Mixed Results for GT Academy Champs’ Back-to-Back 24hr Races

It’s been the busiest week of GT Academy’s summer of racing, facing 24 hours in Pays de la Loire one weekend and another 24 in the Eifel hills the next – and fortune didn’t follow the graduates this time.

First it was the turn of Academy winners Reip, Ordonez, Mardenborough and Shulzhitskiy (with teammates Alex Brundle and Satoshi Motoyama) as they took on the 24 Heures du Mans. Having set the first ever race-pace lap entirely on electric power during practice and qualifying, hopes were high for the experimental Nissan ZEOD to build on the success of 2012’s Nissan DeltaWing – and indeed they split the LMP2 and GTE-Pro entries as they’d hoped.

However, that all-important first race lap on batteries never materialised. Wolfgang started the ZEOD and was hanging on to the back of the LMP2 pack valiantly for four laps before a gearbox output shaft failed – the second of the week – stranding Reip and retiring the car. The disappointed team are reportedly looking to enter ZEOD in a further round of the FIA WEC pending further development.

Things were going much better further up the field in the OAK Ligier LMP2 as a quadruple-stint by Jann Mardenborough saw them leading the class coming to the halfway point. It wasn’t to hold though, as a spark plug issue saw them dramatically lose pace – compounded by brake problems further down the line. The wholly new car did manage to pick up an eventual top 10 finish – 9th overall and 5th in class.

With Le Mans done and dusted, action moved 350 miles northeastwards to the Nürburgring – and the problems began even before the start as the #80 GT-R was left short a man when Lucas Ordoñez was struck down with ‘flu. The team then had to rely on veteran Nick Heidfeld, Academy stalwart Alex Buncombe and novice Florian Strauss to put in 8 hours of driving each – and 2013 Academy Germany winner Strauss has only been racing for 9 months…

Things went even worse for the #80 as Alex Buncombe – traditionally a supreme starter – was tagged in the initial melée and received a puncture. Following a 15 mile limp back to the pits, this escalated into some bodywork damage and the car rejoined a lap down after just two laps. A night-time spill for Nick Heidfeld – caught out by very late waved yellows at Fuchsrohre and choosing to use a competitor car as a braking aid (very Gran Turismo) rather than risk mowing down unseen marshalls on the grass – put the car out for another hour, and they eventually finished 24th.

If #80 had it bad, #30 had it worse. After eight hours of pretty solid running, hindered by a poor grid position, the GT-R had a massive off  – also at Fuchsrohre, also due to stationery traffic – which bent the frame beyond repair and saw the car retire at 2.30am.

However, the Schulze team #24, driven by the Schulzes, Academy winner Jordan Tresson and GT series creator Kazunori Yamauchi, managed a solid race for an 11th in class finish – 12 laps down on the eventual winners in the Audi R8 LMS Ultra.

Endurance racing wasn’t the only thing on the #eatsleepRACErepeat menu this week though. Following on from Le Mans, Jann Mardenborough returned to GP3 action at the Red Bull Ring – scene of an unpleasant accident during his time in F3 last year. It proved not to be a happy hunting ground again, with a creditable 11th in race 1 followed by a race-ending spin into the gravel halfway through race 2.

Things were happier over in the USA though, as Bryan Heitkotter and Steve Doherty were in action in the Pirelli World Challenge. Bryan banged his Altima onto class pole for race 1 at Road America, while Steve took the race win. Bryan backed this up with a podium for race 2, giving the US branch of Nismo Athletes an impressive weekend.

Images courtesy of Red Square Images, Schulze Motorsport, Nismo, and Pirelli World Challenge.

See more articles on 2014 Le Mans 24 Hours and GT Academy.