NISSAN has announced two appointments for its motorsport activities.
Darren Cox will take on the role of director, global motorsports for Nissan. The role has been specially created to reflect Nissan’s continuing emergence as a major player on the global motorsport stage.
Jerry Hardcastle, currently global chief marketability engineer for Nissan, will add the duties of technical director for global motorsport activities.
Cox, pictured right, is widely acknowledged as the driving force behind two of Nissan’s innovative motor racing initiatives, the GT Academy and the 2012 Nissan DeltaWing Le Mans program.
In this role, Cox will expand innovative projects, such as the GT Academy and Nissan DeltaWing, as well as managing the strategy and activation behind the company’s multiple racing programmes including the SuperGT Championship in Japan and the V8 Supercar series in Australia.
Hardcastle, pictured on our home page, is the marketing voice to engineering, helping translate customer requirements into technical specifications and is the technical liaison for Infiniti to the Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team. He continues as chief marketability officer for Nissan.
Hardcastle’s role is effective immediately, while Cox starts officially on November 1.
Delivering innovation
Cox said: ‘Car manufacturers have lost sight of what motorsport is about. It used to be about delivering innovation in motoring in the toughest environment and giving access to the fans so they could experience the excitement. Nissan has started to revive that spirit and, in this new role, I will continue to challenge the established approaches of all parts of motorsport.’
Hardcastle said: ‘Behind the scenes, Nissan is asking for the rule makers to be more relevant to future motoring trends, such as lightweight and downsizing, while ensuring investments in hardware can be utilised across multiple championships. With all budgets under pressure, this approach must be taken into account.’