GT Academy Racing Updates & News

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Exciting for GT Academy and Jann. Hopefully Jann starts off well and continuously improves to the top. Experience of Carlin team and a long season ahead should be a very good learning experience as well as hopefully a successful and fun one. If it is relatively successful then there are not too many steps to F1 left, otherwise LMP2 it is or a lot of money :lol:. Lewis Hamilton for example was racing in F3 Euro series in 2004 and then 2005 which is the year he completely dominated and well was fighting for the WDC in F1 in two years time.

I wonder how the other guys in the series are feeling, spend most of their life racing and then a gamer comes to be racing in F3 Euro Series when less than two years ago he had no race car driving experience or probably even know that GT Academy 2011 event was coming out in March. Amazing what can be achieved in such a short space of time, credit to Jann and everyone involved in making it what it is today 👍.
 
Saidur_Ali
I wonder how the other guys in the series are feeling, spend most of their life racing and then a gamer comes to be racing in F3 Euro Series when less than two years ago he had no race car driving experience.
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I reckon it'll be mixed emotions towards the situation. Some drivers may have respect for what he's achieved in the last couple of years, coming from nothing to incredibly high standards of racing. I think others will be bitter about it, although they may not show it, a few of them won't like how he's reached this postition.

Well done to him though, for getting into the F3 Euro Series. Very pleased for him and the message that this sends out for what GT Academy can accomplish. 👍
 
So Jann is going to be up against the likes of Jordan King, Felix Serralles, Tom Blomqvist and Alex Lynn? Definitely some good bars to measure against there.

A lot of these drivers have done several years in national Formula Renault and national F3 series, so if he keeps up the pace he had in TRS he's definitely well on his way to F1.

Its quite likely a driver I've been following is going to be racing in that series too - Josh Hill - so definitely going to be a series I'm taking a high interest in this year!

Worth also mentioning that the F3 Euro champion gets a Ferrari F1 test drive - though its very unlikely Jann is going be champion.
 
GT Academy Facebook
Wolf Reip, Peter Pyzera, Mark Shulzhitskiy and Steve Doherty will all race in the Blancpain Endurance Series this year in a pair of Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 cars!
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So awesome. I wish Bryan would've raced with Jann last year rather than be stuck in Grand-Am, what a pity.

Super happy for all of the 2012 winners though - go Steve.
 
Updates on everyone for the year. I will update the OP this weekend.

Of note from this article, it looks like they dropped Jordan and he won't be racing for the GT Academy program anymore. :indiff:

Nismo Athletes to race in top flight GT, prototype and single-seater competitions

The Nissan PlayStation GT Academy graduates are taught from Day One to believe that anything is possible if you want it enough. The current roster of graduates, now fully-fledged Nismo Athletes, must have big dreams as the 2013 racing season holds a plethora of challenges for the virtual-to-real racers.

Between them they will race the fearsome Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3, the Nissan-powered LMP2 car of Greaves Motorsport and Carlin Motorsport’s Formula 3 car.

Two of the newest graduates will race for ‘Nissan GT Academy Team RJN’ in the new FIA GT Series. Mark Shulzhitskiy and Wolfgang Reip will provide an all-gamer line-up in the no.32 Nissan GT-R, while the no.35 car will be in the hands of Lucas Ordonez and Nissan regular Alex Buncombe. Both cars are Pro-Am entries in the FIA GT Series.

Both of these line-ups will also compete in the Pro-Am category of the Blancpain Endurance Series where Mark and Wolfgang will be joined by German GT Academy winner Peter Pyzera. This again creates an all-gamer line-up, demonstrating the confidence that Nissan has in its new found talent. In the sister car US winner Steve Doherty will join the team with Lucas and Alex to compete head to head with his fellow 2012 GT Academy graduates. The Blancpain Endurance Series is a championship consisting of three 3-hour races at Monza, Silverstone and Paul Ricard; a 1000km Nürburgring round and the daunting Spa 24 Hours, which will be a stern test of the new graduates. They will however all be under the ever-patient tuition of ‘Nissan GT Academy Team RJN’ boss Bob Neville.

One name missing from the line-up is that of Jordan Tresson. As GT Academy continues to unearth incredible talent year-after-year the competition within the Nissan squad intensifies and only the very best will remain Nismo Athletes. Jordan won GT Academy in 2010 and since then has reached his goal of racing at the Le Mans 24 Hours with Nissan.

