Jann Mardenborough

Three years ago, Jann Mardenborough had never sat in a race car. Today he’s carrying the big silverware away from the GP3 Series round at Hockenheim.

Making it to any GT Academy final is tough enough, but when you’re competing in the newest region of the annual competition with a billion countrymen, it’s a bit more special.

While not the busiest weekend of the summer for the Nismo Athletes, there were still seven men and four cars doing their day jobs around Europe yesterday.

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While we’ve known for a while about Nissan’s factory attempt at Le Mans this year with Garage 56 entry ZEOD, it turns out they had something else in mind for some of the other Nismo Athletes.

As the GP3 season gets underway tomorrow, Jann Mardenborough starts his next step towards a career in F1.

The second race of the United SportsCar Championship is the first race for Jann Mardenborough in the US. And he really has his work cut out for him as a rookie at the notoriously bumpy and difficult Florida circuit.

Jann Mardenborgough is set to get his first taste of racing in North America this March. He has joined the Nissan powered Muscle Milk Pickett Racing team for round two of the Tudor United SportsCar Championship (and Patrón North American Endurance Cup). The 2011 British GT Academy winner is teaming up with longtime Pickett drivers Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr who have pushed the squad to championship success over the past two years in the bygone American Le Mans Series.

Jann Mardenborough is closing in on the ultimate target for most any aspiring racing driver, he now has a clear path under his feet that leads straight to an F1 racing seat for the first time.

Nissan is set to take on “the Mountain” for the first time in 22 years. Nissan is running the GT-R Nismo GT3 at the 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour, which is held at the world famous semi-permanent road course featured in GT6: Mount Panorama.

1000km in the Black Forest – that’s all that stands between GT Academy and two GT3 world titles.

In a weekend busy enough to merit its own Twitter hashtag, the Nismo Athletes have been showing off their skills over seventeen timezones.

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 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.