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GT Academy winner Lucas Ordonez has seen an incredible amount of success on both real and virtual race tracks. After coming out on top at the GT Academy Finals and scoring a drive in the 24 Hours of Dubai, Lucas has completed his first race season with seriously impressive results. Needless to say, he’s living the dream that lives inside every GT fan, and now it’s our chance to ask him anything you want! GTPlanet member 130tc is going to sit down for an interview Lucas tomorrow (October 12th), and he’s opened the floor to the entire community. Head on over to his forum thread or leave your questions in the comments below. Watch for the full interview featuring your questions very soon.

Things just keep getting better for GT Academy winner Lucas Ordonez! After taking his first race win at Zolder, his RJN Nissan team was running second in the championship standings for the GT4 European Cup with only one race left in the season. What happened at the last event? You’ll have to watch the video above to find out -- let’s just say some mechanical gremlins didn’t want to make things too easy…  The team pressed on, though, with very impressive results.

At risk of sounding like a broken record, congratulations and thank you, Lucas, for representing sim racers so well. We all look forward to seeing what you and the GT Academy have in store for us next year!

Despite spending the majority of his driving career in front of Gran Turismo, GT Academy winner Lucas Ordonez and teammate Alex Buncombe scored their first race victory at the Zolder circuit in Belgium last week, behind the wheel of the RJN Motorsport Nissan 350Z.

This is a huge step for the team (they’re running second GT4 European Cup championship) and a major landmark in Lucas’ career.  It’s also a very proud moment for sim racers everywhere -- whether your game of choice is GT, Forza Motorsport, or something on the PC, we all have Lucas to thank for “legitimizing” our hobby.  Here’s what RJN team boss Bob Neville had to say about the latest victory to gadget website T3:

“Whatever happens now in the rest of the season Lucas has proved a big point. His first season of GT racing has delivered a win in an international race series again top line drivers, in top line cars.  [...] The main focus is maintaining our second place in the [rest of the] Championship. That would really show everyone that a Playstation gamer can go from bedroom to championship contender in one year.”

GTPlanet user DustDriver was on hand at the event -- check out his gallery of photos and videos here.  Congratulations, Lucas, and good luck in Portugal next month!

The Goodwood Festival of Speed is something that’s almost too good to be true – it’s the world’s largest gathering of the mostexotic, rare, and desirable cars you can imagine, and it takes place every summer in the beautiful English countryside.  Of course, it always attracts some of the biggest stars from motorsports, but Kazunori Yamauchi, GT Academy winner Lucas Ordonez, and the Citroen GT made this year’s show all the more special for GTPlanet members in attendance.

Yamauchi was particularly busy, spotted filming lots of material for what is assumed to be Gran Turismo TV.  He slipped behind the wheel of a 1966 Jaguar XJ13 – the only one ever produced, with an estimated value of $11 million (feel free to speculate about its inclusion in GT5).  He also sat down with F1 drivers David Coulthard and Mark Webber as “part of a documentary he’s making,” according to Red Bull Racing.  Lucas also got in on the action, hanging out with Yamauchi at the show and meeting current Formula 1 Championship points leader Jenson Button.  He also got the chance to drive the famous Goodwood Hillclimb himself, piloting a new Nissan 370Z.

A big thanks to RetroGlide for sharing these excellent pictures from the event with us!  Take a look at our full gallery after the jump for more…

UPDATE: Just added a new batch of photos TVR&Ferrari_Fan. Check out his full gallery on DeviantArt for even more!

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As you may remember, GT Academy winner Lucas Ordonez is competing this summer in the GT4 European Cup with the Nissan PlayStation team.  Here’s a video catching up with Lucas and his teammate Alex Buncombe while they discuss their latest race in Germany.  No spoilers here -- you’ll have to watch the video to see how they do -- let’s just say they are making Gran Turismo fans everywhere very proud!  As always, GTPlanet wishes Lucas the best of luck, and we’ll continue to bring updates on his progress throughout the rest of the season.

For those of you who may have missed last year’s GT Academy competition, watch the full GT Academy Experience right here.

Congratulations to GT Academy winner Lucas Ordoñez!  After competing in the 24 Hours of Dubai, the gamer-turned-racer is back in action for the first race of the GT4 European Cup at Silverstone, where he and teammate Alex Buncombe scored a podium finish in their RJN Motorsport Nissan 350Z.

Alex Buncombe: “It was a really good race. I had a really good start, passing 2 cars in the first corner and catching up to the Ginetta into Stowe and passed him there. I had been a but nervous that we’d get a penalty because I saw the safety car just after I overtook the Ginetta, but I must have timed it right because we were fine. After the safety car I drove as fast as I could and managed to, surprisingly, get a gap on the Ginetta. I think we might have had a bit of a long pitstop, because Lucas rejoined in 4th for some reason. We’re really delighted with our third place, getting a podium was our goal and we’ve achieved it.”

Lucas Ordoñez : “I was really pushing hard in the last corners, trying to overtake the BMW. I could tell that he was losing grip on his rear tyres, they’d worn out quite a bit, and I managed to overtake him in the last corner. I’m really happy to have got third and the podium in my first race in GT4, it’s great for me. We’ll try to get first in Adria in Italy, like Alex managed to get at the start of the race.”

Check out the Cup’s website for more news and details about the series, and stop by our forums where GTP_Grenade has shared some of his own pictures from the event.  Silverstone is just the first stop of the calendar, with Italy coming up next, followed by more circuits in Germany, Belgium and Portugal.  Everyone at GTPlanet wishes Lucas the best of luck, and we’ll be following his progress closely throughout the season – stay tuned!

Richard Meaden, professional racer and writer for the (awesome) online publication Drivers Republic, was a witness to history last month when he drove alongside GT Academy winner Lucas Ordóñez in the 24 Hours of Dubai.  Meaden eloquently describes the experience of the 24 hour event from a personal, honest point of view in his latest article, and it’s a fascinating read.  He covers the race build-up, paddock drama, trials and tribulations of endurance racing, and complements Ordóñez for his calm head and steady driving.

Moreover, he came away impressed by the performance of a driver who has probably spent more time in front of Gran Turismo than on the track:

Perhaps more significantly, thanks to Sony, Polyphony Digital and Nissan’s vision, the GT Academy has the potential to tap into a whole new stream of undiscovered talent.  Until just a few weeks ago the thought of a gamer trading times with a former Le Mans and GP winner in a 24-hour race was preposterous.  Now there seems no reason why we won’t see a virtual racer make it to F1.  Place your bets now…

Read the full article at Drivers-Republic…

As we reported, the GT Academy team put on a great show in last month’s 24 Hours of Dubai endurance race.  It’s both interesting and inspiring to fans of racing games everywhere – but what did it take for winners Lucas Ordoñez and Lars Schlommer to go to the next level?  It wasn’t as simple as getting in a car and showing the instructors what you can (or cannot…) do – the finals were a test of physical endurance, mental toughness, and driving skill.  To see what it was like for yourself, check out this awesome  ‘documentary’ put together by Sony/Nissan (trust me, this is really great stuff).  Click ‘play’ to watch Day 1 above, then check out Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, and Day 5 after the jump.

If you want even more, subscribe to GTPlanet’s YouTube channel where we will be uploading more clips from GT Academy over the next few days.

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