Jann Mardenborough has just hit the steepest part of his learning curve with the announcement that he will compete in the 2013 FIA European Formula 3 Championship. The 2011 GT Academy winner will race in F3 in order to fast track his education in downforce cars so he is ready to compete in a Nissan-powered LMP2 car at Le Mans this summer. From winning GT Academy in June 2011 to racing at Le Mans in 2013 this will be the shortest path yet from ‘Lounge to Le Mans’ for a Nissan driver.

The GT Academy winner with the most experience and who will join Jann in the Greaves Motorsport LMP2 car at Le Mans is Lucas Ordonez. The Spaniard already has a Le Mans podium on his CV along with a fantastic fifth place at Petit Le Mans in the Nissan DeltaWing. Lucas will also race in the Blancpain Endurance and FIA GT Series where he will be able to pass on what he has learnt to the newest recruits.

“GT Academy continues to push the boundaries,” explained Nissan’s Director of Global Motorsport Darren Cox. “Such is the confidence we have in the skill of the drivers we have discovered through GT Academy we have committed to an all-gamer line-up racing in the full FIA GT and Blancpain series. It will be great to see the Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 cars racing at many of the world’s best circuits in premier European GT Championships, alongside all the other top marques. With the coming of the GT-R Nismo road car, Nismo will create the ultimate GT-R for the road, and what better place to develop technology than on the race track. These are exciting times for us.”

With many Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3s competing in competitions across Europe and the majority of all LMP2 cars being ‘Powered by Nissan Nismo’ racing globally in 2013, it looks set to be another full throttle year for Nissan.

The 2013 racing season gets underway with F3 at Monza on 23-24 March followed by FIA GT at Nogaro the following weekend.

The 2013 Nismo Athletes:
LUCAS ORDONEZ (2008 European GT Academy winner): Blancpain Endurance Series, FIA GT Series & Le Mans 24 Hours

JANN MARDENBOROUGH (2011 European GT Academy winner): FIA European Formula 3 Championship & Le Mans 24 Hours

ALEX BUNCOMBE: Blancpain Endurance Series & FIA GT Series

WOLFGANG REIP: (2012 European GT Academy winner) Blancpain Endurance Series & FIA GT Series

MARK SHULZHITSKIY: (2012 Russian GT Academy winner) Blancpain Endurance Series & FIA GT Series

PETER PYZERA: (2012 German GT Academy winner) Blancpain Endurance Series

STEVE DOHERTY: (2012 US GT Academy winner) Blancpain Endurance Series
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I've been looking into that since this morning and, yes, it looks like Jordan has been dropped from the GTA program. I'm half surprised - without being rude to Jordan (it's a cut-throat business, motorsport) I can see why but equally I'm sure that, as the Academy's first ever international champion (winning ILMC in LMP2 in 2011) he'll find funding for a drive in something this season, even if he has to step down a class.
 
Famine
I've been looking into that since this morning and, yes, it looks like Jordan has been dropped from the GTA program. I'm half surprised - without being rude to Jordan (it's a cut-throat business, motorsport) I can see why but equally I'm sure that, as the Academy's first ever international champion (winning ILMC in LMP2 in 2011) he'll find funding for a drive in something this season, even if he has to step down a class.
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I thought it was Lucas who won the ILMC LMP2 Championship with Signatech Nissan team. Also I noticed you put Lucas and Lars as 2009 winners when they actually won in 2008 in the following thread linked.

It will be a shame if Jordan is being dropped but it will send strong message to others to make sure to step up their game. I heard on one of the GT Academy Race to Dubai videos, he struggled with downforce IIRC, I wonder if that could be reason why he might be dropped.

Hopefully Bryan gets a seat somewhere. All the GT Academy winners will be under pressure to perform, I wonder if they will skip this year regarding new recruits as they are quite full up on the program so far.


First day of Euro F3 testing:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/105908

Looking OK so far.
 
Yes, there was a peculiar timing with the second event that always throws my recollection out of kilter - and Lucas won ILMC (technically) and Jordan won Blancpain GT4. They were within a couple of days of each other :lol:
 
I'd be interested to know whether Jann is bringing additional sponsorship for his F3 endeavours? If not for this season, surely his current form could lead to very big things. The pace he is already showing in testing is quite promising, one has to wonder if Nissan or Sony are even willing to support him should he make the step up in open-wheel - would they be prepared to fund the millions you start needing for FR3.5 and GP2?

