Cars

Top Gear recently published an interview with Kazunori Yamauchi after speaking with him at the reveal of the Alpine Vision GT in Paris.

This guest contribution is by Nick McMillen, 2013 United States GT Academy Champion. This is the account of his journey as one of the newest Nismo Athletes. Stay tuned for future articles from our racing driver contributor coming soon as he experiences and progresses through his professional career.

GP3 race winner Jann Mardenborough was revealed as one of the drivers of Nissan’s LM P1 racing car at the Chicago Motor Show today. At the same time in Yokohama, Japan, it was announced that fellow GT Academy winner, Lucas Ordoñez, had also been selected to race the Nissan GT-R LM NISMO, along with NISMO racer Michael Krumm.

The 2014 Bathurst 12 Hours didn’t end so well for the GT Academy team. After a strong qualifying performance, a colossal accident for Katsumasa Chiyo at Skyline in the third hour ended their race.

2013 GT Academy Germany champion Florian Strauss will replace Alex Buncombe in the NISMO Athlete Global Team at the 2015 Bathurst 12 Hour. Buncombe had been confirmed to drive the #35 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, alongside fellow NISMO Athletes Katsumasa Chiyo and Wolfgang Reip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gx_E23VpQQ

While in Paris to help unveil the new Alpine Vision GT concept car, GT series creator Kazunori Yamauchi was awarded the “Grand Prize of Creativity” at the 30th International Automobile Festival for his contributions to the automotive industry.

Nissan has confirmed that 2012 GT Academy European champion Wolfgang Reip will be driving the factory team’s #35 GT-R NISMO GT3 in the upcoming Bathurst 12 Hours, to be held February 6th-8th. He’ll be joined by fellow NISMO athletes Alex Buncombe and Katsumasa Chiyo.

Two American GT Academy champions are teaming up this week to compete at the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge’s opening race at Daytona. 2011 champion Bryan Heitkotter and 2013 champion Nick McMillen will be driving the #41 Nissan 370Z for the Doran Racing team.

Although European GT Academy champions have typically had the most opportunities at the highest levels of sports car racing over the past few years, Nissan hasn’t forgotten about their ever-increasing stable of champions in the United States.

The following was written by Nicolas Hammann, the 2014 GT Academy North American champion, as he offers an inside look at the Nissan Driver Development Program which he joined after winning this past season of the competition.

It’s been the prize for winning GT Academy for six years now, so this weekend’s Dubai 24 Hours shouldn’t come as a surprise to any wannabe-racer Gran Turismo fan out there.

Nissan is making waves in the endurance racing world this year with a new car to compete in the top LMP1 category at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and you’ll be able to drive it in Gran Turismo.

The 2014 Gran Turismo Awards were held at Drai’s Nightclub on the Las Vegas strip Wednesday night, where Kazunori Yamauchi announced a custom car from SEMA 2014 – the world’s largest aftermarket automotive industry event – would be featured in an upcoming Gran Turismo game.

The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb – the most famous and challenging hill climb race in the world – has just announced that Gran Turismo will be the “Platinum Sponsor” for the 2015 event, and will even be part of the race’s official name.

2011 GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough will take advantage of the increasing motorsport co-operation between Nissan and Renault on 3 November when he tests a Formula Renault 3.5 racing car at the Motorland Circuit in Spain.  23 year-old Mardenborough will drive the single-seater at the invitation of Renault Sport Technologies.