Jann Mardenborough

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.

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.

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

With the 2013 motorsport season getting underway, 2012’s final GT Academy champions have yet to be decided as eight Middle East and eight South African gamers head to a Silverstone showdown.

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.

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.

Reliability and officials once again came into play for the RJN Motorsport Nissan GT-R in British GT, dampening off Jann Mardenborough’s birthday celebrations at Silverstone.

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.

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.