Nissan promotes Jann Mardenborough to GT 500 class in Super GT
Nissan driver Jann Mardenborough will move up to the top class of the Super GT Series with the Japanese manufacturer in 2017
The 25-year-old Briton will race for Team Impul run by Japanese racing legend Kazuyoshi Hoshino in the GT500 class.
He will share the new-for-2017 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT500 with Hironobu Yasuada, who is remaining with the team for a third season.
Mardenborough, a former winner of the Nissan GT Academy gamer-to-racer scheme, makes the step to GT500 after a first full season in Japan in 2016, during which he finished second in the All-Japan Formula 3 Championship and fourth in the GT300 class in Super GT.
Yasuada's 2016 team-mate at Impul, Joao Paolo de Oliveira, moves back to Kondo Racing for which he last raced in 2010 to share with Daiki Sasaki.
Ronnie Quintarelli and Tsugio Matsuda remain with the in-house NISMO factory team (pictured testing the new car) with which they claimed the Super GT title in 2014-15.
Satoshi Motoyama and Katsumasa Chiyo stay with the MOLA team for a second season.
Nissan unveiled its new 2017 GT500 built to a new set of aerodynamic regulations last November.
The manufacturer will retain a presence in the GT300 class with a GT-R NISMO GT3 run by the NDDP Racing/B-MAX squad with which Mardenborough raced last year.
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