Super GT champion Yanagida joins Nissan's line-up for Spa 24 Hours

The long-time Nissan driver, who won the GT500 title in 2011-12 with Ronnie Quintarelli, has been placed in one of the Japanese manufacturer's RJN-run GT-R GT3 NISMOs for the double-points Blancpain Endurance Series round on July 26/27 as part of its global exchange programme.

The 35-year-old will share the car in the Pro-Am class with fellow Japanese Katsumasa Chiyo, who has contested the first three BES rounds with the team, 2013 GT Academy winner Miguel Faisca and Mark Shulzhitskiy, who replaces fellow Russian Stanislav Akenov in the line-up.

Nissan global motorsport boss Darren Cox said: "This is exactly the kind of thing we are aiming to do with our exchange programme and NISMO was keen to give him some experience of racing in Europe."

Wolfgang Reip, who raced the Nissan ZEOD RC experimental racer at last month's Le Mans 24 Hours, has been brought in to bolster the team's second car in the Pro-Am class, which allows for four drivers.

The Belgian joins the regular BES trio of Alex Buncombe, Florian Strauss and Nick McMillen.

Reip will make his Super GT debut later this year in a GT300 class GT-R later this year as part of the exchange programme.