A well-known face in Japanese and International racing returns to the FIA World Endurance Championship at Fuji this weekend.
Shinji Nakano competed in several races in 2012 and 2013 with the ADR-Delta team and the former F1 and ChampCar racer again gets set for more action, this time with the Manor squad and its No.45 LMP2 ORECA 05-Nissan.
“Yes, it has been three years since I raced in WEC and it is very nice to return so big thanks to Manor,” said the 45-year old. “LMP2 seems to have progressed a lot since I have been away. Manor is a very good team and with Alex (Lynn) and Tor (Graves) I think we will have a really good team. We have not tested together so it will take some time to get in the rhythm but we all have enough experience in racing to make it all work well.”
Nakano, who has nine Le Mans starts to his name stretching back at 2005, has raced at Fuji for the last 27 years - ever since he raced in the junior formulas in his home country.
“Of course I know the Fuji Speedway very well but in fact the new track I only race here four times,” he continued. “I have had some very good races here and actually I have lost count of the amount of times I have been here and competing in various stages of my career.”
Nakano is also aiming to get a more complete programme together for the 2017 season and is hopeful of fitting in WEC races around a busy media career he has developed for himself.
“I would love to do more races and we will see what happens,” he said. “At the moment I am really busy with commentaries I do for various championships. If I can then I will definitely try to be here on a more permanent basis.”
