The weekend of 9th/10th June once again provided us with a GT Academy winner double-header, as 2011’s champions Bryan Heitkotter and Jann Mardenborough were in action on opposite sides of the Atlantic.
Jann’s RJN Motorsport team faced a second successive weekend of Northamptonshire action, as they competed in round 3 of the British GT at Rockingham. In slightly better conditions than the previous weekend at Silverstone, Jann and Alex Buncombe qualified in 9th on the grid in a time of 1’24.383. After the eventful double-length feature race around the International Long Circuit, including an appearance from the Juke-R Safety Car, the team brought the GT-R home 5th overall, just 13.9s behind the eventual winners. The team are now fifth overall in the British GT standings.
Over in Lexington Ohio, Bryan Heitkotter and teammate BJ Zacharias participated in the EMCO Gears Classic, round 6 of the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. Bryan put in a stunning qualifying performance to put the Doran Racing Nissan 370Z on pole position – the second GT Academy driver pole this season – in a laptime of 1’32.422 of the 2.258 mile circuit. Following the 150 minute, 75 lap race the team finished 8th overall, just 6.6 seconds down on the winners!
This coming weekend, followers of GT Academy have another double-header to look forward to as, for the first time, two Academy winners go head to head in a major international race – Lucas Ordoñez in the LMP2 Greaves Nissan and Jordan Tresson in the LMP2 Signatech Nissan for the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Meanwhile, this year’s GT Academy competitions have reached the final qualifying stages and last year’s winner Jann Mardenborough has released this video to help those trying to follow in his footsteps:
Thanks to Kevin Mc Glone of Red Square Images for providing these photos from Jann’s race!
See more articles on Bryan Heitkotter and Jann Mardenborough.
Representing to the fullest!!!!
Congrats to them both, that’s very awesome!
Along with the R35 gt3 & Signatech LMP, that nismo racing 370z would be a welcome addition to GT5. Would be an honor to drive the simulated versions of the cars that are making history by the very capable gt academy team.
Worth noting that Alex Buncombe took the lead in a fantastic opening stint, unfortunately issues with the traction control(again!) soon after Jann took over meant they dropped back to 5th.
Good show guys.
Bryan H. and BJ Z. looked really strong at Mid Ohio, unfortunately the Z gave up a little too much in a straight line when the racing was tight (e.g. restarts). With the multiple yellows they were forced to go super defensive until things strung out, then they could start getting back positions they’d lost on the restarts. This trend has been the case for Z’s in American racing for some time now.
They lost a lot of time on their first pit stop for multiple reasons. The car was great on track.
Great stuff! Makes up for last race. Keep it up, doing us proud.
He kept it in third long enough lol, RIP engine :{
?????
O_o
I hope that Silverstone will be next DLC.
That would be awesome
I hope that Mid-Ohio will be next DLC
Drivers rave about Mid-Ohio. What a stunner that would be if it showed up in Gran Turismo.
yeah, that would be nice, but i prefer that special stage route 11, and seattle circuit would be on a future dlc pack
I would love to Have Mid-Ohio on GT5 or GT6, i know the old tracks were good and all but don’t you want something new for a change?
I would love you guys stop talking about DLC in areas that have no relation to it…
I’m fine with talking DLC, but only as long as it’s in appropriate areas.
Congrats!
Cool!
Congrats you lot! keep up the good work!