[h=2]SCCA: Nissan’s road to 100 Runoffs victories[/h] Monday, 28 November 2016



Jeff Zurschmeide / Images by SportsCar, Jay Bonvouloir, Ken Brown, Mark Weber

When Derek Kulach drove his Nissan 350Z across the finish line to win the Touring 3 race at the 2016 SCCA National Championship Runoffs presented by Garmin VIRB, it was his first Runoffs victory – but that checkered flag also marked the 100th SCCA Runoffs win for Nissan, making Nissan the first automaker in SCCA history to achieve such an incredible landmark. While the victories are a great achievement in and of themselves, the path to get there is every bit as intriguing.


Nissan arrived in America with the Datsun brand in 1958 and spent several years setting up a small dealer network. 
It wasn't until the early 1960s that racing became part of Datsun's marketing program. Bob Sharp started racing a Datsun at the SCCA Runoffs in 1964, and delivered the brand's first championship in 1967.
"The local Rambler/Datsun dealer was going to race a 1500 G Production Fairlady and they were looking for a driver," Sharp recalls. "Nissan gave us a little bit of support to go to the Runoffs at Riverside. Then I called Nissan and made a proposal to run a Nissan racing team out of Connecticut. We had a G Production and an F Production car, and that led to the 2-liter Datsun and the Z cars."
In all, Sharp would personally claim six National Club Racing championships and seven more podium finishes for Nissan between 1967 and 1975, driving Datsun Roadsters and then 240Z, 510, and 280Z models. In the course of his career as a driver, Sharp built a racing organization that went on to compete at the Club and professional level for many years, employing notable drivers including Sam Posey and Paul Newman (pictured).
"I got asked to take Paul Newman around for a couple laps at Lime Rock," Sharp says. "Then he came into the dealership and said he really wanted to be a racecar driver. He wanted a Z car, but I told him to start out in the 510 to learn to drive. It was a wonderful relationship. We went racing 15 weekends a year for 20 years and we had a ton of fun."
Newman went on to win three SCCA National Championships driving a 280ZX in C Production (1979) and a 300ZX in GT-1 (1985-'86). Another driver to achieve success through Bob Sharp's racing team is his son, Scott. The younger Sharp earned three SCCA National Championships out of four starts in 1986-'88, driving his dad's GT-2 280Z and GT-1 300ZX cars before moving on to a professional racing career.
"I ended up pulling a 280Z out of my basement and warming over the engine," Sharp tells SportsCar. "Scott went to driver's school, then won seven out of his 10 races and won the Runoffs that year."
While Sharp was winning championships from the East Coast, Peter Brock and Jack Scoville started racing Datsuns on the West Coast. Scoville took his championship in D Production in 1969 as a privateer effort, even as Brock was pitching Nissan on a more organized plan. "I went down to Nissan and walked in cold. I told them what I wanted to do," Brock says.
After some background work, Nissan sent Brock two Datsun 2000 Roadsters and enough money to run the 1968 season. "We won the Pacific division championship with those cars," Brock recalls.
Nissan renewed its support for Brock Racing Enterprises in 1969, and the team sent the two Roadsters to the SCCA Runoffs. John Morton and Frank Monise were the drivers.
"We had the pole at the Runoffs," Morton recalls. "That's one of the things that breaks my heart! We had the pole by a long way at Daytona in 1969. We were leading the race and we both lost our engines."
With Morton behind the wheel, BRE went on to win the 1970 and 1971 C Production National Championships in the new Datsun 240Z sports cars, and then went on to win the Trans Am 2.5 series championships in 1971 and 1972 driving the Datsun 510 sedan.
"We went to the 240Z for the second year and I started being more and more attached to Datsun," Morton says. "The better we did, the more I loved them."