Are Nissan interested in taking him into series where they have little commercial presence but there is huge brand exposure and potential headline-making results? Or do they prefer to keep these drivers in their cars and at relevant events like Le Mans?

Its interesting to note that Jann is driving with VW engines, despite Nissan engines being an option.
 
Was going to post that. I still need to update the OP, may not get done until tomorrow. Lots of TV shows to catch up on tonight.
 
I don't know if anyone else watched the FIA F3 Euro races? They're on Youtube here if you haven't:
http://www.youtube.com/user/FIAF3EUROPE

Tough weekend for Jann really, quite the baptism of fire. He didn't do badly but not amazing either. He's still got a bit to learn in these cars (pace wise) and he's probably wise to do another season in the same series next year if he can. But let's see how he gets on with a bit more normal weather conditions!
 
Ardius
I don't know if anyone else watched the FIA F3 Euro races? They're on Youtube here if you haven't:
http://www.youtube.com/user/FIAF3EUROPE

Tough weekend for Jann really, quite the baptism of fire. He didn't do badly but not amazing either. He's still got a bit to learn in these cars (pace wise) and he's probably wise to do another season in the same series next year if he can. But let's see how he gets on with a bit more normal weather conditions!
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I stuck all three in the GTP blog post I made yesterday :D

He did well. His first qualifying attempts ever in F3 were very midpack, but he was only a second off the lead pace and within a broad spectrum of times, rather than clearly lagging. In the races themselves, he gained 19 places in total (excluding the 14 places he then lost because he retired through wing damage in the accident coming out of the first chicane) in 28 laps.

If he can get the one lap pace up, the rest will take care of itself.
 
Using the relatively average Josh Hill as a benchmark (pains me to say it like that, but its true) - Jann wasn't far off him. But Hill is average, he is rarely outright fastest but keeps it on the track and regularly completes solid races.

To me, when and if Jann starts out-racing drivers around Hill's position (basically mid-pack) on the grid, then he is doing quite well considering his experience. But for the moment I think he is about where he would be expected.

But like I say, I think the weather conditions were pretty exceptional and its not really fair to judge this early on his pace yet.
 
Ardius
I don't know if anyone else watched the FIA F3 Euro races? They're on Youtube here if you haven't:
http://www.youtube.com/user/FIAF3EUROPE

Tough weekend for Jann really, quite the baptism of fire. He didn't do badly but not amazing either. He's still got a bit to learn in these cars (pace wise) and he's probably wise to do another season in the same series next year if he can. But let's see how he gets on with a bit more normal weather conditions!
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From what I saw in TRS, I think he has very good potential, hit some good heights particularly on one of the tracks in that series. Best thing for him will be Carlin team experience and teammates to learn from. He did not really have that in the TRS but still performed well. It is also a long season and I reckon he will be in the points quite soon. If he can get to running right near the front by end of season, then that would do wonders for his goal of getting to F1.

Good thing about this single seater adventure Jann is on is that it makes you more aware of upcoming drivers. Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy seem potential stars of future. Will see how their careers develop too.
 
I've put the GT3 result from Nogaro in the GTP blog and included the entire video of the qualifying and feature races.

'Cos I'm nice, here's the feature race. Lucas and Alex are in the white #35, Mark and Wolfgang in the black #32:

 
Friends, I'll be racing in the Super Seven Trophy by KIA 2013 !!

I'll be driving a Westfield Sportscar 1600 of Comval Racing.

CRM Motorsport, trohy's promoter has already revealed a provisional list of entries, with a total of 20 cars, 19 Caterham Academy and 1 Westfield.

Therefore I'll be accomplishing my dream to go "From Virtual to Reality, from the sofa to the race tracks" entering an Iberian Trophy with 4 races in Portugal and 2 in Spain.

I would like to mention that this participation only takes place because of the big support from my sponsors Comval Racing, Copefi Group and GTFusion and also Comval Racing partners BomPiso, Headsmotorsport, Monstter, Fabrica Lionesa, Darwin&Warhol

Besides this Super Seven Trophy by KIA 2013, I also would like to be present at some races of the National Mountain Championship 2013 (Hillclimb's) altough still in negotiations with some partners.

Follow all the info in www.facebook.com/hugoaraujoracingpage and twitter HugoAraujo_GTA

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