GT Academy Team Tackle the Spa 24 Hours

GT Academy Motorsport July 27th, 2012 by Famine

As reported earlier in the month, 2009 GT Academy champion and LMP2 racer Lucas Ordonez has joined the RJN Motorsport Blancpain Endurance team for the Spa 24 Hours this weekend.

The event marks the second time Lucas and 2011 GT Academy champion Jann Mardenborough have raced together and the second 24 hour race in which they’ve done so this year!

The race gets underway at 14.00 GMT/UTC (convert to your local time zone here) with the team in 41st place on the grid and can be followed through:

To give viewers a perspective of the RJN Nissan Nismo GT-R GT3 the team will be driving, Nissan have released this video of Jann comparing the car to the GT-R road car (bonus points on offer to anyone who can spot the GTPlanet staff in the video!):

Meanwhile in North America, 2011 US GT Academy winner Bryan Heitkotter has scored yet another pole position in the Continental Tires Sports Car Challenge, with a 1’35.922 time around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway infield course. His race has already started (and not started well), but is currently suspended under red flag regulations due to severe standing water on the circuit.

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58 Comments

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  1. July 29th, 2012 at 10:08 am - #
    streetlife

    Audi is the winner ;-)

    • July 29th, 2012 at 4:55 pm - #
      Amac500

      That’s my boys! Lol, that ultra technology is wildly impressive

    • July 31st, 2012 at 5:31 pm - #
      starwars22

      I like Audi racing but Nissan road cars. Lol but I love the Bugatti.

    • August 1st, 2012 at 10:19 pm - #
      Amac500

      I try to keep myself from the Bugatti because if I get into it it will become my dream and then I’ll look at the price tag and cry, lol. Nissan road cars have good technology but the styling seems either bland or weird to me and the interior way to dull (if ya sit in the GT-R you couldn’t say “Oh yeah I can tell I’m in a sports car). But that’s just my personal taste, lol. However the Nissan Leaf is just dumb, not liking the drive a pebble for 2 hours, charge for 8 formula, Nissan can honestly tell me it makes sense for my every day car, haha. My taste for the average street car, I like the Audi A series (not the SUVs) and some of the BMW’s are sharp, liking that new Cadillac ATS as well!

  2. July 28th, 2012 at 10:57 pm - #
    tpark103

    And the Wnner is…….?

    • July 29th, 2012 at 4:32 am - #
      Famine

      .. more than 5 hours away from finishing

    • July 31st, 2012 at 12:53 am - #
      badboyg316

      Team audi won.

  3. July 28th, 2012 at 8:31 pm - #
    Foxiol

    PD BUY THE GOD DAMN FIA GT LICENCE NOW!!! WE NEED THOSE CARS.

    Sorry for caps…i had a long day today helping my aunt because he is moving to other place…lol Cool Story bro!

    • July 28th, 2012 at 10:53 pm - #
      researchALLwars

      LOL! You just cool-story-bro-ed yourself.

    • July 28th, 2012 at 11:00 pm - #
      tpark103

      Ouch! Bro my back hurts lol all that moving!! :)

    • July 28th, 2012 at 11:14 pm - #
      COLOSAL TOSSLE

      aunt is a he…..better you than me

    • July 29th, 2012 at 12:48 am - #
      TeamCZRRacing

      Not only does it depend on whether PD has the cash to pay for it, it also depends on whether the FIA wants to sell it. If it’s not for sale, it’s not for sale, and there’s nothing PD can do about it.

    • July 29th, 2012 at 4:55 am - #
      ch3ng

      @ TeamCZRRacing

      Not true. Forza and Project Cars have GT3 cars without a FIA license.

    • July 29th, 2012 at 1:24 pm - #
      TomBrady

      I got an idea, why don’t they just add RM options for GT1 cars. Maybe even 2 or more RM options for each car. They could model the RMs directly after GT1s. As long as they’re accurately modelled, I wouldn’t care if they were labelled as the real GT1s, as long as they handled just like them.

  4. July 28th, 2012 at 5:16 pm - #
    Amac500

    I’m pulling for that Audi Sport Pheonix Racing team. They got Dindo Capello, Benoit Treluyer, and the best performing driver at Le Mans this year in Andre Lotterer in the #3 car.

    How much fun would it be if they added GT3 spec cars to GT5? I really want another racing league like how we have Super GT and NASCAR. GT3 spec cars would due it! What would we get with that spec then? We would have the Audi R8, Mercedes-Benz SLS-AMG, BMW Z4 I think is the model they use, what other ones would we get?

    • July 28th, 2012 at 6:13 pm - #
      A_Higher_Place

      It’s the only league I’d drive if it were implemented. As long as they implement it so all cars have 100% chance of winning. In SUPER GT the NSX is always the fastest because the AI drive the same robotic lines.

    • July 28th, 2012 at 8:14 pm - #
      TeamCZRRacing

      We’d also have the Lamborghini Gallardo GT3, Porsche 911 GT3, Ford GT GT3, Aston Martin DBRS9, McLaren MP4-12C GT3, and the Ferrari 458 GT3. Of course, licensing costs of all those cars would be in the tens of millions of dollars, which is way more than PD can afford to pay at the the moment.

    • July 28th, 2012 at 8:54 pm - #
      Amac500

      Well we won’t have the Porsche for obvious resions (**** you Electronic Arts). But yeah, thats 8 GT3 spec cars. And if they do it like NASCAR and Super GT then that’s obviously at least 2 livery options, and probably a bunch for the Audi R8′s, there is a bunch of them. GT3 license probably isn’t as hard to get as other major leagues like F1 and NASCAR or even the indycars I want but I know probably won’t get, lol. But yeah, GT3 for GT5!

