John Crennan to depart Nissan Motorsport

Nissan Motorsport's John Crennan has announced he would be stepping down from his CEO role with the team towards the end of September.

Crennan said he will have been with Todd and Rick Kelly's team for over four years and felt with the excellent leadership team now in place at Nissan Motorsport, that his prior role was well covered by the team structure.

This has been a planned phasing out with Todd, Rick and Crennan agreeing to the plan at the start of the year.

"Todd and Rick were now in to their sixth year of owning and operating their team and are outstanding businessmen with great support from their top leadership group of Nick Ryan, Scott Sinclair and Craig Spencer," Crennan said.

"This together with the way in which Nissan's new Managing Director Richard Emery has fully re-energised the Nissan Motorsport program has me convinced the team and the Nissan Altima's are not far away from being the major force in V8 Supercars.

"I am keen to step back from the rigors of daily management responsibilities and am now looking forward to working independently on some new automotive projects and advisory work."

Nissan Motorsport will test on Monday at Winton Raceway, with all four cars and co-drivers present, ahead of the Wilson Security Sandown 500, the first long-distance race of the Pirtek Enduro Cup.