Mark Shulzhitskiy

Mark Shulzhitskiy is the first winner of GT Academy Russia. After taking the top prize in August 2012 Mark joined Nissan’s intensive driver development programme where he honed his racing skills and took part in many domestic races in order to gain his international race licence.

The GT Academy graduates may not have come through the traditional racing ladder but they serve their apprenticeship at some cold and wet race tracks during the development programme!

Mark’s prize for winning GT Academy was a drive at the Dubai 24 Hours in January 2013 and it soon became apparent that all of his hard work on the driver development programme had turned him into a good professional racing driver. Along with his team mates Lucas Ordonez, Wolfgang Reip and fellow Russian Roman Rusinov, Mark raced to a commendable second place in class on his international debut.

Mark was then selected to become a NISMO Athlete and race a Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 car in the FIA GT and Blancpain Endurance Series. Just three races into the Blancpain season Mark scored his first podium finish with a brilliant second place at Paul Ricard.

In 2013 Nissan launched the NISMO Global Driver Exchange, a programme that gives Nissan’s roster of racing drivers opportunities to race all over the world. Mark’s first exchange drive was the MMER 12-hour race at the Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumpur. Shortly after that he made his LM P2 debut in Shanghai in November 2013 at the Chinese round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Mark made his Le Mans debut in 2014, racing alongside Jann Mardeborough and Alex Brundle in the OAK Racing Ligier-Nissan. He also continued to compete in the GT3 GT-R throughout the year and raced the Greaves Motorsport LM P2 car at Estoril.

2014

• Testing of the new Ligier JS P2 for Onroak Automotive
• Le Mans 24 Hours with OAK Racing alongside Jann Mardenborough and Alex Brundle
• Selected rounds of the Blancpain Endurance Series in the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3
• Competed at the Estoril round of the European Le Mans Series with Greaves Motorsport

2013

• Racing in the Blancpain Endurance Series in the Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3. Best result was second place in Pro-Am Class at Paul Ricard in June.
• Racing in the FIA GT Series in the Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3.
• Took second place in the SP3 class at the Dubai 24 Hours, sharing a Nissan 370Z Nismo GT4 Lucas Ordonez, Wolfgang Reip and Roman Rusinov.
• LM P2 debut at Shanghai WEC round. Finished fifth in class.

2012

• Nissan Playstation GT Academy Winner (Russia 2012)