If you were watching the heavily interrupted Nurburgring 24 Hours this last weekend you might have seen something a little familiar: a glimpse of Gran Turismo’s broadcast graphics.
During the formation lap the official stream for the N24 featured a brief segment detailing the infamous Green Hell from a technical perspective. Although it seems to have only been present on the German-language commentary stream, the short clip gave an overview of the circuit’s 24h layout, highlighting the various sectors, key corners, and elevation change.
To anyone who’s been watching the Gran Turismo Sport FIA Online Championships streams over the past three seasons — including the World Series Round One, also on Sunday — it would have looked very familiar. It was in fact identical to the graphics that Gran Turismo’s production teams use for its own broadcasts.
This is the first time we’ve seen a race broadcast other than an official Gran Turismo event using these graphics, and suggests that the Gran Turismo broadcast production team was directly involved in the N24’s own official stream.
Of course Gran Turismo has a long history with the Nurburgring 24 Hours. GT became the race’s main sponsor in 2007, so the 2021 race marked the 15 consecutive race with Gran Turismo sponsorship. All 122 cars on the grid wore the usual Gran Turismo windshield strips, and there was plenty of Gran Turismo signage around the circuit.
The Gran Turismo series creator, Kazunori Yamauchi, also has considerable experience of the course itself and the N24 race. Yamauchi has competed in the N24 six times — with BMW, Lexus, and Nissan — scoring two SP8T class victories, and has never failed to finish. The N24 race has also hosted Gran Turismo World Tour events, in 2018 and 2019, before the 2020 events were cancelled.
Thanks to Nico_Ble99 for the tip!
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