The Versatile Driving Greats Look Back at Their 1990 Victory in the Nissan GTP ZX-Turbo
By Mark Robinson
(This is the latest in a series titled “What Was It Like?” where drivers and others throughout the IMSA paddock speak to special experiences they’ve encountered in their careers.)
BRASELTON, Ga. – As the new iteration of Grand Touring Prototypes prepare to descend on Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season finale, it seems only fitting to revisit the last time GTP cars raced on the high-speed, high-commitment road course.
Of course, that was more than a generation ago and a much different generation of race car. Back then, the revered GTPs were powered only by an internal combustion engine (ICE). Today’s technologically advanced GTPs feature an ICE mated with a standard hybrid-electrified powertrain to produce more sustainable power.
The last time the old-version GTP cars raced at Michelin Raceway came in 1990 at the Grand Prix of Atlanta, a 500-kilometer (310-mile) event. Co-drivers Derek Daly and Geoff Brabham won in the No. 83 Nissan GTP ZX-Turbo, with Brabham on his way to a third consecutive IMSA GT Championship title.
Who better to recall what it was to speed around Michelin Raceway than those winning drivers?
DALY: “It was a great year of GTP because the cars were so good, so fast and so reliable. And being partnered with Geoff, I had the best team and the best co-driver.”
BRABHAM: “1990 was sort of where the rest of the GTP field kind of caught us up a little bit. The race was pretty tight between us, Jaguar and Toyota. At the beginning of the race, we’re running nose to tail and it looked like it was going to be a fun race, but unfortunately they both had issues and kind of left us out in front pretty easy there at the end – which was really one of our biggest advantages I think we had over the field was the reliability of the Nissan back then. In ’88, ‘89 and into ’90, we were as fast if not faster than everyone else and we had reliability. Then from that point on, the other teams actually started to be faster but we still had reliability so we still managed to win the championship.”
DALY: “The Nissan GTP was probably the best-handling racing car I’ve ever driven. The driver had the ability to overdrive the car and still had total confidence that you can keep it on the road. You could make small mistakes – if ever you missed your braking point, in some cars you think, ‘I’m gonna crash.’ In that car, you never thought that. No matter what situation you got into on the racetrack, you always had total confidence that you could drive that car through it.”
BRABHAM: “I loved Atlanta with those cars. Turn 1 of Atlanta was always one of my favorite corners that we went to because you could really attack it. And with those cars with the downforce and the power, you just fired out of Turn 1 like a catapult. It was just a lot of fun on that track with those cars.”
DALY: “Turn 1 was as exciting in 1990 as it is today. Back then, we had very high-grip cars and big commitments, so it was always a ‘hold your breath’ type of turn. And it still is.”
DALY: “It was an amazing era and the new GTP is growing into really an amazing era all by itself. There’s more interest in sports car racing than I remember for many, many years, which I love to see. We were in a manufacturer era and now the next manufacturer era is coming to greatness.”
(Photos: Derek Daly)