Nissan and Nissan Motorsports International (NISMO) are providing technical assistance to the Dongfeng Nissan Ghiasports Racing Team, which is fielding two Tiidas in the 1,600cc class touring car race of the China Circuit Championship being held in China. In addition, in the 2,000cc class the Sunny is being fielded, helping to highlight Nissan's presence on the race circuit and widen its appeal. The Championship this year is scheduled to take place over six rounds-two each at the Zhuhai, Shanghai and Beijing circuits. The 1,600cc class is a category for which only drivers born on the Chinese mainland can register, the aim being to train a generation of experienced home-grown Chinese drivers. Add this to the relative freedom in specification alterations that can be made to the vehicles and the technical challenges involved, and the 1,600cc class is becoming the main category for touring car races on the racing circuits of China.
The attention-grabbing 1,600cc class is therefore attracting many foreign brands: in addition to Nissan's Tiida, which joined the championship for the first time this year, other competitors include the Volkswagen Polo, Citroen FK16V, Kia Serato and the Hyundai Elantra. There are also totally Chinese-made machines competing, such as Geely, and these vehicles have been showing their true power as the season progresses race by race. Championship rules state that a car may be fielded in the championship if it is a model sold in China. The Tiida is a right-hand drive "made in China" model produced by Dongfeng Nissan at its Guangzhou Plant.
Although the race in the 1,600cc class is a short distance of 80km, rules stipulate that cars must pit once during the race and change tires. In this way the race result depends not only on the performance and reliability of the vehicle, but also on team strategy. Depending on the results of the next race, it may be that a performance-equalizing system is adopted, using weight handicaps.
