Motorsports

When GTP covered Bryan Heitkotter’s return last week, we said it had come as a bit of a surprise he wasn’t retained as a Nismo Athlete for 2013. In timely fashion, Bryan has reminded all of us why he was 2011’s US GT Academy champion.

Nissan’s all-gamer line-up of Lucas Ordonez, Jann Mardenborough, Wolfgang Reip and Peter Pyzera took a Pro-Am podium in the Spa 24 Hours today when they brought the No.35 Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 to the chequered flag in third place in class and seventh place overall.

The GT Academy drivers are ready for another assault on the Spa 24hr this weekend as eight drivers line up in the two GT3 class Nismo GT-Rs.

Racing by the sand dunes of Zandvoort in Holland, the No.35 Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 of Lucas Ordonez and Alex Buncombe took second place in class in this afternoon’s main race, bringing the tally of podiums in Nissan’s last three GT3 races to three out of three.

Not to be outdone by the exploits of Jann Mardenborough and Lucas Ordoñez at Le Mans last week, the newest Nismo Athletes scored some more track success of their own in the Blancpain Endurance Series round from Paul Ricard.

The Nismo Athletes on board the Greaves Motorsport Zytek-Nissan had nothing to be ashamed about. Completing a 24 hour race in a 4th place class finish after a night long battle for the podium with a first timer on board – and doing the lion’s share of the driving too – is well worth a round of applause. But this morning they find themselves with an unexpected trophy.

Le Mans 2013 got off to a tragic start, as Aston Martin Racing driver Allan Simonsen was killed in an accident on the Tetre Rouge corner shortly after the start of the race. The thoughts and prayers of the GTPlanet community are with his family as we all mourn the loss of a very talented racing driver.

2013 marks a unique milestone in GT Academy. It’s the third successive year that gamers have taken to the track at the Le Mans 24 Hours, but this time they’re working together.

Nissan GT Academy Team RJN took victory in the Pro-Am class of the Blancpain Endurance Series race at Silverstone on Sunday.  The win for the No. 35 YouTube Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 is the first class victory for Nissan in the Blancpain Series at the home of the GT Academy competition. The No. 32 GT-R GT3 retired in the late stages of the race with a technical fault.

Sunday marked the fourth successive entry in one of the world’s toughest circuit races for Kazunori Yamauchi. Since his first attempt at the Nürburgring 24hr in 2010, driving a Lexus IS-F, he’s driven a series of Schulze Motorsport-prepared Nissan GT-Rs, scoring class wins in 2011 and 2012.

The 41st Nürburgring 24 Hours gets underway at 17:00 CEST (15:00 GMT/UTC) today, with the #123 Team GT Academy GT-R GT3 26th on the colossal 176-car grid

2011 U.S. GT Academy champion Bryan Heitkotter has been featured in a short documentary as part of Polygon’s “Human Angle”, a web series which highlights important and unusual people in the video gaming industry.

In the busiest weekend of GT Academy racing to date, every single one of the “Nismo Athletes” was involved in a top tier international race series – including Kazunori Yamauchi himself.

This weekend saw the FIA GT  debut of the GT Academy RJN Nissan GT-R GT3s at Nogaro – and it was quite the eventful start!

Jann Mardenborough got the Nismo Athletes’ season underway with a three race round of the European Formula 3 series at Monza.