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Nissan to Support Two Truck Teams in CORR Series
- Maintains Official Truck Title
 GARDENA,
Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--2005--Nissan (Nasdaq:NSANY)
will support two truck teams that compete in the
2005 Championship Off-Road Racing (CORR) series,
pairing up again this year with the Art Schmitt
Racing Team and with Hord Racing. Drivers Art
Schmitt and Chad Hord will both campaign 2005
Nissan Frontiers in the CORR Pro-Lite division.
In addition, for the third straight year, Nissan
will be the official truck of CORR.
"Nissan is excited to feature the all-new
Frontier truck in this great off-road racing
series. Art Schmitt and Chad Hord are
professional drivers who have shown they know
what it takes to get to victory circle time and
time again," said Ron Stukenberg, senior
manager, Nissan Motorsports marketing and
operations.
Schmitt's Frontier will race in Nissan silver,
red and black and carry NISMO (Nissan
Motorsports International) graphics. Hord's
Frontier will race in silver and Red.
Championship Off-Road Racing (CORR) is in its
8th season and is arguably the largest and most
watched off-road racing series in North America.
Combining close, fender-to-fender racing on
challenging closed course dirt tracks, CORR
delivers an opportunity for drivers and
manufacturers to showcase their off-road
prowess.
"Our sponsorship in Championship
Off-Road Racing allows us to directly reach an
enthused audience that is pre-disposed to
trucks. CORR is the perfect proving ground for
the Frontier and NISMO," said Stukenberg.
The CORR series spans a 7-race season on tracks
in Wisconsin, Michigan, Kansas and California.
In 2004, more than 167 drivers representing 20
states and Canada competed in the series. To
bring the series to a wider audience, CORR has
teamed up with the SPEED Channel, which will
broadcast every race again this season.
About the Drivers
A veteran off-road racer and proven champion,
Schmitt has more than 100 career wins, 12 class
championships, nine off-road championships,
three Driver of the Year Awards and two Hard
Charger Awards to his credit. He started his
racing career from a backyard garage nearly
three decades ago, racing his homemade dune
buggies in Pennsylvania.
"We are very proud to be racing the Nissan
Frontier," said Schmitt. "I love my full-race
CORR Frontier and I am certain that off-road
fans and truck enthusiasts will appreciate the
performance and style delivered by Nissan in the
production NISMO Frontier they can drive
straight off the showroom floor."
Alongside Schmitt is Chad Hord, who began
off-road racing in 1999, taking second place in
the Super Buggy division. Hord started racing
professionally in 2001, capturing 10 top-five
finishes in 16 starts and earning a fourth-place
finish in the year-end point standings. Last
year, driving a Nissan for the first time, Hord
had 10 top-five finishes in 14 starts and
captured third place in the year-end point
standings.
The Frontier
Powering the Schmitt and Hord Frontier pickups
again this year are 2.5-liter, 16-valve,
4-cylinder racing engines pumping out 298
horsepower at 8,200 rpm and 260 lb-ft torque at
6,200 rpm.
The 2005 Frontier is completely re-designed from
the ground up. The third generation Frontier,
which is offered in both King Cab and Crew Cab
body configurations, is designed to deliver
exceptional levels of acceleration, handling and
braking, towing capacity and off-road
capability. Along with the solid foundation
provided by the F-Alpha truck platform used on
the full-size Titan, the Frontier features a
newly designed 4.0-liter DOHC V6 with more
horsepower than any other mid-size truck - 265
horsepower and 284 lb-ft of torque - and a
choice of 2WD or 4WD with advanced off-road
technology including available 4-wheel limited
slip.
Nissan has a long-standing heritage of truck
innovation, which includes the first compact
pickup in the U.S. (1959), the first half-ton
compact pickup (1969), the first extended cab
body with the King Cab (1977), the first import
brand compact truck assembled in the U.S.
(1983), the first compact truck sold in the U.S.
with four full-size forward hinged doors (2000),
the first factory-installed supercharger in a
compact truck (2001), the first Crew Cab compact
truck with over six feet of bed (2002), the
first truck ever to offer Wide-Open rear doors
that open 168 degrees and the first truck to
offer a factory-applied spray-in bedliner.
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