Cars

As part of a large Nissan Motorsport announcement at the opening of the new Nismo headquarters, the most recent graduates have had their 2013 seasons revealed.

In 2012 Jann Mardenborough became the first GT Academy winner to drive in British GT. After a season long assault on the title, including a momentous win at Brands Hatch, his RJN Motorsport GT-R GT3 came within half an hour of the championship only to be denied by the reliability of the brand new car. But the team have been denied entry of two RJN cars for 2013 because Academy drivers are too fast.

The GT Academy team has once again scored a podium finish in the season opening Dubai 24 Hours, bettering last year‘s finish by one place.

As I’m sure we’re all aware by now, the Dubai 24 Hours represents the annual “final” prize for GT Academy. The 2013 race is less than a week away from us and the 2012 winners have been allocated their seats for this year’s race, each looking to better last year’s podium result.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Kpna1qfO31g

Following the end of the accompanying RTL “reality TV” GT Academy show, the German GT Academy winner’s identity has been revealed as 25 year old Peter Pyzera.

The 2012 Gran Turismo Awards were held last night in Las Vegas, where Kazunori Yamauchi himself selected the David Eckert’s Ford Mach Forty as “Best in Show” from among the five category finalists.

Kazunori Yamauchi toured the show floor at SEMA in Las Vegas today, visiting all of the individual category winners in this year’s Gran Turismo Awards. They are:

Hip-hop star Snoop Dogg (or “Snoop Lion”, as he now prefers to be called) will be headlining at the 2012 Gran Turismo Awards, to be held at the Palm Resort’s Rain Nightclub in Las Vegas, this Thursday, November 1st at 9:30pm.

In yet another career milestone for GT Academy champion Lucas Ordoñez, he helped drive the radical Highcroft Racing Nissan DeltaWing prototype to an incredible 5th place overall finish at Road Atlanta’s Petit Le Mans.

As just announced last month, GT Academy champion Lucas Ordoñez has been selected to drive the unique and radical Highcroft Racing Nissan DeltaWing prototype car at the prestigious Petit Le Mans endurance race, taking place this Friday and Saturday at Road Atlanta.

Just two weeks after the 6 hours of Bahrain FIA WEC race, Jordan Tresson and the Signatech Nissan team took to the track again, this time at the Fuji International Speedway for the 6 hours of Fuji.

The Gran Turismo Awards have become a popular staple of SEMA 2012, the massive modified car show that takes place in Las Vegas each fall.

Although Jordan Tresson went into this weekend’s Bahrain 6 Hours knowing there was no chance of the title, he and his Signatech team are still determined to fight for every available point.