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Brett Hobson to race former factory GT-R in 2022
GT Trophy contender Brett Hobson has revealed the ex-factory Nissan GT-R GT3 he will enter into the 2022 Fanatec GT World Challenge Powered by AWS.
An outright race winner this season, Hobson replaces his current chassis originally sourced from the US to a newer version purchased from Nissan Australia.
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Raced by the likes of Rick and Todd Kelly, Katsumasa Chiyo, Florian Straus and Jann Mardenborough in back-to-back factory-supported Bathurst 12 Hour campaigns starting in 2016 when it scored second overall.
It was used by Nissan Australia to contest the two final Australian GT Championship events in New Zealand, however damage sustained during the lead up to the opening leg at Hampton Downs ruled the entry out for both rounds.
In 2017, the entry finished the Bathurst 12 Hour in eighth before being re-shelled and where significant work was undertaken by NISMO.
“The car itself is basically brand new,” Hobson described.
“The shell itself has never actually raced.”
Discussions between Nissan Australia’s Ian Moreillon and Hobson started six months ago leading to the GT-R GT3 arriving at the GWR Australia workshop last week.
“Ever since we’ve shown what we’re capable of in GT World Challenge Australia and for the past couple of months I was asking what Nissan was doing to do with it and finally got a good response, so we acquired the car last week,” explained Hobson.
“We’re now looking forward to getting on the track next year.”
A shakedown will occur next month before Hobson takes both his GT-R GT3s to Challenge Bathurst, before an extensive testing program commences ahead of next year’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS season.
“In the next couple of weeks, we’ll give it a shakedown and see how it performs,” Hobson said.
“We’ll switch back to the old car for the final round, we’ll still finish off the year in ‘old faithful’ and go from there.
“We’ll hopefully hit the ground running next year with the new girl and have a bit of fun.”
As for the older GT-R GT3, it was shaken down at Sydney Motorsport Park last week after a significant rebuild. Hobson shared the driving duties with wife Laura as the plan is for her to compete in state-based level competition in it.
“It won’t be sitting in the shed, that’s for sure,” assured Hobson.