    • July 28th, 2012 at 9:42 pm - #
      A_Higher_Place

      They already have GT3 Audi’s in the game. the R8 LMS Racecars. Would just be nice to have cars to compete directly with them… and differently liveries..

    • July 29th, 2012 at 4:45 am - #
      Amac500

      Yeah I always tend to forget about cars that aren’t premium, lol

    • July 29th, 2012 at 4:52 pm - #
      Amac500

      Oh and I guess we have to add the Nissan GT-R GT3 to that list. Idk how many will use it because I know the GT-R is pretty much dead to many of us, lol. So thats 9 GT3 models.

  5. July 28th, 2012 at 3:59 pm - #
    mobiletone

    http://tv.audi.com/#/01

    working audi stream

  6. July 28th, 2012 at 3:50 pm - #
    A_Higher_Place

    …and they’re out.

  7. July 28th, 2012 at 3:42 pm - #
    ch3ng

    Nissan is out :(

  8. July 28th, 2012 at 3:39 pm - #
    another_jakhole

    It’s insane how wet it is. I wonder how long it’ll be before they can get going again.

  9. July 28th, 2012 at 12:09 pm - #
    COLOSAL TOSSLE

    it just started raining al la GT5 style…slow,then more,then cats n dogs :)

  10. July 28th, 2012 at 12:04 pm - #
    COLOSAL TOSSLE

    m8 ya whinger…..great race this is……close between most cars….great :)

  11. July 28th, 2012 at 10:56 am - #
    R0ssingt0n

    Screw nissan I want Audi to win.

  12. July 28th, 2012 at 10:41 am - #
    abigor

    This site is a big commercial for Nissan

    • July 28th, 2012 at 11:04 am - #
      m8h3r

      The site is about a game, partially, and that game is partnered with Nissan. I’d be confused is there wasn’t so much about Nissan on here.

    • July 28th, 2012 at 11:05 am - #
      Famine

      We report on all things Gran Turismo. We report on the progress of GT Academy. GT Academy is sponsored by Nissan. The four graduates of the GT Academy program drive Nissan (370Z, GT-R) or Nissan-powered (LMP2 chassis) cars.

      What do you want us to do about it? Pretend they all drive Hispano-Suizas?

    • July 28th, 2012 at 12:05 pm - #
      COLOSAL TOSSLE

      knightriders Q’ey

    • July 28th, 2012 at 3:41 pm - #
      another_jakhole

      “What do you want us to do about it? Pretend they all drive Hispano-Suizas?”

      Apparently. Maybe typing Nissan backwards would help. :D

    • July 28th, 2012 at 3:52 pm - #
      Yauma9

      [SARCASM]Well, I would want you to promote Ladas[/SARCASM]

    • July 29th, 2012 at 12:54 am - #
      Pit Crew

      @Famine Peeps join GTP then insult your mission? I just dont get it, but you edumacated him lol. +1,0000000

  13. July 28th, 2012 at 9:25 am - #
    R0ssingt0n

    Not long now!

  14. July 27th, 2012 at 9:38 pm - #
    COLOSAL TOSSLE

    we can drive it too in gt5 as the GTR LM

  15. July 27th, 2012 at 9:33 pm - #
    COLOSAL TOSSLE

    i use proxfree website to watch,coz our country misses out for some odd reason,oh well works fine with proxfree website :)

  16. July 27th, 2012 at 7:08 pm - #
    Chadders85

    A few laps of onboard footage from each race would be nice, they have cameras mounted in the car so why can’t we watch them at work from in the car? A youtube search doesn’t bring anything up. Good luck guys.

  17. July 27th, 2012 at 6:57 pm - #
    ENFORCER 98

    wonder if Mal Rose has his VY Commodore V8 Supercar there…

    • July 27th, 2012 at 9:54 pm - #
      COLOSAL TOSSLE

      old mal,did he race at calders thunderdome,im sure i remember him,and proddy cars….memories :)

    • July 28th, 2012 at 3:03 am - #
      ENFORCER 98

      im pretty sure he did over the years hes procured a GRM VY commodore the one that bargs destroyed at phillip island and was rebuilt GRM-VX03 i believe it was for the 2003 season im pretty sure it was updated to VY spec and after it was deregistered from AVESCO Mal bought it and started racing it overseas in spa 24hr and dubai 24hr and nordschliefe etc so yer that cars been around… although i could be wrong on some of the details

  18. July 27th, 2012 at 6:40 pm - #
    tpark103

    Best of luck to everybody running this weekend!!!

  19. July 27th, 2012 at 3:47 pm - #
    lebes14

    As much as I’d love them to win, they happen to be racing for Nissan, a brand I hate very strongly. So any news about a loss or win tends to be bitter sweet. Haha

    • July 27th, 2012 at 4:50 pm - #
      ThaRealCreeper

      How could someone hate Nissan? O:

    • July 27th, 2012 at 5:14 pm - #
      Shinshiki

      With how saturated GT5 is with Nissans, I can’t blame him.

    • July 27th, 2012 at 6:36 pm - #
      tpark103

      Ouch! Preseption is everyting and it seems that we are now looking at Nissan in a way that we wouldn’t have two years ago, You know, before there presence in GT5.

    • July 27th, 2012 at 8:18 pm - #
      another_jakhole

      Sad.

  20. July 27th, 2012 at 3:25 pm - #
    another_jakhole

    Let’s hope these races turn out well. Good luck, fellas!