The official Gran Turismo social media channels will stream a very special, one-off exhibition race from 1500 UTC today which sees 12 GT World Series champions race head-to-head from Polyphony Digital’s Tokyo offices.
Dubbed the Race of Champions, the race will see all six of the 2023 Gran Turismo World Series winners — that’s Mateo Estevez, Mehdi Hafidi, and Ryota Kokubun of Team Nissan, and Coque Lopez, Jose Serrano, and Pol Urra of Team Spain — face off against some of the 2018-2022 champions.
It’s something of an all-star line-up too. Their rivals are the only clean-sweep champion Takuma Miyazono — who won everything in 2020 — as well as Olympic champions Valerio Gallo (also 2021 Nations champion) and Kylian Drumont (also 2022 Manufacturers champion), double Manufacturers champion Tomoaki Yamanaka (2019, 2021), and grand slam winners Igor Fraga and Mikail Hizal.
The race formed part of Polyphony Digital’s annual year-end party which takes place in the company’s Tokyo offices each year and sees the newly crowned GT World Series champions invited for a cake-cutting event — although 2023 is the first time we’ve seen them take part in an official race!
It’s set to be an interesting race too, as the drivers face off in a selection of tuned road cars for a five-lap run around the Nurburgring 24h Layout. The cars are all equipped with Racing Hard tires, although wet-weather options are also available for the race which suggests rain may play a part.
If you look carefully you’ll find that the result of the race, which took place on Friday December 22, is already known, so we’d be cautious about spoiling it for yourself. The stream begins at 1500 UTC today, Sunday December 31, with both English and Japanese commentary options.
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