Nikolai Nurmovitsch

Nikolai Nurmovitsch (born 18th November, 1966 in Sortavala, Russian SSR, Soviet Union) is a Russian racing driver. His racing career includes stints in the Rejects Touring Car Championship and GT-Rejects World Championship.

Early career
Nikolai started his racing career in the early 80s, driving whatever car he could get his hands on against other youngsters. These races were held illegally on public roads, and accidents happened often. However, this didn't stop him, as he was determined to become the first succesful Russian driver in an international series. Later on he also started driving in the national A-1600 touring car series. Eventually, when Soviet Union collapsed and travelling abroad became much easier, he spent any extra money he had to visit various European races. At one of these, he met with Niko Nurminen, who helped Nurmovitsch to start a career in various small European series.

Rejects Touring Car Championship
Nurmovitsch was recruited by his good friend Niko Nurminen to drive for his entry in the 1998 Rejects Touring Car Championship season. He was partnered by British Nathan Nurmester. However, the series collapsed after only four races as the series' owner was found quilty of various drug charges. Nurmovitsch continued his career in small touring car series, before winding down his activity from 2008 onwards. But in 2015 the series was resurrected using mostly the same equipment as in 1998, and despite nearing his fifties he once again drove alongside Nurmester. The first weekend at Oran Park didn't bring much in terms of, with a retirement and a finish in 27th. Knockhill was a bit better as while he again retired in the first race, he scored his first points of the season with a 13th place finish. San Francisco was a huge disappoitment as Nurmovitsch retired in both races by crashing out, which also sparked rumours about a possible retirement after the 2015 season. These rumors were only further escalated when Nurmovitsch failed to score points in Spa, finishing in 20th and 17th respectively, and at Suzuka where he finished both races in 19th position. At the season-ending round held in Lienz, Austria he managed his second points finish of the season with 15th in the first race. His RTCC career ended in an 18th position in the second race, after which he announced that he was going to move to the new GT-Rejects World Championship in 2016.

GT-Rejects World Championship
After disappointing results in his second RTCC season, Nurmovitsch considered retiring from motorsport completely. However, JLD Motorsport needed an experienced hand to fill in for Tom Douglas when his RTCC schedule clashed with that of the 2016 GT-R World Championship season. Nikolai accepted the offer and was initially scheduled to drive in the French, US and Argentine rounds. Later on it was confirmed that he would take part in all races of the season, driving with Douglas in most of the races and with Justin Case in the French, US and Argentine rounds which Douglas was forced to miss due to clashing RTCC commitments.

Nurmovitsch's GT-R career got off to a good start, as the Saleen S7-R driven by him and Douglas finished fourth overall in Malaysia. They also scored the fastest lap and were the best independent entrant of the race. Their luck didn't last for long though, as at the very next race in Australia they were off the pace and eventually retired because of car problems. However they were back in form for the next round at Monza, finishing 5th overall and once again being the best independent entrant. They then failed to score a single point over the next three races, with a best finish of 11th at the German round.

2015 Aston 24 Hours
Despite nearing his fifties, Nurmovitsch agreed to drive for Nicchi Motori in the 2015 Aston 24 Hours endurance event. However, perhaps due to his age he hit another car and spun off during his second stint. This further escalated the rumours about his possible retirement by the end of 2015.

GT-Rejects World Championship
* Season in progress