Motorsports

Last weekend was a busy one for Gran Turismo stars on real-world race tracks; in addition to Wolfgang Reip taking victory in the European GT Academy 2012, previous winners Lucas Ordoñez, Jordan Tresson, Bryan Heitkotter, and GT series creator Kazunori Yamauchi were also competing.

The European GT Academy final reached its ultimate conclusion at a sodden Silverstone earlier this afternoon, with Belgium’s Wolfgang Reip crowned the ultimate winner for 2012.

The 2011 U.S. GT Academy champion, Bryan Heitkotter, is about to make his debut in the Pirelli World Challenge at Sonoma Raceway (formerly Infineon Raceway, as found in Gran Turismo 4).

European GT Academy 2011 champion Jann Mardenborough and his teammate Alex Buncombe were back in action last weekend, competing at Snetterton in the latest round of the 2012 British GT Championship.

After a spectacular opening to the 2012 Spa 24 hours, the GT Academy RJN Motorsport team were forced to retire from the race with undiagnosed electrical issues.

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.

While a group of 32 guys hopeful to follow in his footsteps competed in the U.S. GT Academy 2012 finals in San Diego last weekend, the first GT Academy champion, Lucas Ordonez, was nearly halfway around the world, racing on England’s Donington Park.

As the Donington 6 Hours approaches this weekend, GT Academy’s inaugural winner Lucas Ordonez has added another 24-hour race to his schedule, as it was announced today that he would join the GT Academy Team RJN squad in the Spa 24 Hours at the end of the month.

As announced by Nissan earlier this week GT Academy’s first winner, Lucas Ordoñez, will be reunited with his Le Mans teammates Martin and Alex Brundle. The trio will be driving the Greaves Motorsport Zytek-Nissan for the next round of the FIA World Endurance Championship at Silverstone on 26th August.

On the day GT Academy 2012 drew to a close the most recent graduate, Jann Mardenborough, showed the participants what it’s all about by taking a maiden win at the British GT series for RJN Motorsport – 365 days after he won Sony’s competition.

As the 2012 GT Academy qualifier draws to a close, the most recent graduates are in action again on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

Nissan power took nine of the top 10 positions at the Le Mans 24 Hours today, rounding off an incredible week for Nissan at the world’s best endurance race. Former Le Mans winner Martin Brundle made good his return when he came home in eighth place in class with his son Alex and GT Academy winner Lucas Ordonez.  The second GT Academy winner Jordan Tresson made his Le Mans debut, impressing the Signatech Nissan team with his professionalism as he powered to ninth place alongside Franck Mailleux and Olivier Lombard.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans is finally here! This year’s race features not one but two drivers competing thanks to the Gran Turismo video game series.

The weekend of 9th/10th June once again provided us with a GT Academy winner double-header, as 2011’s champions Bryan Heitkotter and Jann Mardenborough were in action on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

Thanks to an invite to the race day on behalf of Nissan and RJN Motorsport from Glen Gibson at Jardine International, daan and I were able to spend the day in and around the busy garage of the #35 Nissan Nismo GT-R GT3 – trying our hardest to stay out of the way. With the race over, Jann Mardenborough and RJN Motorsport team boss Bob Neville were kind enough to answer a few questions from us and Calvin de Freitas of Jardine:

Following yesterday‘s disappointing qualifying, with traffic issues leading to a 34th place start, the RJN Motorsport team were looking forward to a strong race in the familiar, wet conditions that play to the GT-R’s strengths.

This weekend, Jann Mardenborough returns to Silverstone, the place where his professional racing career started almost exactly one short year ago.

Following up on their “Road to Dubai” series, which covered the development of all four GT Academy graduates as they worked towards this year’s Dubai 24 Hours, the Eurosport television network has now turned their attention to Lucas Ordoñez and Jordan Tresson’s preparations for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

After 24 hours of all-weather driving and some unbelievable twists and turns, Team GT Academy safely brought home their #123 Nissan GT-R first in their SP8T class and 30th overall.

As reported yesterday, the 40th Nürburgring 24 Hours gets underway at 16:00 CEST (14:00 GMT) today, with the Team GT Academy car 47th on the 171-car grid – and first in the SP8T class.