and the trailer until late that night. Tight timelines? You bet, seeing that the cars need to be loaded and on their way in just thirty-six hours. A quick stop in Indianapolis to pick up wheels and tires and then straight to Circuit of The Americas for shakedown runs first thing Tuesday morning leading up to rounds one and two of the Pirelli World Challenge Championship on March 7 and 8.

Nissan Motorsports and its partner with Always Evolving (AE) will campaign two GT Academy-NISMO Nissan GT-R GT3 racing cars. Nissan GT Academy North America 2011 winner Bryan Heitkotter will drive one of the team cars, while Australian open wheel and GT star James Davison will pilot the second car. Featuring logos from the GT Academy program, the two cars will be co-sponsored by Replay XD and NISMO

Best of luck to AIM Autosport – we'll be following along and cheering you on!

With tight timelines, AIM employed three different companies to print & install graphic wraps on the two race cars and hauler. Highly detailed work that takes patience and a steady hand. Both cars will definitely stand out on track.

photos by Chris Jameson - © RaceCanada