Nissan GT Academy Team RJN took victory in the Pro-Am class of the Blancpain Endurance Series race at Silverstone on Sunday. The win for the No. 35 YouTube Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 is the first class victory for Nissan in the Blancpain Series at the home of the GT Academy competition. The No. 32 GT-R GT3 retired in the late stages of the race with a technical fault.
Qualifying took place on Sunday morning and a stunning lap from Alex Buncombe put the No. 35 into second place on the grid alongside the factory Aston Martin Racing entry on pole position. Starting honours were Lucas Ordonez’s and the Spaniard went head to head with Aston Martin’s double Le Mans winner Darren Turner. A brilliant start from Lucas saw him take the lead on the first lap.
“As we came around for the rolling start I kept my eye on Darren’s wing mirror so I made sure I didn’t go ahead of him before the race went green”, explained Lucas. “I made a good getaway and managed to go around the outside in the first corner. After that I tried hard to pull away but I had to make sure I looked after my tyres too.”
In the meantime, the No. 32 GT-R had a more drama-filled start as Wolfgang Reip tried to make up places from a 33rd grid position. An accident in front of him caused confusion and the Belgian had to make an early pitstop for some quick bodywork repairs. He rejoined further down the field but was soon setting competitive lap time.
After 13 laps of keeping the Aston Martin at bay Lucas lost out to a backmarker and Turner swept past into the lead, hotly pursued by the Nissan. Lucas pitted after an hour of racing to hand the car over to 2012 GT Academy Germany winner, Peter Pyzera. The German was immediately on the pace of the pro cars but unfortunately received a drive through penalty for overtaking under yellow flags. This dropped No. 35 to the bottom of the top ten but Peter held onto the top spot in Pro-Am.
Steve Doherty took the wheel of No. 32 for the second stint and, like his fellow GT Academy winners, put in a professional performance as he tried to move the GT-R back up the order. He made good progress before handing the car over to Mark Shulzhitskiy.
“I went out into the race and did one lap where everything was okay,” said Mark. “Then on my second lap I suddenly lost power. I thought I could get back to the pits but then I saw smoke so I pulled over by the fire marshal. It’s a shame to end with a technical problem.”
The cause of the problem will be diagnosed once the car arrives back at the RJN workshop.
Alex Buncombe took the final stint in the remaining GT-R and brought it home safely in 10th place overall and first in the Pro-Am class.
“The car was fantastic to drive today,” said his team mate Lucas. “It was very well balanced and I really enjoyed having a good battle out there, even when I was having to guess the racing lines of some of the backmarkers. I feel very motivated now and this is great timing as it is Le Mans next for us!”
Lucas also held the title of fastest lap during the race among a grid of almost 60 cars with 20 fully pro entries.
Meanwhile, GT Academy champion Jann Mardenborough was racing in the weekend’s Formula 3 race at Austria’s Red Bull Ring. After striking a high curb, Jann’s car was spun into oncoming traffic, where he was struck by two other drivers in a major accident which brought out the safety car. Fortunately, no-one was injured, but it brought an early end to Mardenborough’s racing weekend.
Select photographs by Kevin Mc Glone of Red Square Images.
See more articles on Blancpain Endurance Series, Lucas Ordonez, and Silverstone.
Congratulations! It was an awesome race!
I love those GT Academy drivers kicking some ass haha. I was able to watch the race live for the first time. Is awesome to see so many(57) dream cars race at once! I think this site shows every Blancpain race live, plus a lot more. “firstrow1.eu”
I cut off the satellite TV bill a long time ago, but saw a network broadcast of an IndyCar race last weekend. It didn’t stay tuned after the women’s health commercial. The “color commentary” was as black and white as a Chuck Taylor tennis shoe. YUCK!
Oh yeah, congratulations to Team RJN.
“…managed to go around the outside in the first corner.“
“… Lucas lost out to a backmarker and Turner swept past into the lead,…“
I wish more guys showed the wisdom and patience as these guys. I’m tired of those who are constantly knocking on my back door and diving into turns for a meager position. They don’t bother to practice or qualify, start in the back, then charge to the front. There’s a few that got their stuff together but most don’t. And PD’s pp system (hope it doesn’t return) does little to address power and weight differences in a field of 16 different cars.
The FIA should make a dedicated Channel here in the US for us ans us only because we are neglected out right.
^This.
The FIA and the rest of the racing series around the globe need to do something about reaching to their fans in the States.
You guys can talk;
Australia only has 1 series on TV that has GT cars :(.
@RESHIRAMS – I’m not sure of this, but doesn’t Foxtel have something in the way of GT racing? As you may have guessed, I’m an Aussie too! And, like all true blue Aussies, I refuse to pay my hard earned on something that should be free to air!
Yea, it sucks that we can’t watch the racing that matters, true we can get some but it seems like all speed channel cares about is nascar, pinks, faster than a redneck, pass time (i do like pass time), and alot more, they do cover some nice series but they can do alot better to cover some racing that goes on around the world that alot of people here in the united states would love to watch. I mean we got all kinds of channels for nfl, nba, mlb, espn, why not have multiple channels for racing, and not just racing in the U.S. Racing that takes place all around the world, esp the N24! just saying.
I personally would want to know about Vita4One and where they came.
I saw the youtube ..couldn’t watch it all at once…was really into it ….thought I would catch up with the rest this morning.was really excited….but GTA facebook told me the result first thing…ha ha..will have to watch out for that next time…well done boys..was great entertainment.
Must have been all that GT6 demo practice.
To bad us here in the United States can not see the Blancpain series. I went to see the Youtube (stuck up twits) video and people in the United States can not view it.
You can watch onboard footage on Nismo.TV’s Youtube channel
Well detailed report by Famine congrats to the gentlemen that made it to the podium this weekend and glad to hear Jans ok. He’ll lick his wounds and get back out there..
Not asking for more GTR’s, but that YouTube livery GTR looks kinda nice. Those NISMO racing suits are really cool as well. Kind of a useless feature, but I really like matching my outfit with the manufacturer or car I’m driving. Hope to see suits with manufacturer logos in GT6 if it’s possible.
Yeah, I hope that PD gives us that GT-R GT3. May be that racing suit will be a prize on this year’s GT Academy.
That’s another feature I’d like to see added to the game:- A “changeroom” in the online part! A lot of people want access to GTAuto to change oil, rebuild engines or do weight reductions while they’re online to save them having to exit the room then try to get back in, only to find someone else has entered the room, so how about a changeroom too so we can match our suits to our manufacturer, our livery or our paint job?
Nice. Now car we get those cars to go with our soon to be shiny new track? I’ll take fries with that.
Bravo Bravo and thank god Janns okay.
Well done guys! :tup::tup::tup: for you. :)
Great work guys.
That’s kickaxe.
Congrats guys :)