Hello,
This came via the Z-Car list.
Robert
67.5 1600
83 280ZX
ABQ
-----Original Message-----
From: Hiten Patel [mailto:godspeed_racing@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2001 10:18 PM
To: z-car@taex001.tamu.edu
Subject: <all> Autoweek Article on Nissan
I was indeed surprised to see the tone of this article in Autoweek, which
typically has only good things to say about Nissan. I'd say this would be a
corporate 'snaffu," and Honsowetz has staunch supporters that reminds me of
the likes of another Nissan legend, Mr. K.
Copied from Autoweek, April 2, 2001
DNS on Sunday, still sell on Monday?
A couple of weeks ago Nissan North America Motorsports sent out a
two-paragraph e-mail announcing that every motorsports program except
nissan's Indy Racing League participation was getting the ax.
Reports from insiders say the estimated half million dollar budget from
grass-roots motorsports such as the SCCA, ARRC and NASPORT was going to be
handed over to Tom Warkinshaw Racing in England for the Nissan IRL program
last November after four years of development in-house that was finally
starting to pay off.
With seemingly nothing left of Nissan motorsports in America, and no hope of
reviving the program, motorsports manager Frank Honsowetz gave his two-week
notice [Hiten- and promptly walked out of the building].Honsowetz, a racer
himself with many an SCCA entry in his career, had been with Nissan 27
years.
Then, in response to outrage from the SCCA [Hiten- remember that Nissan was
one of the companies that pushed for a rule change disallowing any cars more
than 5 years old from competing in GT], grass-roots racers, and many others,
Nissan quickly backtracked, cancelled the cancellation and called the e-mail
a "miscommunication." [Hiten - One would have thought that after the new
Coke debacle, every company in the world would know to admit a mistake and
do some PR].
"It appears as though someone within our staff may have assumed a final
strategy had been reached when in fact it was still under active discussion,
" said Infinity marketing manager Steve Knight, in a letter to the SCCA.
(Knight signed his letter "Director, Motorsports," a title he reportedly
gave to himself when Honsowetz left.) [Hiten - ouch!]
Knight was apparently the only one at NNA Motorsports who thought the
grass-roots program was still "under discussion."
"Steve Knight made the decision there was gonna be no support for
grass-roots racing," Honsowetz told Autoweek. "It was absolutely cancelled.
It was cancelled in November."
The outrage seems to have worked. The official word from Nissan Corporate
is now this: "We will fully support this season's SCCA campaign and our
grassroots activity at the same level as last year."
As for 2002, though, who knows?
Another big question is whether and how Nissan will race the new Z and the
Sentra SE-R when those models debut, something Honsowetz could have been
instrumental in overseeing. Honsowetz said when he left last week there was
"absolutely zero intention to race the Z." [Hiten - I had heard this a while
back, which goes to my earlier post about Goshen's promise to race the Z
that had gotten erased].
Nissan's response?
"While we aren't yet ready to announce a final plan, rest assured that we
will fully consider our options," said corporate communications.
Well that's reassuring.
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