http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju7RVw-IRO4

In addition to being granted full access to GT Academy 2011 winners Jann Mardenborough and Bryan Heitkotter, GTPlanet also had the pleasure of interviewing RJN Motorsport team principal Bob Neville on the team’s prospects for the Dubai 24 Hour race, the development of this year’s winners and the GT Academy programme as a whole.

Following in the footsteps of GT Academy champions Lucas Ordoñez and Jordan Tresson, European GT Academy 2011 winner Jann Mardenborough and his US counterpart champion Bryan Heitkotter would conclude their intense driver development programme at the Britcar “Into The Night” 3-hour endurance race around Brands Hatch circuit. This race would signify the last segment of the pair’s development campaign and their last competitive race before the GT Academy 2011 grand prize, the chance to compete at the prestigious Dubai 24 hour race.

Remember Gran Turismo 5’s “data logger visualization” tech demo?

GTPlanet’s Online Events forum is home to hundreds of Gran Turismo 5 race series, clubs, and leagues, where the world’s best GT players come to participate in clean, fair, and competitive online races.

While thanking fans for their Twitter messages celebrating GT5’s one-year-anniversary, Kazunori Yamauchi shared some information about the game’s next update:

Exactly one year ago today – after much speculation, rumor-mongering, winds, and two official delays – Gran Turismo 5 was finally released to the world with a massive launch party in Madrid, Spain.

Polyphony Digital knows many of you in the U.S. will be out shopping this Thanksgiving weekend (though they’d likely prefer you passed on those $28 copies of Forza Motorsport 4), so this week’s Seasonal Events take place within GT5’s B-Spec mode.

European winner of the 2011 GT Academy, Jann Mardenborough, and his American counterpart Bryan Heitkotter, completed the final race of their intensive five-month ‘Driver Development Programme’ on Saturday 19 November. Competing in the Britcar MSA British Endurance Championship race at Brands Hatch, the pair recorded a notable first-in-class finish (fifth place overall) in their RJN Motorsport run Nissan 370Z GT4 race car. The result moves them ever closer to achieving their main goal of competing in the Dubai International 24 Hour race in January, 2012.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6pf6ueK-Is

Polyphony Digital has announced a new special Time Trial Challenge Seasonal Event, which will go live on Monday, November 21 at 12:01 PST.

A new batch of Time and Drift trial events are now live in Gran Turismo 5, featuring the following cars and tracks:

GT Academy winner Lucas Ordoñez and his Signatech Nissan team may have clinched the ILMC LMP2 championship last month at Road Atlanta, but a class victory has remained just out of reach the entire season – until now!

IGN has published their most recent interview with Kazunori Yamauchi, where he provides fairly detailed responses to some familiar questions. Notably, he offers a rough timeline of how often we can expect new content to be introduced in Gran Turismo 5:

A new Seasonal Event has just gone live in Gran Turismo 5, featuring classic (pre-1979) Japanese cars in the following events. Tuning is allowed up to 450PP with unlimited tire selection.

At the 2011 SEMA Show last week, I had the very special opportunity to – for the first time – personally interview the master himself: Kazunori Yamauchi. We had a great chat, and I am happy to report that Kazunori seemed happy, relaxed, and in good spirits.

The 2011 Gran Turismo Awards were held last Thursday night in Las Vegas, and Kazunori Yamauchi himself selected this year’s “Best in Show” winner: a 1971 Chevrolet Camaro, customized and tuned by Mary Pozzi of Salinas, California.